This class included five students on an AHA study abroad program during Winter term 2012 in Siena, Italy (spelled Sienna in English).

Here's the syllabus:

Culture and Cuisine in Italy

Winter 2012
Siena, Italy

Dr. Joan E. Gross 

..........................................

I am a gastronome.

I like to know the history of a food and of the place that it comes from; I like to imagine the hands of the people who grew it, transported it, processed it, and cooked it before it was served to me.

Carlo Petrini. Slow Food Nation 

Course Content

“Cuisine” refers to a manner of preparing food, or a style of cooking, usually applied to regions or nations of origin. All of the world’s cuisines share certain traits: they are based on products available regionally; they alter those products in the process of preparation; those born into any given cuisine believe that their food is basically healthy and tastes good. Cuisines differ in ways of eating, the social significance of given foods, and culturally specific ways of thinking symbolically about food. The transmission of that knowledge takes place during the process of actually preparing and eating food. In this course we will read about the cultural similarities and differences of Italian cuisines as well as their histories, we will visit places where local food is grown and processed, but in order to more truly appreciate the local food, we need to see, taste, touch, and smell it. We will have many opportunities to do this, both together and individually. We hope that students will get to know this area of Italy very well and that they will take advantage of living here to learn how to generate valid primary data in food studies. 

Learning Outcomes

After taking this course a student will be able to:

• Summarize the historic trajectory of the cuisine of the area as it has developed since ancient times
• Document a typical Italian meal
• Relate how the environment and migration have influenced foodways in Italy
• Compare and contrast the values, attitudes, economics and technologies of food production in the region
• Describe the Slow Food and other agrifood movements in Italy
• Interpret the role that food traditions and politics have on the symbolic weight of various foods in Tuscany/ Siena
• Identify personal, social, cultural, economic and historical patterns and variations in food and eating in the region both through readings and discussions with Italians
• Conduct an open-ended ethnographic interview

Method of Evaluation

Students are expected to complete required reading, participate in class discussions, and complete assignments and exams on time. Assignments submitted late will be graded down.

Fieldnotes                                                       10%

class participation                                         10%

Reading summaries, exercises

          and in class writing                             20%

Midterm                                                           20%

Research/presentation of a food                20%

Presentation of food-related interview      20%

Explanations of assignments are given below.

Course Readings

Textbooks

Food Culture in Italy. Fabio Parasecoli. Greenwood Press, Westport Press. 2004.

Around the Tuscan Table: Food, Family, and Gender in Twentieth Century Florence. Carol Counihan. Routledge. 2004.

Packet of articles or DVD made available on site. Articles given in order that they will be read. They are referred to in the schedule by author's last name.

Rites of Passage in Italy. Carol Field. Gastronomica: The Journal of Food and Culture, Vol. 10, No. 1 (Winter 2010), pp. 32-37

Did the Ancients Know the Artichoke? Clifford A. Wright.. Gastronomica: The Journal of Food and Culture, Vol. 9, No. 4 (Fall 2009), pp. 21-28

"Food fights at the EU Table: The Gastronomic Assertion of Italian Distinctiveness" Erick Castellanos and Sara Bergstresser. European Studies 22 (2006:179-202).

"The Practical Aesthetics of Traditional Cuisines: Slow Food In Tuscany" Mara Miele and Jonathan Murdoch. Sociologia Ruralis 42 (4), October 2002, pp. 312-328.

"For a 'Piece of Bread'? Interpreting Sustainable Development through Agritourism in Southern Tuscany" Roberta Sonnino. Sociologia Ruralis. 2004 vol.44(3):285-300

"Slow Food and the Politics of Pork Fat: Italian Food and European Identity". Alison Leitch. Ethnos, vol. 68:4, December 2003 (pp. 437–462)

“Postrevolutionary Chowhounds: Food, Globalization, and the Italian Left.” Fabio Parasecoli. Gastronomica: The Journal of Food and Culture, Vol. 3, No. 3 (Summer 2003), pp. 29-39.

Your professors have other materials from which they have drawn lecture information and which can be used in your research project. These include:

Italian Cuisine: A Cultural History (Arts and Traditions of the Table: Perspectives on Culinary History). Alberto Capatti and Massimo Montanari. Columbia University Press. 2003. Available on Kindle

A Culinary Traveller in Tuscany: Exploring and Eating off the Beaten Track. Beth Elon The Little Bookroom, New York: 2009.

Schedule of Classes (fieldtrips outside of class time are in bold)

SECTION 1 The Anthropology of Food and the History of Italian Cuisine

Week 1- The Anthropology of Food and Ancient Italian Cuisine

Jan. 9: Food in Culture; Field

Jan. 11: Parasecoli 1-23 (accessible at http://books.google.it/books?id=uWlCT5Hs8YwC&printsec=frontcover&hl=it&source=gbs_atb#v=onepage&q&f=false); Wright (just to give you an idea of how origins of food are “determined”)Visit Market

Week 2: The Formation of Italian/ Tuscan cuisine, Food and Identity

Jan. 16: Parasecoli 24-40; Skim Parasecoli chap 2 and choose an ingredient on which you will become the class expert.

Jan. 18: Castellanos and Bergstresser; 11:50 leave for emergency food distribution site

SECTION 2 Agritourism, Diet and Culture in Tuscany

Week 3 - Gastronomic Aesthetics

Jan 23: Miele and Murdoch; discuss interview guide

Jan 25: Sonnino; 11:30 leave for Orto Botanico

Friday – San Gimignano, Poggio Alloro

Week 4 - An Ethnographic Look at Tuscan Foodways

Jan. 30: Parasecoli, chaps. 3 and 4

Feb. 1: Counihan, chapters 1, 2, 3; film- Tree of Wooden Clogs

Week 5 - An Ethnographic Look at Tuscan Foodways, continued

Feb. 6: Counihan, chapters 4, 5 ; outline of website and 2 sources due

Feb. 8: Counihan, chapters 6, 7, 8 ; walk to Magnifico Bread Co.

Week 6

Feb. 13: Counihan, chapters 9, 10; Parasecoli Chap. 5; rough draft of one section of website

Feb. 15: MIDTERM

Week 7 - Meals

Feb. 20: NO CLASS

Feb. 22: Parasecoli Chap. 6 and discussion of Carnevale and Lent; http://www.i-italy.org/13883/polenta-vs-cous-cous-legally-banning-ethnic-food-northern-italy;

Rough draft of website due (without visuals)

Thursday Siena Slow Food Dinner, distribution of Slow Wine Guide 2012

Friday Prato Chinese Restaurant and Carmignano Dried Fig Presidia and Biodynamic Wine

Saturday Brolio Castle and Chianti Wine

SECTION 4 Contemporary Agrifood Trends and Movements

Week 8

Feb. 27 Read around in the website www.slowfood.com. Get to know the organization and what they do. We’ll be listening to a broadcast in Italian and English by Carlo Petrini

Feb. 29: Parasecoli, Chap. 7; Work on websites

Thursday – Spannochia

Friday-Sunday - Rome

Week 9 - The Politics of Slow Food

March 5: Leitch; website due, with visuals

March 7: Parasecoli article; bus to Michele Giorgio Farm; Interviews must be completed and notes emailed to classmates

Friday - Florence

Week 10

March 12: Presentation of Student research projects on a single food/ingredient

March 14: Compilation of data, preliminary analysis and division of writing

March 19- Final day to hand in projects

Explanation of Assignments:

Fieldnotes

Students are responsible for taking fieldnotes throughout the term on their encounters with Italian food, both on the table and in discussions. Students will observe and take field notes on a meal eaten with Italians. Carefully document what is served and in what order. Note any comments about the food around the table and generally what is discussed. Who sits where? Who prepared the meal? Who cleans up afterwards. Note differences between special meals and daily meals.

Fieldnotes must be taken on all food-related excursions. Note important information like date, time, location, maybe weather and your vantage point. You may also draw a sketch or a map of the space, indicating shapes, objects, focal points, and movement patterns. Listen and look at the people there, and record as much information about them as possible. Are they young, old, male, female, students, farmers? Try to capture direct quotes. Differentiate between verifiable information (12 spotted cows) and your own subjective responses or reflections.

Participation

With regard to conduct and participation, students will enhance their learning experience (and participation grade) by bringing to class observations and/or questions with a bearing on the day’s reading assignment and/or relevant events outside the classroom. Students are also asked to appear in class on time, to refrain from exiting and entering the class while in session, to turn off cell phones, to treat all course participants with respect, and to adopt a spirit of critical inquiry.

Reading Summaries

Come to class with the major points of the readings outlined. There will be occasional exercises and un-announced in-class writing assignments based on the readings that cannot be made up.

Research Project

Develop a presentation focusing on a single food commodity from the region: olive oil, veal, pasta, wine, pork, pizza…Tell us about its history, geography, market, symbolism and use in cultural local traditions. You might even prepare a recipe using it and conduct some interviews with local experts. Use at least 2 academic sources.

Ethnographic Interview

You will need to interview an Italian for this project. (Do not use the same informant as a classmate.) Explain what the assignment is about. Arrange a time and place for a relaxed, informal interview. It will probably take about an hour to complete. During the interviews, be sure to take detailed notes. If you plan on using a tape recorder, ask your consultant's permission beforehand.

The focus of your interviews should be on the relationship of food to identity. In most cases this will be the relationship that the consultants have with food at home. This can clearly cross-cut issues of ethnicity, gender, region, class, and age. Your interviews should revolve around some of the following questions:

-Who makes the decision as to what is eaten in your household?

-Who does the task of acquiring food? Cooking? Serving Meals?

-What are the typical methods of preparing foods?

-What determines where you do and do not eat?

-What are important customs or table manners that are followed on a daily basis when eating?

-What uncommon foods (that is, rarely eaten) or dishes are used only for ritual or special occasions? Why?

-What family traditions call for formal eating situations?

-What classes or types of food do you like or dislike? Why?

-Are there foods that you identify with your family? What are they?

-What foods are identified with the region your family is from?

-What are considered Italian foods? Ones that people all over the country eat?

-What are considered to be European foods?

-What else determines the food you eat?

-Do you know where your food comes from (beyond the grocery store that is)?

-Do you belong to any food-related organizations?

-What are your favorite foods?

-What foods can't you eat and why?

These questions are only a partial list for you to get started. You should follow the conversation and ask follow up questions when you don't fully understand something. We will share our interviews and divide up themes to explore. You will present your findings on the last day of class and we will discuss commonalities and differences between our interviews.