Cultivating Justice: Food, Land & Healing

From the US to Palestine, indigenous communities and communities of color are leaders in grassroots food sovereignty movements to counter land dispossession and cultural erasure. In homelands and in diasporas, food cultures also become vehicles for storytelling, emotional nourishment, and community preservation. 

In this first-year program, we’ll examine the centrality of food—as both a cultural expression and a human right—through the lenses of food sovereignty, intersectional feminism, and land-based social movements. Students will gain foundational knowledge in Food Studies, Cultural Studies, and Sociology, as well as skills in creative and expository writing and anti-oppression education. In hands-on workshops, we’ll cook together, learn new recipes, and share familial and community food stories.  We’ll also engage in field trips and farm excursions to assist with fall harvest, as we build a strong learning community committed to cultivating justice.

We’ll explore key issues, such as the role of food justice in reclaiming cultural stories and histories distorted by the structures of colonialism, slavery, capitalism, and heteropatriarchy, and the leadership roles of women and queer folks in these movements.  In what ways is food justice linked to struggles over land dispossession and larger processes of decolonization? How is cultural nourishment and individual well-being inextricably linked to community well-being?

We approach these studies in a holistic manner by exploring life-affirming systems and ancestral knowledges that are being revived and reclaimed, and by drawing on the work of trauma-informed practitioners like Gabor Mate and Resmaa Menakem to understand the healing potential of land-based practices against histories of oppression. Students will participate in somatic lab activities to explore embodied cultural practices and to imagine the desired futures we hope to create together.

Anticipated Credit Equivalencies:

4 - Food Studies

3 - Cultural and Decolonial Studies: Black, Indigenous, and Palestinian

4 - Expository and Creative Writing

3 - Sociology of Race, Class, Gender, and Community