Food Systems: Social Movements

Quarters
Winter Open
Location
Olympia
Class Standing
Freshman
Sophomore
Junior
Senior
Prita Lal

This course will build off of the fall quarter course, whereby students will continue to delve into understanding food as part of wider systems (relating to production, distribution, consumption, and waste). Guiding questions include: how does power operate in the food system? Who owns what and who has what in the food system? How are communities reclaiming their power over the food system? Our studies will focus on the third food regime (corporate dominated) as well as the area of social movements. We will (in the words of Eve Tuck) bring a "desire-centered lens" to our studies by exploring the ways in which frontline communities are prefiguring the world they need and desire through their leadership in food justice movements. We will explore our studies of the food system in an intersectional manner, with significant attention given to the intersections of food and structural racism, along with the ways in which food justice intersects with other social issues like gentrification, the prison industrial complex, racial justice, Indigenous sovereignty, Black agrarianism, environmentalism, farmworker and labor organizing, healthcare, and more. 

Assignments will consist of four bi-weekly discussion board posts and one case study, where students individually research a food justice organization or movement (contemporary or historical) and create a recorded power point video describing their case. This program will be taught fully online with a combination of synchronous and asynchronous learning activities. The program will meet synchronously on Zoom during even weeks (for seminar and workshops). During odd weeks, students will complete asynchronous modules on Canvas, which consists of recorded lectures, film, and discussion boards. Students will need a computer with camera, microphone, and internet access.

Anticipated Credit Equivalencies:

4 - Intersectional Food Justice

 

Registration

Academic Details

Agricultural education, farming, entrepreneurship, nonprofit work, food policy

4
25
Freshman
Sophomore
Junior
Senior

Schedule

Winter
2026
Open
Remote (W)

See definition of Hybrid, Remote, and In-Person instruction

Evening and Weekend
Schedule Details
Remote/Online
Olympia