General Studies (GNST) 201 Seminar 08
Inquiry Seminar in Communication and Culture
Food Politics
Fall 2007

Course time:                          TR 15:30 - 16:45  

Course location:                    SS006

Instructor:                                Gwendolyn Blue, PhD

Email:                                     ggblue@ucalgary.ca

Office:                                     SS 306

Office hours:                          MW 13:00 - 14:00 or by appointment

Course Description

This inquiry based course is designed to help you learn about some of the current politics surrounding food while exploring your own research questions.

Eating is something we often take for granted as an ordinary part of our daily lives. However, recently, it has become a site of political controversy with debates raging over the ethics of eating animals; the dichotomies between hunger and obesity; concerns over the safety of industrialized agricultural production including genetic modification and  pesticide use; the benefits and drawbacks surrounding organic food and ‘eating local'.

Course Objectives

By the end of the course, students will be able to:

Understand and apply the basic steps involved in the research process including searching for information, developing an argument, citing sources and writing results

• Develop and deliver oral presentations
• Develop and deliver proposals and research reports
• Summarize articles efficiently and accurately
• Communicate ideas in both oral and written formats

READINGS

Faigley, L, R. Graves, H. Graves.  2006. The Brief Penguin Handbook. Canadian Edition. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Education.

Lappe, F and A. Lappe. 2006. Hope's Edge: The Next Diet for a Small Planet.  New York: Tarcher and Putnam.

Please bring a separate notebook to class for journal writing. 

EVALUATION

Participation              30%

Guided Discussion   20 %

Presentation             10 %

Final paper                40 %

The course assignments are broken into 2 categories: low stakes and high stakes.

Low stake assignments give you practice writing and trying out ideas to prepare you for the high stake assignments. Low stake assignments contribute to your participation grade. They will be graded on the following basis: Poor (0 - 1), Satisfactory (2) Good (3) Excellent (4). To receive full participation points, you must attend class regularly and contribute to class discussion.

PARTICIPATION 30%  (Assignments worth 4% each + Class participation)

Learning Philosophy:  Inquiry based learning means you, as a student, need to take an active role in the learning process. This assignment will give you an opportunity to reflect on your learning strategies, as well as state your commitment to your learning process.

Due: Sept. 18

Annotated Bibliography: An annotated bibliography provides a detailed summary of literature sources. It is useful to help with your literature review as well as define your research topic. The references that you use for this assignment will comprise the start of your research. You will reference one book and one journal article. Due: Sept. 27

Peer review: This allows you to identify areas for improvement in some one else's paper. Due: Nov. 22

Journal: Throughout the semester, we will be practicing reflective writing, usually for 5 - 10 minutes at the start of class. You will be required to submit your journals twice in the semester. Due: Oct 16 & Dec. 6

Self Evaluation: This assignment gives you the opportunity to reflect on and evaluate your performance in the class. Due: Dec. 6

Participation and Attendance: Up to 10 points are available for participation in class discussion.

GUIDED DISCUSSION 20%

Working in teams, you will be responsible for guiding one lecture ( ~ 45 minutes) with an assigned reading. As a team, you are responsible for leading the class through a critical analysis of the reading. You will give a summary of the reading, provide background information, and develop three questions for class discussion. You must hand in a written account of the summary, background information as well as the three discussion questions to receive full marks. Each group member will receive the same grade.  

ORAL PRESENTATION 10%

This is an oral presentation of your research project. It will be structured like a conference presentation - you will be given 10 - 12 minutes to discuss your work, with additional time for questions from the group.                     

RESEARCH PAPER 40%

You will each write a final paper that investigates an area of food politics of your choice. The length should be between 2500 words (~ 10 pages).

Research Proposal (10 / 40): This outlines your inquiry question as well as the direction you envision your paper taking.

Final Paper (30 / 40)  ** Note: You will lose 10 points if you do not hand in rough draft on November 15.

COURSE POLICIES

Policy for late work

Assignments and presentations are due on the dates indicated. With the exception of the final paper, failure to submit or present on the indicated day will result in a grade of zero (0). Exceptions to this policy may be made in advance with the instructor. Final papers will be docked one letter grade (from A to A-, for example) for every day late.

Academic Integrity

Students will be held to standards of academic honesty as regulated by the University of Calgary. For more information on policies, see ‘Plagarism / Cheating / Other Academic Misconduct': www.fp.ucalgary.ca/secretariat/app-acc.htm

Research Ethics
This course has obtained course-based ethics approval from the faculty research ethics committee.  Whenever you perform research with human participants (i.e. surveys, interviews, observation) as part of your university studies, you are responsible for following university research ethics guidelines.  Your instructor must review and approve of your research plans and supervise your research.  For more information about your research ethics responsibilities, see the U of C Research Ethics "Information for Applicants," sections 3.0 to 9.0, inclusive:

http://www.ucalgary.ca/UofC/research/html/ethics/info_undergrad.html

COURSE SCHEDULE                                                                    

9/11    Course Introduction              

9/13    Critical Thinking and Reading

            Read:             Penguin Handbook pp. 71 - 79

9/18    Critical Analysis

Read: Penguin Handbook, pp. 83 - 87

Kurlansky -  The Food Chains That Link Us All.

(found on blackboard under Readings)

            Due: Learning philosophy

9/20    Research Skills: Finding a Topic, Sources

            Read: Penguin handbook, pp. 213 - 220                     

9/25    Research Skills 2: Search Strategies

Read: Penguin Handbook, pp. 220 - 250

* Meet in Library           

9/27    Research Skills 3: Referencing

            Read: Penguin Handbook, pp 251 - 261, pp. 279 - 398          

            Due: Annotated bibliography

10/2    Plagarism / Research Proposals

            Read: Penguin Handbook, pp. 262 - 277

10/4    Guided Discussion           

            Read: Lappe, pp. 3 - 33

            Due: Research proposals  

10/9    Proposal meetings

            Individual meetings with instructor

10/11  Guided Discussion (on line)

            Read: Lappe, pp. 37 - 62

10/16  Guided Discussion          

            Read: Lappe, pp. 63 - 92

            Due: Reflective Writing Journal

10/18  Guided discussion

            Read: Lappe, pp. 93 - 103          

10/23  Guided discussion

            Read: Lappe, pp. 104 - 137

10/25  Guided discussion

            Read: Lappe, pp. 138 - 166

10/30  Research day (no class)

11/1    Guided discussion

            Read: Lappe, pp. 167 - 195

11/6    Guided discussion

            Read: Lappe, pp. 196 - 243

11/8    Guided discussion

            Read: Lappe, pp. 244 - 275

11/13  Reading Days (no class)

11/15  Peer review workshop          

            Due: First draft of research project

11/20  Guided Discussion

            Read: Lappe, pp. 279 - 310

11/22  Final Peer review workshop

11/27  Oral Presentations

            Due:   Reflective Journals

11/29   Oral Presentations    

12/4    Oral Presentations          

            Due: Final Paper

12/6    Course conclusion                      

            Due:   Self Evaluation

Reminder of Due Dates

Sept 18          Learning Philosophy

Sept. 27         Annotated Bibliography

Oct. 16                        Reflective Journal

Nov. 15           First Draft

Nov. 22           Peer review due

Nov. 27           Reflective Journals

Dec. 4             Final Paper

Dec. 6             Self Evaluation