Communications Studies (COMS) 401.03 L01
Food Culture

Winter 2008
Saturday: 1:00 - 5:00pm Class dates: Jan 19, 26, Feb 2, 9, 23, Mar 1, 8, 15, 29, Apr 5

Final Exam: April 19

 

 

Instructor:	Dr. Dawn Johnston and Ms. Lisa Stowe
Office Location:	SS 234 and SS 254
Office Phone:	220-3199 and 220-4840
E-Mail:	debjohns@ucalgary.ca and lstowe@ucalgary.ca
Office Hours:	By appointment

Course Description

Like film, television, music, art, and other cultural products and processes, the culture and traditions of food are ideal sites for cultural and communicative analysis. The past three to five years have seen the development of exclusive Food Network television, the growing cult of the celebrity chef, and the explosion of high-end restaurants in both urban and rural areas. As a culture, our interest in food is nothing new -- certainly, the traditions of sharing meals have long been key communicative processes in societies worldwide. But our fascination with the rhetoric of food, the glamour of restaurant life, and the fame of cooking gurus and lifestyle 'experts' is timely and significant. Food, cooking, and eating are distinct in their relationships to ethnicity, class, education, gender, and sexuality -- all of the key identifiers and appetities that define contemporary cultural studies.

Objectives of the Course

Through lectures, field trips, examples from popular culture, and class discussions, this course will offer students analysis of and insight into the following:

1. The rhetoric of food writing and food television

2. The marketing of particular niche restaurants

3. The organizational communication processes in the hierarchy of a restaurant

4. The creation of the celebrity chef as popular culture icon

5. The role of ethnicity and multi-culturalism in urban restaurants

7. The cultural traditions of breaking bread and sharing meals

8. Food across popular cultural genres -- television, film, etc.

9. Food in the context of political and social activism

10. The cookbook as cultural artifact

Textbooks and Readings:

Bourdain, Anthony. Kitchen Confidential. 2000. (required)

Reichl, Ruth. Garlic and Sapphires. 2006 (required)

Readings Package for COMS 401.03 (required)

The Bourdain and Reichl texts may be purchased either new or secondhand, but please note that the Custom Readings Package is NEW this year, and must be purchased through the University Bookstore.

Assignments and Evaluation

Restaurant Review                 15%               Ongoing due dates (See details below)

 

Midterm Exam                      15%               February 9

 

Annotated Bibliography         10%               March 8

 

Term Paper                           25%               March 29

 

Participation                          10%               Ongoing

 

Final Exam                            25%               Registrar Scheduled

 

The restaurant review is an individual assignment, written about a Calgary restaurant of each student's own choosing. Details of review writing will be discussed in class.  Reviews should be a minimum of 400-500 words in length, and must be presented orally in class.  A signup sheet will be circulated in the first class.

 

The midterm and final examinations will cover material from the readings, field trips, lectures, and class discussions. The examinations will consist of essay questions.

 

The annotated bibliography is a tool to assist students in the research for their term papers.  Students should submit a properly formatted bibliography of 5-7 sources, including annotations of 3-4 sentences each.  Details on how to write annotated bibliographies will be discussed in class. 

 

The term paper is research-based, on a topic of the student's choosing, and should be 6-8 double-spaced, typewritten pages in length. Please note: topics MUST be approved by one of the instructors.

 

This course relies heavily upon participation. Students are expected to attend, and to participate in all activities and discussions. Students who do not participate in the activities listed above will be deducted marks accordingly.

 

Please note: You must complete all assignments to receive a passing grade in this course.

 

It is the student's responsibility to keep a copy of each submitted assignment.
Note: Please hand in your essays directly to your tutor or instructor if possible. If it is not possible to do so, a daytime drop box is available in SS110; a date stamp is provided for your use. A night drop box is also available for after-hours submission. Assignments will be removed the following morning, stamped with the previous day's date, and placed in the instructor's mailbox.

Registrar-scheduled Final Examination:  Yes

Please note: If your class is held in the evening, the Registrar's Office will make every attempt to schedule the final exam during the evening; however, there is NO guarantee that the exam will NOT be scheduled during the day.

Policy for Late Assignments

Assignments submitted after the deadline may be penalized with the loss of a grade (e.g.: A- to B+) for each day late.

Writing Skills Statement

Faculty policy directs that all written assignments (including, although to a lesser extent, written exam responses) will be assessed at least partly on writing skills. For details see www.comcul.ucalgary.ca/info. Writing skills include not only surface correctness (grammar, punctuation, sentence structure, etc) but also general clarity and organization. Research papers must be properly documented.

If you need help with your writing, you may use the Writing Centre.  Visit the website for more details: www.efwr.ucalgary.ca

Grading System

The following grading system is used in the Faculty of Communication and Culture:

A+ (96-100); A (92-95); A- (86-91); B+ (81-85); B (77-80); B- (71-76);
C+ (65-70); C (62-64); C- (59-61); D+ (55-58); D (50-54); F (0-49)

 

Plagiarism

Using any source whatsoever without clearly documenting it is a serious academic offense. Consequences include failure on the assignment, failure in the course and possibly suspension or expulsion from the university.

You must document not only direct quotations but also paraphrases and ideas where they appear in your text. A reference list at the end is insufficient by itself. Readers must be able to tell exactly where your words and ideas end and other people's words and ideas begin. This includes assignments submitted in non-traditional formats such as Web pages or visual media, and material taken from such sources.

Please consult your instructor or the Writing Centre (SS 106, efwr.ucalgary.ca) if you have any questions regarding how to document sources.

Students with Disabilities

If you are a student with a disability who may require academic accommodation, it is your responsibility to register with the Disability Resource Centre (220-8237) and discuss your needs with your instructor no later than fourteen (14) days after the start of the course.

Students' Union

For details about the current Students' Union contacts for the Faculty of Communication and Culture see www.comcul.ucalgary.ca/su

"SAFEWALK" Program -- 220-5333

Campus Security will escort individuals day or night -- call 220-5333 for assistance. Use any campus phone, emergency phone or the yellow phone located at most parking lot booths.

Ethics

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

Schedule of Lectures and Readings

 

To be distributed in the first week of class