Eating is an everyday act shaped by broader social structures. This course explores the production, distribution, and consumption of food through a sociological and environmental food justice framework. Topics include food access and insecurity as determinants of health and lived experience, shaped by local food environments, intersectional identities, and the social meanings of food. We will also study community organizations and activists working for economic justice, environmental justice, and food sovereignty.
Prerequisite(s): SOC 1110 Introduction to Sociology or SOC 2530 Population and Environment .
(Normally offered every other year.)
SOC 1110 Introduction to Sociology (4 hours)
This course is an introduction to using the sociological perspective as a method of social inquiry. Students explore such basic concepts as culture, socialization, social structure, social interaction, and social change. They study and apply the theories and research methodologies used to investigate human social interaction. These concepts are applied to social topics such as race, class, gender, family, crime, population, environment, and others.
(Normally offered each semester.)
Archway Curriculum: Essential Connections: Diversity Instructive: Global
Archway Curriculum: Essential Connections: Diversity Instructive: U.S.
Archway Curriculum: Foundational Literacies: Scientific Investigations: Social Science
Archway Curriculum: Justice Thread
SOC 2530 Population and Environment (4 hours)
This course examines the demographic and social dynamics of population size, composition, and distribution. It addresses the relationships among population, human health, development and the environment. Strong cross-cultural emphasis. A major focus is the development of a semester research paper contrasting the status of the Millennium and Sustainable Development Goals, environmental status, and health in a more- and less- developed country.
Archway Curriculum: Essential Connections: Diversity Instructive: Global
Archway Curriculum: Essential Connections: Writing Instructive
Archway Curriculum: Integrative Core: Humans in the Natural Environment Thread