Written Analysis (No plagiarism)

Your interview focused on ONE!! of the following broad topics:

• A life-history of diet, nutrition, and body image. How has this person’s relationship to food and nutrition changed over time? Analyze the context of these changes—familial, societal, environmental, health. How do they account for their understanding of an “ideal” body size, and where does this view come from? What norms, beliefs, identities and expectations regarding food, nutrition, health, and wellness have shaped their relationship to food? What foods make them feel full or satisfied? What foods are taboo and why?
• The personal and social meaning of particular foods. What foods are particularly meaningful to this person, and why? What foods are painful or evocative of pain, loss, grief, or change and why? What kinds of foods do they cook on different occasions and why? Are there recipes or cooking techniques that are particularly meaningful to them? What does food mean for them with regard to identity, politics, religion, culture, tradition, history, nation, ethnicity or race? What kinds of rituals and belief-systems are these foods enmeshed in? Are these foods easy to find and shop for in their current place of residence?
• Food, agriculture, power: Consider this person’s relationship to food production and consumption. Do they garden? Why or why not? Where do they buy their foods and how does this reflect their material needs and belief systems? What are their beliefs about food systems, where food comes from, and the politics of food distribution or farm labor? Do they have experiences with state institutions in their foodways, such as eating in cafeterias or receiving food assistance from the government? Are they engaged in efforts to eradicate hunger? Do they volunteer at a food-bank? Are they engaged in other work that involves food as it relates to inequality (e.g. nutrition, public health, food access, worker’s rights, anti-pesticide campaigns)? How do their purchases or food production practices reflect or refute their stated values about the food system? How are their food purchases related to their socioeconomic status? How have their purchases changed over time and why?
• Globalization, food and culture. How has a travel experience or cross-cultural encounter shaped this person’s understanding of food or food practices (such as cooking and shopping)? Were the experiences positive or negative? What did this encounter reveal about their own beliefs and values surrounding food and those of another culture? To what extent did this person discover a previous ethnocentric bias through this encounter? How does this experience and narrative relate to broader course themes of globalization, delocalization, food economics, and corporate agriculture?

Analyze the interview and compose an essay (1500 words) according to the course’s main themes around which you chose to develop your interview. Your short essay should be structured around a main argument, and should put your interview findings in conversation with at least 4 course readings(see attached file) and at least 1 course theme to make a broader argument.

Whenever you include quotations, paraphrase or discuss ideas, remember to cite them correctly using author’s name, year of publication, and page number. Please refer to the “Writing Tips and Guidelines” page under the “Getting Started” Module on Canvas for good writing practices. You may use the correct citation practices according to the any style manual standard for your field (such as APA, MLA, Chicago). Include a properly formatted bibliography (this does not count towards your word count).

This essay is worth 30% of your final grade, with a possible 30 points.

Final Exam Essay Rubric