This is a snapshot of project information archived on 2 September 2022. Please contact the project team for most recent updates.
Food and Farming: A Humanist Teaching Template
Subject: History
Book Language: English
Audience: Undergraduate and graduate, prep- and high-school students and faculty, community leaders, activists
Book Cover: file:///C:/Users/User/Documents/REBUS%20FOOD%20AND%20FARMING%20PUBLISHING%20PROJECT%20SPRING%202022/F&F%20Cover%20Painting.pdf
Created date: March 4, 2022
Updated date: July 5, 2022
Target Release Date: 2023-05-05
License:
• I don’t know
Needs:
• Proofreaders
• Formatters
• Peer Reviewers
Description:
It was uncommon
, in the early years of this century, to see a Food and Farming course on the books of a college history department. That still might be the case, which makes the present endeavor a little bit unusual and somewhat eccentric. I thought it was time to share my methodology with the wider world of fellow travelers who seek a cross-disciplinary approach to the history of agriculture, writ very large.
How did pre-twentieth-century
forms of alternative agriculture beget efficient yields? Do peasants still exist as a socio-economic category? What are the durable elements of agriculture historiography? How has wheat metamorphosed since its origin in the Fertile Crescent and in relationship to the human body? What is einkorn wheat? Is African fonio the answer to weak rice production? Is there a moral economy of the supermarket? What did E.P. Thompson do for our knowledge of bread riots and capitalism? What is the “omnivore’s dilemma”? How do government subsidies to farmers create surpluses and deficits? What is the color of horticulture? Who is Charles “Turnip” Townshend and his revolutionary pal in soil science, Jethro Tull?
What you have before you
is an approach to these questions via a compilation of scholarship and analytical frameworks which brought the original course to fruition and saw its transformation across the years. Student interests and contributions changed semester by semester, as typologies of relevant literature became more varied, the world drew closer, and the academic disciplines addressing food and farming blended into a unique matrix that lent itself, richly, to the historian’s perspective. A mix of humanities and social-scientific methods, time periods and global regions revealed layered fields for exploration and comparison exercises, while allowing the student to compile case studies and basic knowledge of the harvest.
You will find here syllabi
, scholarship, conceptual maps, lecture guidelines, exam and essay questions, “think” pieces, electronic resources and links, and images. Key readings are reproduced where permissions are allowed, or they are referenced as bibliographical lodestars, from classic literature to illuminating studies of note. Many resources, thus, are presented herein for preparation for the teaching of food and farming from the humanist perspective.
The resource at hand is appropriate for
graduate and upper-level undergraduate students, faculty, high-school and prep-school teachers and students, community leaders and activists, and those with a general interest in the subject matter who wish to incorporate aspects of the materials into their own courses or curricula. Materials are in the English language but can be applied and translated by the adopter as needed.
Barbara Syrrakos Department of History The City College of New York
Short Description:
It was uncommon, in the early years of this century, to see a
Food and Farming
course on the books of a college history department. I thought it was time to share my methodology with the wider world of fellow travelers who seek a cross-disciplinary approach to the history of agriculture, writ very large.
How did pre-twentieth-century forms of alternative agriculture beget efficient yields? Do peasants still exist as a socio-economic category? What are the durable elements of agriculture historiography? How has wheat metamorphosed since its origin in the Fertile Crescent and in relationship to the human body?
You will find here syllabi, scholarship, concept maps, lecture guidelines, exam and essay questions, “think” pieces, archive links, and images. The resource is appropriate for graduate and upper-level undergraduate students, faculty, high-school and prep-school teachers and students, community leaders, and those who wish to adopt aspects herein into their own work.
Participants
• @barbsyrrakos9
• @sharris1
• @skoski