Welcome!

This semester I'm teaching a course at Cornell University entitled "Having a Lot On Our Plates: The Sociology of Food and Nutrition." In this writing intensive course, I am requiring my students to keep a blog of their ponderings on the topics we cover in class, partly because experience with keeping a blog is increasingly useful, and partly because I hope it will be a fun and creative way to get students to respond to (and read) course readings. I've decided I don't want to miss out on that fun and creativity myself, so in solidarity with my students, this is my inaugural post.

I won't say too much here, but I will briefly describe the title. I call it "Having a Lot On Our Plates," because I intend for this course to get students thinking critically about the food they consume every day—its significance beyond the nutrients it contains, the processes by which food is made available to them, and the consequences these have for producers, consumers, and society as a whole. The material we read over the course of the semester focuses on the social, political, economic, and philosophical influences on and repercussions of the way we eat. We do this by applying C. Wright Mills' concept of "the sociological imagination" to food-related issues. This perspective distinguishes "personal troubles" from "public issues" and acknowledges both the social structure shaping our behavior, and how our collective behavior in turn constitutes that social structure.

Now enough with the jargon: welcome to my blog!