Food for Thought: Discovering the Stories Behind Every Meal

Dr. Sara Conrad’s spring ANT 305 (Food and Culture) class was a delicious new offering in the department this year. In a fun twist on experiential learning, students took classes off campus at A Matter of Taste Kitchen in Peoria Heights where they read texts, watched films, listened to podcasts, and cooked! Senior Emily Janosz said, “As most people do, I overlooked how food acts as material culture — identity embodied. And as someone who often eats alone, I enjoyed cooking with my peers in a low-pressure environment. I have truly enjoyed this class, exploring such an important facet of life.”

As a final project, students produced a Class Cookbook where they not only share recipes, but explain why sharing food knowledge is important, explore how food is political, and reflect on why it all matters from an anthropological perspective. Here, you can learn how to make one of the class’s favorite recipes: fry bread. The students learned how fry bread is “a food that has survived generations of colonization, representing resistance in the face of unrelenting oppression.” According to the class, it was also one of the most delicious recipes they tried.