Students
ANTH203 – Food Across Cultures
2018 – S1 Day
General Information
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| Unit convenor and teaching staff |
Unit convenor and teaching staff
Unit Convenor
Eve Vincent
Contact via email
Australian Hearing Hub
Head Tutor
Tomas Wilkoszewski
Contact via email
Tutor
Max Harwood
Contact via email
Payel Ray
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| Credit points |
Credit points
3
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| Prerequisites |
Prerequisites
ANTH150 or (12cp at 100 level or above) or admission to GDipArts
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| Corequisites |
Corequisites
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| Co-badged status |
Co-badged status
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| Unit description |
Unit description
We all eat. But what, when, how, how much and with whom we eat is bound up with questions of cultural difference, gender and power. The study of food, eating and hunger has long held a particular fascination for anthropologists-from subsistence strategies to nutritional intake, from food taboos to the social rules that structure how people eat together. This unit introduces students to the idea that the everyday activities of cooking and eating are packed with economic, medical, political, and cultural meanings. We will focus first on some classic anthropological work on eating as a social practice. Then we move to the concerns of contemporary anthropology, examining issues such as the global industrial food system, and the link between migration, ethnic identity and food. Throughout this course we are concerned with everyday eating practices, exploring the extraordinary variety of food likes and dislikes in a range of ethnographic contexts. Not only will we talk about food, we will also come together to share food.
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Important Academic Dates
Information about important academic dates including deadlines for withdrawing from units are available at https://www.mq.edu.au/study/calendar-of-dates
Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:
- Understand how the everyday activities of food classification, cooking and eating are packed with economic, medical, political and cultural meanings;
- Gain insight into the ways that food is linked up with many of the concerns of contemporary social anthropology, including globalisation, consumption practices and class, identity and migration, and practices of everyday life;
- Consider the impact of globalisation and industrialisation on food systems, communities and animals; critically engage with resistance and responses to these corporate multinational food chains;
- Research the food-related practices of everyday life in a range of ethnographic contexts;
- Come together to share food and recipes in order to gain an embodied knowledge of and insight into food preparation and consumption;
- Enhance their communication and interpersonal skills through oral discussion and written work that focuses on articulating knowledge and information in a clear and concise fashion;
- Develop problem-solving skills through this unit's focus on applying and adapting anthropological knowledge to real world problems;
- Cement critical analysis and creative thinking skills through research assignments and papers.
General Assessment Information
Unless a Special Consideration request has been submitted and approved, (a) a penalty for lateness will apply – two (2) marks out of 100 will be deducted per day for assignments submitted after the due date – and (b) no assignment will be accepted more than seven (7) days (incl. weekends) after the original submission deadline. No late submissions will be accepted for timed assessments – e.g. quizzes, online tests.This information applies to all assessment items in this unit.
Assessment Tasks
| Name | Weighting | Hurdle | Due |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tutorial Participation | 10% | No | Weekly |
| Critical Summary | 15% | Yes | Monday March 26 |
| Eating Experience Research | 35% | No | Friday May 18 |
| Take Home Exam | 40% | No | Sunday June 17 |
Tutorial Participation
Due: Weekly
Weighting: 10%
Each week, you should prepare for the tutorial discussion by completing the required readings. You should arrive at class willing to engage in respectful discussion of the authors’ key points and arguments. It is especially useful to bring with you any doubts or confusion about the readings - the tutorial is your time to clarify the readings as well as the lecture content. You are expected both to make informed contributions to class discussions, and to listen to others' contributions. Please notify your tutor if you are going to be absent from a tutorial. You are expected to attend at least 80 per cent of tutorials over the course of the semester.
On successful completion you will be able to:
- Understand how the everyday activities of food classification, cooking and eating are packed with economic, medical, political and cultural meanings;
- Gain insight into the ways that food is linked up with many of the concerns of contemporary social anthropology, including globalisation, consumption practices and class, identity and migration, and practices of everyday life;
- Consider the impact of globalisation and industrialisation on food systems, communities and animals; critically engage with resistance and responses to these corporate multinational food chains;
- Come together to share food and recipes in order to gain an embodied knowledge of and insight into food preparation and consumption;
- Enhance their communication and interpersonal skills through oral discussion and written work that focuses on articulating knowledge and information in a clear and concise fashion;
- Develop problem-solving skills through this unit's focus on applying and adapting anthropological knowledge to real world problems;
Critical Summary
Due: Monday March 26
Weighting: 15%
This is a hurdle assessment task (see assessment policy for more information on hurdle assessment tasks)
You are required to submit a 500 word summary of a reading. Details for this assessment task will be available in Week 2.
On successful completion you will be able to:
- Cement critical analysis and creative thinking skills through research assignments and papers.
Eating Experience Research
Due: Friday May 18
Weighting: 35%
This social research project will be undertaken as a group assignment (3-4 students). Groups will be organised in your Week 3 tutorial. Your group will choose a particular eating situation, whether it is dinner at home with a family, a celebratory meal, or dining in a cafe or restaurant. You will then produce a description and an analysis of this particular eating situation. The task is to closely observe an eating experience, and to provide some analysis of your observations based on the course material.
In-class presentations in Weeks 8 and 9 will be worth 10 per cent of your overall mark in this unit. Each group will have up to 10 minutes for their presentation. Creativity in style and media of presentation is encouraged for the in-class presentations.
On Friday May 18, each student will also submit a written report of not more than 1,500 words on their project (detailed instructions on the report will be provided). The written report will be worth 25 per cent of your overall mark in this unit: this is an individual assignment.
On successful completion you will be able to:
- Understand how the everyday activities of food classification, cooking and eating are packed with economic, medical, political and cultural meanings;
- Research the food-related practices of everyday life in a range of ethnographic contexts;
- Enhance their communication and interpersonal skills through oral discussion and written work that focuses on articulating knowledge and information in a clear and concise fashion;
Take Home Exam
Due: Sunday June 17
Weighting: 40%
You will write two short essays of 1000 words each, excluding references. Essay questions will be uploaded on Monday June 4 at 9am. Take home exams are due by 11:59pm on Sunday June 17. Late submission of your take home exam will be penalised as per the general assessment information.
On successful completion you will be able to:
- Gain insight into the ways that food is linked up with many of the concerns of contemporary social anthropology, including globalisation, consumption practices and class, identity and migration, and practices of everyday life;
- Consider the impact of globalisation and industrialisation on food systems, communities and animals; critically engage with resistance and responses to these corporate multinational food chains;
- Cement critical analysis and creative thinking skills through research assignments and papers.
Delivery and Resources
Weekly readings for this course are available through the library.
The following books are background readings for the course and have been placed on Reserve:
- Carole Counihan and Penny van Esterik (eds), Food and Culture: A Reader. Routledge: New York and London, 1997.
- David Inglis and Debra Gimlin (eds) The Globalisation of Food. Berg: Oxford, 2009.
- Jakob Klein and James Watson (eds), The handbook of food and anthropology. Bloomsbury academic: London and New York, 2016.
- Marianne Lien and Brigitte Nerlich (eds), The politics of food. Berg: Oxford, 2004.
- James Watson and Melissa Caldwell (eds), The cultural politics of food and eating: a reader. Blackwell Pub.: Malden, MA, 2005
Food and Foodways is a journal dedicated to the history and culture of food in different societies.
Unit Schedule
Week 1. Eating Together: Introduction to the Anthropology of Food
Friday March 2
Eating is a profoundly social experience, cementing or marking social intimacies, hierarchies and roles. In this lecture we will talk about the idea of 'commensality', the practice of eating together. We will explore the kinds of relationships and boundaries between people created through various meals: a Javanese feast called a 'slametan'; an everyday Chinese lunch in a Hong Kong eatery; an anthropologist's attempt to share a festive Christmas meal in the Kalahari desert. At this introductory lecture, the structure of the unit, its key themes, and the assessment items will be explained.
Required reading:
- Clifford Geertz, The Slametan: Communal Feast as Core Ritual, In The Religion of Java, New York: The Free Press, 1960, 11-15.
- Richard Lee, Eating Christmas in the Kalahari.
Further reading:
- Maurice Bloch, Commensality and Poisoning, Social Research, vol. 66, no. 1, 1999, 133-149.
- David Sutton, The vegetarian anthropologist, Anthropology Today, vol. 13, no. 1, February 1997, 5-8.
- James Staples, Food, Commensality and Caste in South Asia, in Jakob Klein and James Watson (eds), The handbook of food and anthropology. Bloomsbury academic: London and New York, 2016, 74-93.
There are no tutorials this week. You should read the course outline thoroughly and familiarise yourself with the course assignments. If you have any questions please bring them to next week’s tutorial.
Week 2. Taste and Taboo
Friday March 9
Ever eaten spiders? Perhaps. Seaweed? No doubt. Raw meat? Guinea pig? Pigs trotters? Kangaroo?
Why do some cultures regard certain foodstuffs as disgusting, while others regard these same items as highly desirable delicacies or as everyday foods? How do we learn about these categories? What explains the different cultural categorisations of the same edible items? We will read two authors, Mary Douglas and Marvin Harris, who disagree with each other in their attempts to answer these questions, which are fundamental to the anthropology of food.
Required reading:
- Mary Douglas, The Abominations of Leviticus, In Purity and Danger, England: Penguin Books, 1970, 54-72.
- Marvin Harris, The Abominable Pig, In Good to Eat: Riddles of Food and Culture. London: Allen & Unwin, 1985, 67-87.
- Marshall Sahlins, Food Preference and Tabu in American Domestic Animals, In Culture and Practical Reason, University of Chicago Press, 1976, 170-179.
Further reading:
- Marianne Elisabeth Lien, Dogs, Whales and Kangaroos: Transnational Activism and Food Taboos. In Marianne Lien and Brigitte Nerlich (eds), The Politics of Food. Oxford: Berg, 2004, 179-197.
Week 3. The Man-Eating Myth and Mortuary Cannibalism in the Amazon
Friday March 16
Was anthropophagy -the consumption of human flesh- a sanctioned practice in certain societies, partaken of for specific cultural reasons? What might it mean to lovingly ingest part of the body of a deceased family member? Or is cannibalism a myth, generated so that one culture can differentiate itself from others it sees as inferior? What role does colonialism and contemporary expressions of racism have to play in all of this?
Required reading:
- Beth A. Conklin, Thus Are Our Bodies, Thus Was Our Custom: Mortuary Cannibalism in an Amazonian Society, American Ethnologist, vol. 22, no. 1, 1995, 75-101.
- Shirley Lindenbaum, Cannibalism, Kuru and Anthropology, Folia Neuropathol, vol. 47, no. 2, 2009, 138-144 .
Film: Kuru: The science and the sorcery (2009) Rob Bygott
Further reading:
- William Arens, excerpt from The Man-Eating Myth: Anthropology and Anthropophagy, New York: Oxford University Press, 1979, 10-40.
- Don Gardner, Anthropophagy, Myth and the Subtle Ways of Ethnocentrism, in Laurence Goldman (ed), The Anthropology of Cannibalism, Westport, USA: Greenwood Publishing Group, 1999, 27-49.
Week 4. Gendered Symbols, Gendered Roles.
Friday March 23
Studying food inevitably involves studying gender relations. We will talk, first, about the symbolic associations that certain foods themselves have – foods and also drinks come to symbolise the qualities which a particular culture associates with masculinity, and the qualities a particular culture associates with femininity. These symbolic associations vary across cultures. Second, we will talk about gender and the allocation of certain roles surrounding food production, cooking, shopping and serving.
Required readings:
- Anne Allison, Japanese Mothers and Obentos: The Lunch Box as Ideological State Apparatus, In Carole Counihan and Penny van Esterik (eds), Food and Culture: A Reader, Routledge: New York and London, 1997, 296-314.
- Anna Meigs, Food Rules and the Traditional Sexual Ideology, In Food, Sex, and Pollution, New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 31-44.
Further reading:
- Jeffrey Sobal, Men, Meat, and Marriage: Models of Masculinity, Food and Foodways, 13:1-2, 135-158.
- Alex McIntosh and Mary Zey, Women as Gate Keepers of food consumption: a sociological critique, Food and Foodways, 1989, 3:4, 317-332.
Friday March 30 is Good Friday. No classes in Week 5.
Week 6. Entangled Commodities: Sugar and Coffee
Friday April 6
How did sugar come to be so ubiquitous, and why do we continue to eat it even while knowing it is bad for us? This week we will discuss the way a single commodity such as sugar or coffee might be used to reveal complex entanglements. The history of the trans-Atlantic slave trade and the use of indentured South Sea islander labour in the Queensland sugar fields; the spread of sugar into a nutritionally deficient English working diet; the use of sweetness to mark the new rhythms of industrial capitalism and the boundary between work and rest; the current status of sugar in Western diets are all intertwined in our exploration of the sweet stuff. In the second half of the lecture we will turn our attention to the rise of cafe culture and the way food preferences express and reflect social class; the nature of the relationship between rural coffee growers and urban consumers; globalisation, commodity chains and debates about economic regulation of global markets.
Required reading:
- Sidney Mintz, Time, Sugar and Sweetness, in Carole Counihan and Penny van Esterik (eds), Food and Culture: A Reader. Routledge: New York and London, 1997, 91-103.
- William Roseberry, The Rise of Yuppie Coffees and the Reimagination of Class in the United States, in J. L. Watson and M. L. Caldwell (eds) The Cultural Politics of Food and Eating, USA, UK, Australia: Blackwell Publishing, 2007, 122-143.
- Pierre Bourdieu, excerpts from The Habitus and the Space of Life-Styles, In Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgment of Taste, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1984, 183-186; 193-20.
Further reading:
- Alison James, The Good, the Bad and the Delicious: the Role of Confectionery in British Society, Sociological Review, vol. 38, 1990, 666-688.
- Paige West, Making the Market: Specialty Coffee, Generational Pitches, and Papua New Guinea. Antipode, 2010, Vol.42, no. 3, 690-718.
- James Carrier, Protecting the Environment the Natural Way: Ethical Consumption and Commodity Fetishism, Antipode, 2010, vol. 42, no. 3, 672–689.
- Film: Black Gold: Wake up and smell the coffee (2007) Marc and Nick Francis.
Week 7. High Food, Low Food; Fast Food, Slow Food. Global Industrial Agriculture
Friday April 13
This week will move forward in time from the early emergence of industrial capitalism to the rise of the industrialised global food system in the post WW2 period. We will cover the centrality of corn in the American food chain, the rise of fast food, and industrialised methods of animal slaughter. We will also talk about the labour practices associated with industrialised food production, focussing on Australia's Seasonal Workers Program. In the second half of the lecture, we shift our attention to various food movements that have emerged as a response to this system. What is the relationship between pleasure, eating and time, according to the Slow Food movement? And why does Julie Guthman, a critic of both the industrialised food system and the organic movement, describe the alternative food movement as 'unbearably white'?
Required reading:
- Timothy Pachirat, excerpts from Every Twelve Seconds: Industrialized Slaughter and the Politics of Sight. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 140-161
- Michael Pollan, The Meal, In The Omnivore’s Dilemma. England: Penguin Books, 2007,109-119.
- Julie Guthman, Can't Stomach It: How Michael Pollan et al. Made Me Want to Eat Cheetos. Gastronomica vol. 7, 2007, 75-79.
Further reading:
- Angela Stuesse, A Bone to Pick, in Scratching out a living: Latinos, Race and Work in the Deep South, Berkeley: University of Cal. Press, 2016, 120-146.
- Dylan Clark, The Raw and the Rotten: Punk Cuisine, Ethnology, vol. 43, no. 1, 2004, 19-31
- Alison Leitch, Slow Food and the Politics of 'Virtuous Globalization', In David Inglis and Debra Gimlin (eds) The Globalization of Food. Oxford: Berg, 2009, 45-64.
- Julie Guthman, Bringing good food to others: investigating the subjects of alternative food practice. Cultural Geographies, vol. 15, 2008, 431-447.
April 16-27: Mid-semester recess, no lectures or tutorials
Week 8. What's with the Lamb Ads? Land, Labour, Race and Meat-eating in Australia.
Friday May 4
Another year, another lamb ad. In 2016, Meat and Livestock Australia depicted Aboriginal people hosting a beach BBQ for successive waves of 'boat people', drawing criticism from both Indigenous figures and those who interpreted the ad's inclusive representation as a threat to white Australian identity. Why has meat been so central to constructions of Australian national identity? This week we will challenge and enrich a popular account of Australian food culture, which leaves little room for Indigenous food practices and which assumes that a monocultural Anglo diet changed only in the post WW2 period. We will think critically about the understanding of Indigenous people as 'hunters and gatherers' and about the terms of cosmopolitan multicultural food consumption.
Required reading:
- Elizabeth Povinelli, 'Today We Struggle': Contemporary Hunting, Fishing, and Collecting and the Market, In Labor’s Lot: The Power, History, and Culture of Aboriginal Action. Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1994, 168-202.
- Michael Symons, Meat Three Times A Day, in One Continuous Picnic, Melbourne: Penguin Books, 1982, 28-41.
- Bruce Pascoe, Agriculture, in Dark Emu, Broome, Magabala Books, 2014, pp. 19-52
Further reading:
- Charlotte Craw, Gustatory Redemption? Colonial Appetites, Historical Tales and the Contemporary Consumption of Australian Native Foods, International Journal of Critical Indigenous Studies, vol. 5, no, 2, 2012, 13-24.
- Catie Gressier, Going Feral: Wild Meat consumption and the uncanny in Melbourne, Australia. The Australian Journal of Anthropology, vol. 27, 2006, 49-65.
- James, Roberta, The reliable beauty of aroma: staples of food and cultural production among Italian-Australians, The Australian Journal of Anthropology, vol. 15, no. 1, 2004, 23-39.
- Mandy Thomas, Transitions in Taste in Vietnam and the Diaspora, The Australian Journal of Anthropology, vol. 15, no. 1, 2004, 54-67.
- Jean Duruz, Eating at the Borders: Culinary Journeys, In Amanda Wise and Selvaraj Velayutham (eds), Everyday Multiculturalism, Basingtstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009, 105-121.
Week 9. The Way to a Person's Identity is through their Stomach
(Guest lecture by Tomas Wilkoszewski)
Friday May 11
Based on my fieldwork among Uyghur immigrants in Turkey I will talk about the connection between food and migration. Food not only plays an important role in the migrant’s home building, the preparation of food is also a skill that might enable migrant groups to gain a livelihood in the host country. Garnished with examples from Istanbul, I will furthermore discuss the narration as well as the preparation of food as a marker for a distinct nationalism extending an everyday life activity into the realm of political discourses.
Required reading:
- Ghassan Hage, At Home in the Entrails of the West: Multiculturalism, Ethnic Food and Migrant Home-Building, In H. Grace, G. Hage, L. Johnson, J. Langsworth and M. Symonds (eds), Home/world: Space, Community and Marginality in Sydney’s West, Pluto Press: Annandale, 1997, 99-153.
- Arjun Appadurai. How to Make a National Cuisine: Cookbooks in Contemporary India. Comparative Studies in Society and History, vol. 30, no. 1, 1988, 3-24.
Week 10 Bigger bodies. Public health problem? Source of 'fat pride'? Cause of 'slow death'?
Friday May 18
Since the 1990s, the Australian media has talked of an 'obesity crisis'. The lecture will explore various lenses through which to view these bigger bodies and (through which people with bigger bodies view themselves). Curves, fat, cellulite - all are attributed different status across cultures and within cultures. Honing in on Australia, we will canvass a public health perspective; the issue of socio-economic disadvantage, urban lives and the unequal distribution of obesity-related illness across geographic spaces; the rise of a 'fat pride' movement, which challenges fat shaming and reclaims a range of body sizes as a source of beauty and pleasure; and cultural theorist Lauren Berlant's notion of 'slow death'.
Required readings:
- Megan Warin, Information is not knowledge: Cooking and eating as skilled practice in Australian obesity education, The Australian Journal of Anthropology, 2017: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/taja.12260/full
- Emily Yates-Doerr, Obesity Science and Health Translations in Guatemala, Anthropology Now, Vol. 6, No. 1 (April 2014), pp. 3-14.
Further reading:
- Catie Gressier, ‘Beleaguered Bodies: Illness and Obesity in Neoliberal Australia, in Identity and Taboo among Australian Paleo Dieters, Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 31-66.
- Murray, Samantha. The 'Normal' and the 'Pathological': 'Obesity' and the Dis-eased 'Fat' Body, in The Fat Female Body. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008, 44-68.
- Yates-Doerr, Emily. The Weight of the Self: Care and Compassion in Guatemalan Dietary Choices, Medical Anthropology Quarterly, Vol.26(1), 2012, 136-158.
- Lauren Berlant, Slow Death (Sovereignty, Obesity, Lateral Agency), Critical Inquiry, vol. 33, no. 4, 2007, 754-780.
- Megan Warin et al. Short horizons and obesity futures: Disjunctures between public health interventions and everyday temporalities, Social Science & Medicine, Vol.128, 2015, .309-315.
Week 11. Hunger
Friday May 25
According to United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation estimates, about 795 million people of the 7.3 billion people in the world, or one in nine, 'were suffering from chronic undernourishment in 2014-2016'. Global hunger is a serious issue, however it is not our exclusive focus this week. We will explore a broad range of settings and scenarios in which people go hungry. Anthropologist Megan Warin conducted ethnographic research with anorectics undergoing treatment, in order to understand the meanings they attributed to their own bodies. Fiona Wright explores her own relationship with this illness. We will also read about a series of Turkish political prisoners' hunger strikes and learn more in the lecture about the history of the hungry body as a political weapon. We are not seeking to compare these experiences of hunger but to learn more about why hunger forms part of the human experience even in societies where access to food is not considered a problem.
IMPORTANT: The essay by Fiona Wright and the excerpt from Megan Warin are potentially disturbing. Do not hesitate to reach out to your tutors if you need support. The Butterfly Foundation has a helpline - a free and confidential service which provides information, counselling and treatment referral for eating disorders, disordered eating, body image and related issues. Call 1800 ED HOPE (1800 33 4673). If you decide NOT to read either of these pieces for personal reasons then this is an entirely acceptable decision, which will not be penalised in any way.
Required reading:
- Fiona Wright, On Increments, in Small Acts of Disappearance, Artamon, NSW: Giramondo, 2015, 73-94.
- Megan Warin, a short excerpt from Abject Relations: Everyday Worlds of Anorexia. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2010,130-134.
- Banu Bargu, Prisoners in Revolt, in Starve and Immolate, Columbia University Press, 2016.
Further reading:
- Susan Bordo, Anorexia Nervosa: Pyschopathology as the Crystallization of Culture, In Unbearable Weight: Feminism, Western Culture and the Body, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993.
Week 12. Kitchens, cooking and the senses.
Friday June 1
Guest lecturer: Dr Lindy McDougall
In Week 12 we invite you to bring food and/or recipe books to your tutorial to share with your classmates. Come to class prepared to discuss the following questions: Do you have a story about the food you have brought to share? Does it evoke a particular personal memory? Does it link you more generally to a place or collective experience? How did you learn to cook it?
Required reading:
- David Sutton, The Mindful Kitchen, The Embodied Cook, Material Culture Review.
- Jennifer Lofgren, Food Blogging and Food-relate Media Convergence, M/C Journal.
Further reading:
- Josephine A. Beoku-Betts, We Got Our Way of Cooking Things: Women, Food, and the Preservation of Cultural Identity among the Gullah, Gender and Society, vol. 9, no. 5, 1995, 535- 55.
- Lynn Z. Bloom, Consuming Prose: The Delectable Rhetoric of Food Writing, College English, vol. 70, no. 4, 2008, 346-362.
Week 13: Course Overview
This week looks back over the course, drawing together key themes of disgust and desire; boundary making; interconnectedness and entanglements; food and gender, class and ethnic identities; the social relations that surround food; hunger, protest and exploitation.
This week's tutorials will assist you in the writing of your Take Home Exam.
Policies and Procedures
Macquarie University policies and procedures are accessible from Policy Central (https://staff.mq.edu.au/work/strategy-planning-and-governance/university-policies-and-procedures/policy-central). Students should be aware of the following policies in particular with regard to Learning and Teaching:
- Academic Appeals Policy
- Academic Integrity Policy
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- Assessment Policy
- Fitness to Practice Procedure
- Grade Appeal Policy
- Complaint Management Procedure for Students and Members of the Public
- Special Consideration Policy (Note: The Special Consideration Policy is effective from 4 December 2017 and replaces the Disruption to Studies Policy.)
Undergraduate students seeking more policy resources can visit the Student Policy Gateway (https://students.mq.edu.au/support/study/student-policy-gateway). It is your one-stop-shop for the key policies you need to know about throughout your undergraduate student journey.
If you would like to see all the policies relevant to Learning and Teaching visit Policy Central (https://staff.mq.edu.au/work/strategy-planning-and-governance/university-policies-and-procedures/policy-central).
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Graduate Capabilities
Creative and Innovative
Our graduates will also be capable of creative thinking and of creating knowledge. They will be imaginative and open to experience and capable of innovation at work and in the community. We want them to be engaged in applying their critical, creative thinking.
This graduate capability is supported by:
Learning outcomes
- Research the food-related practices of everyday life in a range of ethnographic contexts;
- Come together to share food and recipes in order to gain an embodied knowledge of and insight into food preparation and consumption;
- Cement critical analysis and creative thinking skills through research assignments and papers.
Assessment tasks
- Tutorial Participation
- Eating Experience Research
Capable of Professional and Personal Judgement and Initiative
We want our graduates to have emotional intelligence and sound interpersonal skills and to demonstrate discernment and common sense in their professional and personal judgement. They will exercise initiative as needed. They will be capable of risk assessment, and be able to handle ambiguity and complexity, enabling them to be adaptable in diverse and changing environments.
This graduate capability is supported by:
Learning outcomes
- Research the food-related practices of everyday life in a range of ethnographic contexts;
- Develop problem-solving skills through this unit's focus on applying and adapting anthropological knowledge to real world problems;
Assessment tasks
- Tutorial Participation
- Eating Experience Research
Commitment to Continuous Learning
Our graduates will have enquiring minds and a literate curiosity which will lead them to pursue knowledge for its own sake. They will continue to pursue learning in their careers and as they participate in the world. They will be capable of reflecting on their experiences and relationships with others and the environment, learning from them, and growing - personally, professionally and socially.
This graduate capability is supported by:
Learning outcomes
- Understand how the everyday activities of food classification, cooking and eating are packed with economic, medical, political and cultural meanings;
- Research the food-related practices of everyday life in a range of ethnographic contexts;
- Come together to share food and recipes in order to gain an embodied knowledge of and insight into food preparation and consumption;
- Develop problem-solving skills through this unit's focus on applying and adapting anthropological knowledge to real world problems;
Discipline Specific Knowledge and Skills
Our graduates will take with them the intellectual development, depth and breadth of knowledge, scholarly understanding, and specific subject content in their chosen fields to make them competent and confident in their subject or profession. They will be able to demonstrate, where relevant, professional technical competence and meet professional standards. They will be able to articulate the structure of knowledge of their discipline, be able to adapt discipline-specific knowledge to novel situations, and be able to contribute from their discipline to inter-disciplinary solutions to problems.
This graduate capability is supported by:
Learning outcomes
- Understand how the everyday activities of food classification, cooking and eating are packed with economic, medical, political and cultural meanings;
- Gain insight into the ways that food is linked up with many of the concerns of contemporary social anthropology, including globalisation, consumption practices and class, identity and migration, and practices of everyday life;
- Consider the impact of globalisation and industrialisation on food systems, communities and animals; critically engage with resistance and responses to these corporate multinational food chains;
- Research the food-related practices of everyday life in a range of ethnographic contexts;
- Come together to share food and recipes in order to gain an embodied knowledge of and insight into food preparation and consumption;
Assessment tasks
- Eating Experience Research
- Take Home Exam
Critical, Analytical and Integrative Thinking
We want our graduates to be capable of reasoning, questioning and analysing, and to integrate and synthesise learning and knowledge from a range of sources and environments; to be able to critique constraints, assumptions and limitations; to be able to think independently and systemically in relation to scholarly activity, in the workplace, and in the world. We want them to have a level of scientific and information technology literacy.
This graduate capability is supported by:
Learning outcomes
- Understand how the everyday activities of food classification, cooking and eating are packed with economic, medical, political and cultural meanings;
- Gain insight into the ways that food is linked up with many of the concerns of contemporary social anthropology, including globalisation, consumption practices and class, identity and migration, and practices of everyday life;
- Research the food-related practices of everyday life in a range of ethnographic contexts;
- Develop problem-solving skills through this unit's focus on applying and adapting anthropological knowledge to real world problems;
Assessment tasks
- Critical Summary
- Eating Experience Research
- Take Home Exam
Problem Solving and Research Capability
Our graduates should be capable of researching; of analysing, and interpreting and assessing data and information in various forms; of drawing connections across fields of knowledge; and they should be able to relate their knowledge to complex situations at work or in the world, in order to diagnose and solve problems. We want them to have the confidence to take the initiative in doing so, within an awareness of their own limitations.
This graduate capability is supported by:
Learning outcome
- Develop problem-solving skills through this unit's focus on applying and adapting anthropological knowledge to real world problems;
Assessment tasks
- Eating Experience Research
- Take Home Exam
Effective Communication
We want to develop in our students the ability to communicate and convey their views in forms effective with different audiences. We want our graduates to take with them the capability to read, listen, question, gather and evaluate information resources in a variety of formats, assess, write clearly, speak effectively, and to use visual communication and communication technologies as appropriate.
This graduate capability is supported by:
Learning outcomes
- Enhance their communication and interpersonal skills through oral discussion and written work that focuses on articulating knowledge and information in a clear and concise fashion;
- Cement critical analysis and creative thinking skills through research assignments and papers.
Assessment tasks
- Tutorial Participation
- Critical Summary
- Eating Experience Research
- Take Home Exam
Engaged and Ethical Local and Global citizens
As local citizens our graduates will be aware of indigenous perspectives and of the nation's historical context. They will be engaged with the challenges of contemporary society and with knowledge and ideas. We want our graduates to have respect for diversity, to be open-minded, sensitive to others and inclusive, and to be open to other cultures and perspectives: they should have a level of cultural literacy. Our graduates should be aware of disadvantage and social justice, and be willing to participate to help create a wiser and better society.
This graduate capability is supported by:
Learning outcomes
- Gain insight into the ways that food is linked up with many of the concerns of contemporary social anthropology, including globalisation, consumption practices and class, identity and migration, and practices of everyday life;
- Consider the impact of globalisation and industrialisation on food systems, communities and animals; critically engage with resistance and responses to these corporate multinational food chains;
Assessment task
- Take Home Exam
Socially and Environmentally Active and Responsible
We want our graduates to be aware of and have respect for self and others; to be able to work with others as a leader and a team player; to have a sense of connectedness with others and country; and to have a sense of mutual obligation. Our graduates should be informed and active participants in moving society towards sustainability.
This graduate capability is supported by:
Learning outcomes
- Gain insight into the ways that food is linked up with many of the concerns of contemporary social anthropology, including globalisation, consumption practices and class, identity and migration, and practices of everyday life;
- Consider the impact of globalisation and industrialisation on food systems, communities and animals; critically engage with resistance and responses to these corporate multinational food chains;
Changes since First Published
| Date | Description |
|---|---|
| 29/01/2018 | Please read the assessment information carefully. |