OWU Food Minor Approved for Fall of 2016

Ohio Wesleyan Faculty approved a minor in Food Studies beginning the fall of 2016. The minor is being facilitated by the Health and Human Kinetics Department and Environmental Studies Program. We are calling the new minor a Mentored Minor as the program has a significant amount of engaged work (at least two semesters of internships or independent study)

Details about the Food minor are in the 2016-2017 OWU Catalog, and are listed below. Please contact Dr. Christopher Fink, Dr. Laurie Anderson, or Dr. John Krygier for more information.

Food Studies Mentored Minor

The Food Studies mentored minor is overseen collaboratively by the OWU Department of Health & Human Kinetics and the Environmental Studies Program, and views food from a multidisciplinary perspective. We recognize the importance of food as biological fuel, as a natural resource with problems of abundance and scarcity, as a focus of celebration, as a human obsession, as a cultural expression, as a multi-billion dollar industry, and as an interaction with the global environment through agriculture and waste disposal. By studying food across a range of disciplines, students in this minor will improve their ability to investigate, debate, and solve some of the most important problems affecting the human condition in the 21st century, including food scarcity, malnutrition, obesity, preserving cultural heritage in a global society, and feeding people in a world of 7 billion and more.

Requirements

To complete the mentored minor, a student must:

• Identify an owu faculty member associated with the Food Studies minor to serve as their mentor
• Create A proposal, in collaboration with their mentor, to the food studies faculty contacts, outlining courses and projects that fit with their specific interests in food.
• Complete 5.5 units of coursework, consisting of:
  • 3 units of courses selected from the list below, 1 unit from each of 3 different departments.
  • The 0.5 unit interdisciplinary Food Seminar (after completion of at least 1 full unit food course)
  • 2 project-based units (Independent Study, Directed Readings, Internship).

Courses

The following are the courses that can be used for the 3 non-seminar and non-project courses required in the minor. As a reminder, students must take the 0.5 unit Interdisciplinary Food Seminar (INT 300.6 – Interdisciplinary Food Seminar), and select three other courses, representing three different departments. They must complete at least 1 full unit of coursework from this list before enrolling in the Food Seminar. The Food Seminar will be offered in alternating years.

• BIOL 122 – Organisms and their Environment (Anderson, Downing, Hankison, Johnson, Kelly, Reichard)
• BOMI 103 – Biology of Cultivated Plants (Murray)
• BOMI 106 – Enology (summer only) (Goldstein)
• BOMI 107 – Food (summer only) (Wolverton)
• BOMI 233 – Ecology and the Human Future (Anderson)
• CMLT 110 – Myth, Legend, and Folklore of the European Continent (Merkel)
• ENG 145 – Reading: The Global Kitchen (Comorau)
• GEOG 499 – Sustainability Practicum (Krygier)
• HHK 114 – Personal Health (Fink, Busch)
• HHK 270 – Sport and Exercise Nutrition (Fink, Staff)
• HHK 347 – Special Topics in HHK: A Qualitative Inquiry (Fink)
• HHK 300.8 (0.5 unit) – Health Program Planning (Fink) and HHK 300.9 (0.5 unit) – Health Education Instructional Methods (Fink)
• PHIL 250 – Environmental Ethics (Stone-Mediatore)
• PSYC 262 – Health Psychology (DiLillo)
• SOAN 111 – Cultural Anthropology (Howard, Peoples)
• SOAN 347 – Health, Illness, Disability and Dying (Howard)
• SOAN 367 – Human Ecology (Peoples)
• ZOOL 101 – Human Biology (Kelly)
• ZOOL 325 – Human Physiology (Kelly)
• ZOOL 335 – Ecological and Evolutionary Physiology (Kelly)

Mentors

A current list of mentors can be obtained from the faculty contacts for this minor, Dr. Laurie Anderson (Botany/Microbiology), and Dr. Christopher Fink (Health & Human Kinetics). Faculty mentors will oversee the development of proposals from students, and may also serve as the faculty supervisors of independent studies, directed readings, or apprenticeships.

Food Studies Mentored Minor Faculty Contacts

Dr. Christopher fink (Health & Human kinetics) and Dr. Laurie Anderson (Botany/Microbiology)