SAINT MARY’S COLLEGE OF CALIFORNIA
COMM 161
COMMUNICATION & SOCIAL JUSTICE: FOOD JUSTICE
Spring 2013 SYLLABUS
TuTh
9:40AM - 11:10AM
Sichel 101
Dr. Aaron Sachs
Assistant Professor, Communication
Office Location: Sichel Hall 105G
Office Telephone: x8197
Emergency Contact: (510) 239-7473
Email:
Office Hours: Wed 9am-12pm
ENGAGED LEARNING FACILITATOR (ELF)
Nicolette Pierantoni, , 925-631-8161 (Office) 916-276-3329(cell)
Fishbowl office hours (lower Ferroggiaro) Tues 3-4:30pm and Thurs 11:30am-1:30pm
COURSE DESCRIPTION
There is no doubt that we need food to survive, yet in a world of increasing urbanization, most of us remain alienated from the food we consume. Where does our food come from? How is it produced? What is it made of? Why do we lack such fundamental information about the food we need to survive? In this course, we will answer these questions and more as we examine the intersection of communication, social justice, and food. We will begin with an overview of the history of food activism using West Oakland as a focal point. From there we will look at food justice discourses in relation to food production, distribution, access, and consumption practice, paying attention to both the injustice in the food system as well as efforts to bring more justice to it through each of these practices. As we look at the food system, we will be paying particular attention to the way that different sections of the food movement articulate and communicate about food and food justice. In doing so, we will consider food as communication as well as communication about food, and the challenges around and strategies for creating messages about food justice. Connected to this section of the course is an ongoing service-learning project in partnership with People’s Grocery in West Oakland. Students will be assigned one of four groups that will help People’s Grocery to communicate about one of its food justice programs. People’s Grocery and West Oakland will also serve as case studies for how one organization and community communicate about food justice issues. This service-learning project will require 20 hours of service outside of normal class time, including work on site in West Oakland.
COURSE TEXTS
1. Pollan: The Omnivores Dilemma (OD)
2. Gottlieb and Joshi: Food Justice (FJ)
3. Alkon and Agyeman: Cultivating Food Justice (CFJ)
4. Guthman: Weighing In (WI)
5. Additional readings available online via Moodle (GL)
LEARNING OUTCOMES
▪ Be able to analyze how food, as a communicative practice, can be employed to work toward social justice. (Common Good Learning Outcome)
▪ Recognize, through reflection, (a) how our food choices, as communicative practices, intersect with larger social, cultural, economic, and/or political systems, as well as (b) the responsibilities we have for creating social justice through these practices. (Common Good Learning Outcome)
▪ Understand the history of food through the lens of social justice.
▪ Become familiar with current food justice principles and practices, including the work of local organizations like People’s Grocery in West Oakland.
▪ Be able to distinguish the role of production, distribution, access, and consumption practices in food justice and evaluate the importance of communication in particular in creating food justice through these practices.
▪ Become more familiar with how we can incorporate food justice into our daily food practices.
▪ Effectively analyze discourses about food and food justice issues and create messages to appropriately communicate food justice values.
PRIMARY ASSESMENT
All assignments must be completed and turned in to pass this course. No late work will be accepted for submittal, save for documented medical emergencies or unless PRIOR approval from instructor is granted.
Quality of Participation 25%
Service Learning Project 25%
-Work Plan 5%
-Mid-Term Progress Report 5%
-Final Report 5%
-Community Presentations 10%
Community Engagement Journal 20%
Discourse Analyses 10%
Final Research Project 20%
Participation
Your attendance at all class meetings and arrival on time is required for full participation in this class. If you need to miss a class because of an unavoidable emergency or officially sanctioned school event, you must provide appropriate documentation. Keep in mind that you are still fully responsible for all of the material, assignments, and information given out during that class meeting (contact others in class to get this information, look on Moodle, and if you still need help, ask me). Your full preparation for each class meeting, including reading and studying the texts assigned, taking careful notes on them, and bringing both the materials and those notes to class with you, is key to full participation in the course. I expect your active participation in class discussions. Since the class depends on conversation and interaction, I assume each student will take part in our discussions. I understand that some people like to talk in public more than others, and I will try not to make anyone uncomfortable by calling on them. However I do expect each of you to be an ongoing participant in the class. All kinds of questions are encouraged, from the most complex or subtle speculations, to basic requests for clarification, translation, etc. about a text. Even if you’re worried your question may be stupid, ask it; it’s worth risking looking stupid. For those people that talk less in class, I suggest taking full advantage of the Moodle discussion boards to gain some credit for participation.
Service Learning
Students will work 20 hours outside of course time at People’s Grocery, our community partner, doing meaningful work connected to the theme of communication and food justice. In the first two weeks, students will be oriented on the four projects available to them and be assigned one according to preference, skills, and need. Each group will meet with their project leader(s) early to get started on the project and come up with a work plan. Once the work plan is approved, students will be responsible for documenting their work on the project in accordance with their plan. Students will use the “Community Engagement Transportation & Hours Log” provided during your community engagement orientation to document your service. Students will also turn in a mid-term and final progress report evaluating their work on the project in relation to their initial work plan. Forms will be provided for each to help structure this evaluation.
Students will participate in one group workday at a People’s Grocery community garden. This will count toward three of our 20 hours. This workday will be on Friday 2/22 from 2 to 6pm at the People’s Grocery office (909 7th Street,Oakland, CA 94607), and will include a mural tour, garden work, documentary video production, and a fourth hour for project meetings. If you cannot make this workday, you can attend an alternate day on Saturday 3/2 from 1 to 4pm at the California Hotel in West Oakland.
At the end of the term, students will present reports of their project work at two events, one to our service learning partner community at People’s Grocery (during our scheduled finals time, Thursday May 23rd from 9-11am) and the other to the SMC community (during community time from 12:40-2:10pm on a day TBD).
This course has an Engaged Learning Facilitator (ELF), Nicolette Pierantoni, who will be the primary point of contact between students and the community partner. Contact information for Nicolette is above. All students are required to meet with Nicolette at least twice during the semester to check in about their service learning projects. The first time should be within the first month of class. More generally, Nicolette is an excellent resource for students who would like help with service learning or who are interested in exploring additional aspects of service learning.
Students must also attend one CILSA Community Engagement/CE Orientation for Students in Spring 2013 Courses. Students will attend this session prior to starting their course-based community engagement experiences and in order to receive funds for transportation, background checks, etc. This orientation will be offered 3 times in Spring, 2013. Check your availability & attend one session!
Wed., Feb. 13, 5-6pm, Claeys Lounge, Soda Center, OR
Mon., Feb. 18, 5-6pm, Claeys Lounge, Soda Center, OR
Wed., Feb. 20, 1-2pm, Claeys Lounge, Soda
Topics will include:
*Why CE @ SMC?
*How to get the most out of your CE Experience
*CE and your safety
*Where’s the money? How to get your stuff paid for
*How CILSA and your instructor can help
Community Engagement Journal
You will be responsible for an ongoing reflection journal. The CEJ will be a venue for you to reflect on food justice, community, course readings and discussions, and your experience with the service-learning component of the course. There will be 7-10 regular entries over the course of the semester, each connected to a prompt or question posted on Moodle and due within one week of posting. Unless otherwise noted, journal reflections are between individual students and the professor and are not meant for public consumptions. On some occasions, and when notice is given ahead of time, journal entries may be shared with the ELF or community partner. Journals will be graded based on the ABC rubric, where A is affect, B is behavior, and C is cognition/concepts (see Moodle for a more detailed explanation of ABC rubric).
Discourse Analyses
Over the course of the semester, students will write two 2-3 page papers (1) identifying a particular issue within the food movement and (2) analyzing the way this issue is discussed by one to three sources. The goal is to analyze the discourse of (i.e. the way we talk about) this issue and get at the role of communication in framing how this issue is understood. For example, Guthman’s primary goal in Weighing In, one of our course texts, is to analyze the discourse of obesity to understand how our communications about obesity shape the actions we take in response to it. Along those lines, a student might look at the way a particular food bank presents the issue of food access to see what messages about food, food access, need, and even more generally, or beliefs about food as a right, are communicated in the way they talk about what they do. At least one of these discourse analysis papers must be turned in by midterm.
Final Research Project
Students will complete a substantive research project by the end of the class consisting of a 5 to 6 page essay on a topic connected to food justice and communication. As a research paper, I expect you to do substantial research outside of the sources provided to you during class. That said, I would like you to include at least one reading from within the class to help you make a connection to how we are talking about food justice in this class. All projects should begin with a research question that will be given to the professor during the 4th week of classes. I would also strongly recommend writing a rough draft and getting help from me with it sometime between midterm and the 12th week of class. I am available by appointment to read rough drafts and offer comments. The final project will be due at our community presentation during finals week. In their final form, essays should be argument driven—meaning they should contain a clear thesis statements—well research, and informative. Alternative format projects will be considered and are subject to instructor approval.
GENERAL DEPARTMENTAL GRADING GUIDELINES
Excerpted from the 2001-2002 Communication Department Handbook
The major in communication requires substantial commitment. Therefore, working hard in your communication classes must be a standard practice. Although the workload for some courses is heavier than others, you are expected to do significant out-of-class preparation for each meeting of every course. You are expected to budget your time so that you can adequately prepare for each class. When you have an assignment such as a paper or exam that requires a heavier than usual time commitment, you should plan ahead so that this does not adversely impact your performance in other classes.
Our intent in the grading process is to provide students with a fair evaluation of their academic progress. We understand the dangers of inflated grades – grades that are poor measures of academic accomplishment.
The final outcome of your effort in each class is a letter grade indicating mastery of material. Precise criteria for achievement are designated by each instructor and can be found in each course syllabus. In addition, the department has general guidelines listed below to assist you in understanding what is required to obtain specific letter grades.
Before describing the guidelines for specific letter grades, let us consider minimum requirements for your work in any communication class. To achieve C or better in any course, students must fulfill the following criteria, and maintain a balance in all of these areas rather than excellence in one or two:
1. Students must have a command of substantive material.
2. Students must have the ability to diagnose strengths and weaknesses in written and oral communication.
3. Students must creatively engage in an exploration of relevant ideas and concepts.
4. Students must actively participate to enrich the experience of both students and faculty in the classroom.
Course letter grades are as follows:
“C” is an average grade indicating that you have an adequate command of the substantive material of the course and that you have engaged in the exploration of the ideas and concepts. This is generally demonstrated through class participation and through satisfactory completion of class assignments and examinations.
“B” is a good grade, indicating your involvement with the course and its material has been more than just adequate. “B” work is very good – significantly above average.
“A” work is more than simple mastery of course material. It represents a very active and sophisticated engagement with every aspect of the course, demonstrated through sophisticated analysis or creative treatment of the ideas and data covered in the course.
“D” work is less than adequate. For instance, a “D” may indicate that you failed in one or more areas of the course or that you have slipped below a satisfactory level of work in all areas.