Course Descriptions and Faculty Bios

This required Food Studies course taken in the first term introduces students to multidisciplinary research approaches. It is also an introduction to academic and professional resources at NYU and throughout New York City. Students learn to develop research questions, create research design and critique existing scholarship.

The course in "Food Policy" provides students with an overview of the policy making process, particularly as it concerns food and nutrition policy in the United States. Intended for master's-level students in nutrition, food studies, and related fields, the course will consider the role and organization of government in the realm of food and nutrition policy and cover all stages of the policy cycle, including agenda setting, policy formulation, implementation, and evaluation. Topics to be covered include the role of government in regard to agriculture, global food trade, food safety, retail and restaurants, and nutritional support.

Covers production, distribution & consumption of food in the context of social, cultural, technological & biological processes under conditions of globalization. Employing approaches from the humanities & the social sciences, this course prepares students to initiate the process of analyzing the current American food system, its global connections, & proposed local alternatives that is developed further in other courses. Through lectures, readings & research the students master established facts & concepts about contemporary urban food cultures & produce new knowledge of the same.

This course will offer an in-depth look at Israeli and Palestine cuisines. We will look at growing, retail, cooking and eating practices through a range of conceptual categories such as nationalism and gender. We will compare and contrast these two emerging cuisines in their specific cultural and political context as well as through a broader, global prism. We will pay particular attention to performances of national identity through food and cooking, and to the semiotic uses of food products and practices in artists’ work. We will rely on both academic research and cookbooks, as well as on hands-on work in the kitchen.

Yael Raviv is the Director of Umami Food & Art Festival and Umami Projects. She is the author of Falafel Nation: cuisine and the making of national identity in Israel (University of Nebraska Press, 2015). Yael received her PhD from New York University’s Performance Studies Department. Her research and writing focus on food and nationhood and on food and art.

At a time of political upheaval, movements for racial and economic justice, and intense social change, why should you bother to write about food? And if you do, how can you do it well enough to get your voice heard? This course will combine practical lessons in writing for a popular audience with a bird’s eye view of the tradition of food writing; a writerly engagement with craft; and a contemporary understanding of food’s place in our culture and politics.

Rachel Wharton is a James Beard Award-winning food writer. Wharton is the author of Edible Brooklyn: The Cookbook and co-author of Korean Home Cooking and F*ck, That’s Delicious with Action Bronson. Read Rachel's full bio here.

Digital Skills in Food Media is a hands-on communications course for graduate Food Studies students. Over the course of the semester, students will learn how to use social media, write for the web, analyze photography and video, and build and develop a website for an idea -- whether it be business, personal, or professional.

Sara Snyder is a wildly creative and award-winning multimedia director, producer, shooter and editor taking on life’s grand adventures. Whether Sara is challenging her yoga-approved balance filming on the rocking beams of an oyster farm or getting attacked by fire ants as she navigates the jungles of Zanzibar, she’s always willing to push the limits of her comfort zone to get the story. Her work has been featured by Bon Appetit, Vanity Fair, Teen Vogue, Glamour, USA TODAY, National Geographic, Eurosport and more.

Basic principles & practical experience in development of beverage systems & menus. Considers pricing, equipment, legal, merchandising & personnel policies.

Dan Amatuzzi is the General Manager at Eataly in Manhattan. His tenure at famed New York restaurants Del Posto, Jean Georges, Babbo, and Otto have shaped the foundation of his food and wine experiences. He is the wine half of the formidable duo called Grove and Vine, a premium education service offering upscale olive oil and wine seminars. Dan's most popular publication, A First Course in Wine, is a comprehensive guide to understanding and enjoying wine (Race Point Publishing, 2013). In 2011, Zagat named Dan as one of New York’s rising "30 under 30" culinary stars, and in January 2013, Forbes named Dan as one of the nations "30 under 30" to watch in the food and wine industry. He has been featured in Food and Wine Magazine, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg Radio, Cosmo Radio, WGN Chicago, NBC's Today Show, Fox's Good Day New York, and MSNBC's The Cycle, among others. His most recent publication, How to Host a Wine Tasting Party: The Complete Kit (Race Point Publishing, 2014), is a comprehensive kit for the enthusiastic wine tasting host. He holds a MBA degree from the Leonard N. Stern School of Business at NYU and is an honorary member of the International Order of Disciples of Escoffier. He brings his expertise to the Beverages course at NYU.

In the Urban Agriculture course students will learn how to grow food within an urban environment through hands-on learning of agricultural techniques at the NYU Urban Farm Lab. In exploring the past and present forms of urban agriculture through class readings and city-based field trips to urban farms, students will also learn the implementation and significance of urban agriculture within today’s urban food system. Additionally, we will discuss greater themes found within urban agriculture such as entrepreneurship, food justice, individual and group sustenance, cultural enactments of identity, community building, and education.

Melissa Metrick also manages the NYU Urban Farm Lab, where she works with staff, students, and volunteers in crop planning, harvesting, and implementing sustainable urban agriculture practices. Additionally, she is the garden manager at the farm to table restaurant Roberta's located in Brooklyn. As garden manager, she designs and creates the on-site kitchen garden, which is also used to educate the chefs and guests in how to grow food sustainably within a city environment. Melissa has been focusing on and working in the urban agriculture field for the past 12 years. Melissa started her career volunteering for Americorps, where she taught children in South Berkeley how to grow and cook healthy food from their school garden. She has a Master's degree in Food Studies from NYU and a Horticultural Certificate from Brooklyn Botanic Gardens.

Covers the US food system from the farm to the intermediary to the consumer, in the context of the market & the policy environment. Using methods of the social sciences, the course provides students with a broad understanding of the benefits & costs of the domestic food system. Topics include issues such as intermediary market power, unequal food access, & food production technology. Through lectures, readings, discussion & on the ground research, students gain a deep understanding of the current state of the food system.

Food advocacy uses sociological methods to question how & why social groups—families, institutions, governments--affect & are affected by systems of food production & consumption, how these systems affect the environment & human health, & how individuals & groups can influence & improve food systems. Today, interest in such issues is so widespread that efforts to improve food systems are considered by some to constitute a social movement. Food advocacy seeks to describe this movement, & to explore how individuals & groups can effect change in the food system.

Theoretical & applied aspects of research design, data analysis, & interpretation. Students teams conduct, analyze, & present an evaluative or applied research project in food studies. Should be taken in the last year of study in the master’s program. Projects may be peer-review research papers, white papers, curriculum development, business plans, book proposals, longform journalism, media projects or proposed creative projects.

Year long Research Applications students enroll in Amy Bentley's course, Single Semester Research Applications students enroll in Krishnendu Ray's course.

We continue to offer the option of a two-semester research applications class for the 2022-23 academic year. The longer period of work will allow you to develop your final capstone project in a more deliberate way under the guidance of Professor Amy Bentley. We will meet during the fall and spring semesters at regular intervals, both in class and for longer workshops, while using online tools as well. The faculty will support you in molding your interests into a research question, designing the project plan, executing the work, and developing a final presentation. The longer format will also give you time to learn new research methods that are specific to your project.

The two semester research applications sequence is for you if:

1. You want to have time to think about your final project.

2. You want to challenge yourself.

3. Your research involves conducting interviews or surveys; this format gives you time to seek IRB clearance, so you can publish your work.

4. You are willing to push yourself.

5. You are able to commit at least 10 hours a week, on average, to your project over the course of the academic year.

6. You plan to graduate in spring 2023 or January 2023 (that is, you have 2-3 semesters left).

7. You want to work with a great cohort of students!

Year long Research Applications students enroll in Amy Bentley's course, Single Semester Research Applications students enroll in Krishnendu Ray's course.

This class will examine the broad range of issues that currently shape our food system and explore ways to mobilize legal and policy tools in order to strategically (and creatively) respond to the issue identified in that week’s readings. Topics will include the legal and policy underpinnings of the United States’ and global food systems, the economic and social conditions giving rise to the inequities of access to adequate healthy food, and the dual public health and environmental crises that have ensued as a result. The goal of this class is for students to gain an understanding the legal and policy pathways that brought us to this day and to learn to creatively and collaboratively develop effective approaches to address the many complex issues that characterize—and threaten—our food system. Coursework will include assigned readings and audio visual resources, legal and non-legal research and writing, and in-class exercises from which students will gain proficiency in the practical skills required to become effective food systems advocates. Student evaluation will be based on class participation, a short mid-term writing assignment and a final written submission. There will be no exams in this class.

Esther Trakinski, J.D., M.A., practiced law for 25 years in large NYC law firms, served as the first Farm to School Food coordinator for the New York City Department of Education, participates as a coalition member supporting advocacy campaigns promoting legislative change, provides advisory services to advocacy campaigns, non-profits, and food start-ups, and serves on the Board of Directors of various non-profit organizations, including Heritage Radio Network and Columbia County Recovery Kitchen. Trakinski has a BA from Amherst College and a Master’s in Food Studies from NYU. Her mission in continuing with the Food Studies program as adjunct professor is to teach and inspire young people to reshape our food systems.

An interactive course that surveys the history, concepts and techniques behind photographing food in its best light. Lively class discussions, research projects, homework assignments, and in-kitchen demos, round out a two-day crash course in all things food photography, from plate to lens.

In Food and Culture we determine how people use food to define themselves as individuals, groups or whole societies. We identify the meaning and significance of food in different cultures by exploring the way that ethnicity, gender, socioeconomic status and religion influence our food choices or preferences. Additionally, we will examine how culture is transmitted and preserved through food. Through reading scholarly articles, personal essays, book excerpts, newspaper articles and cookbooks we explore the intricate relationship that people have with food.

We will look critically at the following questions: how can food have different meanings and uses for different people? How does food function both to foster community feeling and drive wedges among people? What are some prevailing academic theories that help us identify and understand more subtle meanings of food?

Chad Ludington received his undergraduate history degree from Yale University and his master’s and doctoral degrees from Columbia University. He has published essays on the Huguenot diaspora in Ireland, British and Irish political thought in the late-Stuart era, and the history of wine consumption in Britain from the mid-seventeenth century to the mid-nineteenth century. His first book, The Politics of Wine in Britain: A New Cultural History (2013, paperback 2016), used wine consumption as a window onto English, Scottish, and British political culture from Cromwell to Queen Victoria. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Historical Society in London in 2014. Since earning his doctorate in 2003, Ludington has taught Early Modern and Modern British history, European history, European intellectual history, and food history at Duke University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and North Carolina State University. He has won three teaching awards, including lecturer of the year in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at North Carolina State University, where he was made a Teaching Associate Professor of History in 2013. From 2015-17, Ludington has been a Marie Curie Senior Research Fellow at University College Cork and Universite de Bordeaux-Michel Montaigne. He is investigating the role of Irish merchants in the development of Bordeaux wine into a luxury product during the period 1700-1855.

Principles and practice of identification, comparison, and evaluation of selected foods, ingredients, techniques, and equipment for recipe formulation, menu planning, or preparation with an emphasis on modifications to meet specific nutritional or other requirements.

Wai Chu is a graduate of The Art Institute of New York and has worked in the kitchens of March, Clementine and The Russian Tea Room. He also launched El Eden Chocolates, a prominent Manhattan chocolate shop whose handmade truffles garnered rave reviews from The New York Times, Food & Wine, New York Magazine, TimeOut New York, and others. Chu also dabbles on the savory side of the culinary world. He co-authored “The Dumpling: A Seasonal Guide,” a collection of traditional dumpling recipes from around the world. Now, he works as a cooking instructor at the Institute of Culinary Education, the Natural Gourmet Institute, and the Bowery Culinary Center at Whole Foods Market. In the Department, he teaches a variety of courses, from Techniques of Regional Cuisine to Advanced Foods.

In Field trips in Food: Immigrant New York we will investigate the link between New York City immigrant history and the fabric of today’s ethnic communities. Each week, in addition to historical and contemporary readings, we will literally “walk” the community. Exploring restaurants, community centers, food markets, outdoor stalls, historic and cultural sites, we will learn the significance that these specific ethnic groups had on shaping New York City. Our goal is to understand these communities not as outsiders looking in, but rather through their eyes and through their perspective. You will learn GIS mapping tools.

Sustainability of our food systems - and the communities in which they operate - will be a core focus of this field trip-based course. Using Eastern Long Island as a local case study, we will explore the rationale for, and issues and innovations in, sustainable development, as illuminated by the agriculture, aquaculture, wine industry, and restaurants of Long Island's North and South Forks. The course will include visits to farms, wineries, scallop and oyster fisheries, food businesses, farmers markets, and restaurants, as well as lectures by pioneering land preservationists, community developers, farmers, winemakers, beekeepers, and others.

Course dates TBA.

Meryl Rosofsky writes and teaches about food, with special expertise in the culture and food systems of New Orleans, the East End of Long Island, and Tuscany. Her writing has appeared in such publications as Saveur, Gastronomica, The Organic Wine Journal, Edible East End, and NYFoodStory, as well as numerous encyclopedias devoted to food, culture, and sustainability. Meryl earned a Masters in Food Studies from NYU and an MD from Harvard Medical School. She serves on the boards or advisory councils of the Food Book Fair, the Farm to Table International Symposium in New Orleans, and the New York Women’s Culinary Alliance, and is a past board member of the New York chapter of Les Dames d’Escoffier.

This course explores organic agriculture from multiple angles, starting with a historical exploration of organic & finishing with policy approaches to organic. Specific aspects studied include the environmental benefits of organic production systems, the political economy of the US organic regulation, health benefits of organic, & organic consumption and marketing.

An accelerated survey of basic principles of nutrition applied to food studies: nutrient functions, nutritional requirements, food composition, menu planning & assessment, food safety, dietary patterns, diet & health issues, dietary recommendations, food products for nutritional purposes. For students with no previous training in nutrition or health.

Kayleen St. John is a registered dietitian with a Masters Degree in Clinical Nutrition from New York University. She works as the COO at Euphebe, a health care company that provides clients with whole food, plant-based meals in addition to hands on coaching and support. Prior to joining Euphebe, she developed and instructed the Culinary Nutrition Certificate Program at Natural Gourmet Institute and collaborated with Vegetarian Times magazine to develop and instruct the ‘Foundations of Plant-Based Nutrition.’