Course Descriptions and Faculty Bios

This required course for all first term MA Food Studies students introduces you to interdisciplinary research and scholarship. In addition to orientation, the class meets for several sessions throughout the semester.

This course provides a road map for the process of opening and operating food business both retail/restaurant and food product. It includes creating an idea to meet market needs; developing, locating and structuring the business; implementing a relationship based marketing program; understanding the daily tasks required to operate; and, creating financial projections, and a business plan.

Steve Zagor has over 25 years of experience in various aspects of the food industry and has extensive entrepreneurial experience in the planning, development and management of a wide variety of food related businesses. Steve’s background is diversified including owner of a multi-concept restaurant/retail/club group and, practice leader of food business consulting for a major national consulting group. He has a Masters from Cornell School of Hotel and appears frequently as an industry expert in the media and on TV. Steve is also Dean of Culinary Business and Industry Programs at ICE.

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We examine food from historical and transnational perspectives, including agricultural origins, famines, co-evolution of world cuisines and civilizations, global exchange and spread of food and technologies following the Columbian invasion, issues of hunger, and the effects of the emergent global economy on food, production, diets, foodways and health. Students gain a greater understanding of how food production and consumption influences a myriad of factors, including politics, economics, prevailing notions of health, climate, geography, technology, and culture.

We are told to make change in the food system by “voting with your fork.” However, consumer behavior is more complex than the simple phrase suggests. The course starts by developing theoretical tools of consumer behavior, including how consumer preferences, prices and income inform individual choice. The second part of the class focuses on applications of consumer behavior. Past topics included measuring long term impacts of racial discrimination, the gender pay gap, and the SNAP cycle and food choice. The applications vary by semester. No previous economics coursework is required.

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.

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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.

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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.

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.

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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.

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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.

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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. 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.

Only enroll in this section if you took Amy Bentley's Research Applications course fall 2022.

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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.

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Food is one of the most fundamental and heavily cultural aspects of human life. Regional cuisines are shaped by local geography, climate, political history, economics, religion, and personal tastes. Throughout this course we will explore various ethnic, national, and regional cuisines through lectures, demonstrations, field trips, and hands-on culinary experiences.

This course focuses on how drinking of beverages has shaped human history and expressed cultural values. The course takes an interdisciplinary approach to examine the relationship between beverages and power from the earliest evidence of intoxicants to the various ways that political, social, and religious institutions have controlled who gets to drink what and when. Students will explore the geographical and political factors that led to the creation of various beverages.

A former Latin teacher, Diana Pittet traded in the classical world for classic cocktails after she earned a master’s degree from NYU in Food Studies. She is now back at NYU teaching a graduate seminar on the history, culture, and politics of drinking. Also in New York City, Diana leads walking tours about Prohibition and the birth of the cocktail. Raised in Atlantic Highlands and now living in Asbury Park, Diana is an avid traveler and has visited over 50 different countries.

Examination of theoretical literature commonly employed and debated within the humanities and social sciences. Through the work of established social theorists and scholars, students explore on-going debates in traditional academic disciplines and understand their usefulness to recent scholarship in developing food studies.

This course explores inequality in the U.S. food system, tracing, from field to plate, the rise and expansion of industrial agriculture, food processing and marketing, and food service to understand how capitalist political economy has shaped the production and consumption of food. Attending to intersecting matrices of inequality—including class, settler colonialism, imperialism, racism, gender, and sexuality—our reading invites students to reflect on the relationship between food and power in order to imagine possible futures for the food system. Upon completion of the course, students will be empowered to engage critically with diverse issues in the contemporary food movement, and to evaluate entrepreneurial, consumer, policy, and activist initiatives that arc toward food justice.

Mark Chatarpal is a researcher from Guyana, South America. He graduated from the University of Toronto with a specialization in Caribbean studies and was the recipient of the Frederick Ivor Case Book Prize. He is a PhD candidate (A.B.D) in food studies at Indiana University, Bloomington and holds a B.A (Hons) Specializing in Caribbean Studies and M.A in Anthropology majoring in Food Studies.

This course will explore the rapidly expanding field of food waste management. Students will examine how waste is generated across food supply chains, from farms to home kitchens. They will gain an understanding of the practices and policies that aim to prevent, recover, and recycle food waste, and have an opportunity to apply these practices as they develop a food waste management plan for a NYC business or institution.

Elizabeth Balkan brings over a decade of strategy and public policy experience. Balkan served as Director of Food Waste at the Natural Resources Defense Council, growing the Food Matters cities initiative to include over 40 cities nationwide. Previously, Elizabeth worked in New York City government, both at the Department of Sanitation and in the Mayor's Office; and, as a consultant, with international NGOs and private sector stakeholders. She holds a master’s degree from Columbia University and a bachelor’s from Georgetown University.

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.’