HR925-7-SP-CO:
A Global History of Food, c.1400 - c.1750
PLEASE NOTE: This module is inactive. Visit the Module Directory to view modules and variants offered during the current academic year.
2023/24
Philosophical, Historical and Interdisciplinary Studies (School of)
Colchester Campus
Spring
Postgraduate: Level 7
Inactive
Monday 15 January 2024
Friday 22 March 2024
20
02 March 2021
Requisites for this module
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Food is the bread and butter of human civilization - except, both bread and butter are culturally specific. Let`s broaden our minds. The traditions of what is considered edible, how it is produced, prepared and consumed are central to the definition to each society's culture and, at the same time, often demonstrate enduring traditions of inter-continental contacts. In a globalised economy where the supermarket can provide us the foodstuffs whatever the season and whatever their country of origin, we are liable to forget both how local food cultures can be and, equally, how long-standing global transfer of comestibles has been. This module will investigate the cultural and social history of food, centring around the changes created by the encounters between the Americas and Europe from the late fifteenth to the seventeenth century.
To provide an understanding of the history of food in the `early modern` world
To appreciate the significance of the topic to other branches of historical study
To consider the use of inter-continental comparative history
To place local identities within a global context
An understanding of how the edible can be a source for historians
A recognition of the global associations and comparisons revealed through the history of food
Transferable skills in the use of different types of primary sources
An appreciation of the particular interdisciplinary links historians can draw on for the study of food – biology, zooarchaeology and climate studies, for instance, as well as more established allied disciplines
General Reading List:
E. Abbott, Sugar: A Bittersweet History (London, 2009)
K. Albala ed., The Food History Reader. Primary Sources (London, 2014)
V. D. Anderson Creatures of Empire: How Domestic Animals Transformed Early America ((Oxford, 2004)
F. Braudel, Civilization & Capitalism 15th-18th Century, 3 vols (London, 1981), i (The Structures of Everyday Life)
M. de Certeau, L. Giard & P. Mayol, The Practice of Everyday Life. Volume 2 (Living and Cooking) (Minneapolis, MN, 1998)
A. W. Crosby,The Columbian Exchange: Biological and Cultural Consequences of 1492 (Westport, CT, 2003)
A. Davidson ed., The Oxford Companion to Food (Oxford, 1999)
J.-L. Flandrin & M. Montonari ed., Food: A Culinary History from Antiquity to the Present (New York,1996).
K. F. Kiple &. K. C. Ornelas ed.,The Cambridge World History of Food, 2 vols (Cambridge, 2000).
J. M. Pilcher ed., The Oxford Handbook of Food History (Oxford, 2012)
1 x 2 hour seminar per week
This module does not appear to have a published bibliography for this year.
Assessment items, weightings and deadlines
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Exam format definitions
- Remote, open book: Your exam will take place remotely via an online learning platform. You may refer to any physical or electronic materials during the exam.
- In-person, open book: Your exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may refer to any physical materials such as paper study notes or a textbook during the exam. Electronic devices may not be used in the exam.
- In-person, open book (restricted): The exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may refer only to specific physical materials such as a named textbook during the exam. Permitted materials will be specified by your department. Electronic devices may not be used in the exam.
- In-person, closed book: The exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may not refer to any physical materials or electronic devices during the exam. There may be times when a paper dictionary,
for example, may be permitted in an otherwise closed book exam. Any exceptions will be specified by your department.
Your department will provide further guidance before your exams.
Overall assessment
Reassessment
Module supervisor and teaching staff
Dr Thomas Freeman, email: tfreeman@essex.ac.uk.
Dr Thomas Freeman
Senior Student Administrator, Department of History, Telephone: 01206 872190
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No external examiner information available for this module.
Available via Moodle
No lecture recording information available for this module.
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