This special topics course looks at food and cooking through rhetorical theory and practical applications of food writing. Beyond mere survival, food is central to culture and popular media. Cooking and eating fill streaming platforms and social media feeds, and fuel robust health debates online. The $4 billion cookbook industry thrives alongside countless food blogs and recipe apps. Food drives consumerism, from gourmet ingredients to high-end dining and kitchen gadgets. It brings pleasure, sustains community, and gives us purpose through making and doing. Food and cooking are undeniably vital to life and culture worldwide. In this class, students can critically examine these issues, exploring how food is entangled with materiality, discourse, identity, and power.
Additionally, in this course we will work with Hanna Raskin, the founding editor for The Food Selection, which is a James Beard award-winning daily newsletter that covers food and drink across the American South. In addition to theory-building, students will also gain practical experience working with professional writers, journalists, and editors working in the field of food writing.
This course meets on MW from 2:00 pm - 3:15 pm with a hybrid function for some Wednesdays.
If you have any questions please contact Dr. Melissa Stone at stonemm2@appstate.edu
RC/GWS 3400- Rhetorics of Food and Cooking promo
RC/GWS 3400- Rhetorics of Food and Cooking with Dr. Melissa Stone