This course explores Canada's diverse food cultures and the varied relationships that Canadians have had historically with food practices in the context of family, community, region, and nation and with reference to transnational connections and identities. It examines Canada's foodways - the practices and traditions associated with food and food preparation - through the gendered lens of Indigenous-colonial relations, migration and diaspora, family, politics, nutrition, and popular culture. The course is organized around two central principles. One is that just as Canada's rich past resists any singular narrative, there is no such thing as a singular Canadian food tradition. The other is that a focus on questions related to women and gender further illuminate the complex relationship between food and cultural politics, variously defined. The course covers a broad time-span, from early contact between European settlers and First Nations through the end of the twentieth century.
Canadian Area