The Global Food Institute introduced four new courses as part of its food leadership minor this spring.
The institute’s new courses include Food Leadership Capstone, Culinary Diplomacy, Global Food Institute Upper-Level Seminar and Systems Thinking for Sustainable Agrifood System Transformation. Faculty said the courses will allow students to see how food relates to fields of study like international relations and public health and encourage students to take the minor, which educates students on the food system and the life cycle of food, from the policies that have shaped food industries to agricultural approaches.
The food leadership minor now offers 27 courses after the program debuted last fall within the institute and offered 22 courses. José Andrés, a celebrity chef, restaurateur and humanitarian, founded the institute at GW in May 2023 with the goals of researching and improving global food security, sustainability and distribution.
Tara Scully, an associate professor of biology and the director of curriculum development at the institute, said the new courses provide students with experiential learning, shifting away from traditional test-taking to more interactive and field-based experiences, like visits with professionals in various fields like regional food systems.
Scully said she saw a high demand for more food-related courses when teaching both a nutrition course and World on a Plate, a course Andrés developed for the institute, where students expressed interest in having more diverse course offerings.
“Food connects everyone, it connects the world, and we want to make sure that if our faculty are interested, that we support them in incorporating food into their courses,” Scully said. “I think that this is going to be an ongoing process, it’s not going to be stagnant either, we’re constantly going to be looking out for new faculty who are interested in working with us and incorporating food into their subject matter.”
Scully said the institute is growing rapidly because it aims to fill gaps in course offerings at the University with classes centered on food. She said the institute plans to engage with professionals within the next calendar year to develop eight more courses centered on subjects like food journalism and regenerative agriculture, so students from any major can connect their interests to the minor and jobs in food systems.
“What’s great about what we’re looking to do, including the two courses that we’re offering that are new this semester, is looking to professionals who are out there doing this work and bringing them in to teach our students and show them how it can relate to a future career and talk about their career paths,” Scully said.
Mya Price, an assistant professor who teaches Food Leadership Capstone and GFI Upper-Level Seminar, said the two courses will push students to integrate research to discuss food system solutions and develop their careers with opportunities to publish research in journals and articles.
Price said the final capstone class for students in the minor will be a “deep dive” into a specific area of interest and produce research projects in collaboration with faculty members within the institute and community organizations. Price said the upper-level seminar course will focus on the food movement and challenges in the United States food industry, from understanding agriculture from a domestic and global standpoint to discussing federal programs and how they relate to nutrition.
She said her work with Indigenous communities, Black farmers and farmers of color allows her to bring perspectives on the different levels of the food network to her courses.
“I think a lot of times it’s so easy to think, ‘I need to explore what is happening at the national level,’ without really understanding at a deeper level what’s happening in our own backyard, here in D.C. or in rural communities or in urban communities across the nation,” Price said.
Sam Chapple-Sokol, an adjunct professor within the institute who teaches Culinary Diplomacy, said the course will show students how food is used as a form of “soft power” within governmental or interpersonal relationships, whether it is heads of state using food as a tool to entertain and reach agreements or individuals using food every day to interact and correspond.
“Whether you and I are meeting over a meal, or heads of state are meeting to decide the fate of a treaty, it’s usually done over a meal,” Chapple-Sokol said. “What’s on the table can be just as powerful and just as important in having us see eye to eye or having us reach agreement.”
Chapple-Sokol, an associate of Andrés and former White House Pastry Chef during former President Barack Obama’s administration, said there are a lot of courses focused on the policy and innovation pillars within the Global Food Institute but not a lot of focus on the humanity aspect yet. He said his course focuses heavily on the humanity pillar by emphasizing storytelling and understanding how food brings people together.
“I’m really excited to bring that element to it, where we can talk about history and food studies in a way that isn’t taught at very many universities around the country,” Chapple-Sokol said. “There’s only a handful of schools that are talking specifically about food and agriculture policy or sustainability policy.”
Chapple-Sokol said there are many instances around the world where leaders have used food as a way to increase soft power, like in Thailand where pad thai was invented by the King of Thailand as a national dish in the 1940s and how there are now Thai restaurants all around the United States because of a “push” by the Thai government to gain visibility around the world.
“There are cases all around the world of governments who decided, ‘Hey, I want to double down on food as our selling point, to increase soft power, to increase tourism, to increase trade,’” Chapple-Sokol said. “All of that stuff is happening whether or not we’re looking and the fact that there are not very many opportunities to learn about that in the country or around the world can be remedied and that’s what I’m hoping to do with this class.”