Contact: Maridith Geuder
For a summer school class she's teaching in the social and cultural aspects of food, Wanda L. Dodson brings a lot more than lecture notes.
At a recent evening class, the professor of human sciences prepared a tomato stuffed with fresh mushrooms and seasoned with Hungarian paprika and other spices. While the class sampled the Croatian and other non-Southern dishes, her students learned more about international food policy from guest lecturer John E. Lee Jr., head of MSU's agricultural economics department.
Dodson's class examines the ways that geography, history, economics, religion, and other factors influence food habits and consumption.
"Business today is more global, and people are more global," she said. "Our goal is to prepare our students to work with other cultures, whether here or abroad."
Because food is central to most cultures, the course focuses on food habits and food ways, as well as resources that will allow the student to learn long after leaving the classroom.
"Most of our students will interact with other cultures," she said. "In addition to the wide variety of cultures in the United States, they increasingly will travel on business or work outside of the country."
In fact, three business majors who want to expand their international experiences are among her summer students. Among topics they and the other students are researching: import and export patterns and food insecurity or security of a particular area; table manners for a selected culture; the role of food in alternative medicine; their own food heritage; and ethnically sensitive nutrition counseling.
Lee, the agricultural economist, is among a varied list of guest lecturers called on to share information from their perspectives. Other speakers have addressed matters of religion, business and international education. The course concludes with a look at malnutrition and world food programs.
On the lighter side of the cultural spectrum, Dodson's students learn that one culture's delicacy is not always prized in another setting.
"For instance, chicken feet are popular in some Asian cultures and pig ears are a prized dish in Vietnamese society," Dodson observed, adding that concepts of etiquette also can change radically according to location.
"Table manners sometimes means sitting on the floor and eating with your hands," she said. "And in some cultures, a good burp at the end of the meal is considered a compliment."