Introduction

Southern Foodways 

Fall 2015

University of Alabama

Blount 301

Dr. David Meek
ddmeek@ua.edu

Course Description:

Southerners tend to be quite passionate about food. There is considerable debate surrounding the authenticity of particular dishes and their preparations, and some conflict over who can or should claim certain culinary traditions. Underlying these passions, debates, and traditions are important lessons about historic and contemporary race relations, gender roles, immigration patterns, and other phenomena. In this course, we’ll use southern foodways as a lens to explore deeper questions about ownership and access; inclusion and exclusion; and what it means to grow, cook and eat in the 21^st century South. In that sense, we will examine southern foodways from a critical perspective. We will begin by studying the region’s culinary history, considering the crucial importance of climate and both voluntary and involuntary migration for shaping southern food. We will consider the trenchant but evolving relationship between food and regional identity, and the ways in which food can be understood as indicative of a changing South. We will also be cooking throughout the course, and will use our culinary endeavors to explore southern foodways, and what it means to be southern, from a first-hand perspective.