Dear Colleagues, Apologies for the cross-posting
Could you kindly forward this information to potentially interested students? ------------------------------- Dear students, We wanted to create something that would have a positive social impact in cities. Therefore, through a research project with Professor Leda Cooks of the University of Massachusetts Amherst, we studied a section of a population that has no access to food and how waste is an issue that involves the food sector as well as other sectors. We also studied the perception of food waste in the USA (through research in the area around UMASS Amherst) as well as in the city of Rome. We conducted interviews and analyzed data regarding the perception of food waste of consumers, producers and distributors. Food waste was (and is) one of the biggest paradoxes in the world, because a third of food produced in the world is wasted even though there are 800 million undernourished people. This material needs to be explored more at an academic level and for this reason, this year, we launched a pioneering study abroad course on Food Waste. Food and shelter are perhaps the most material of all human needs, and are as such intimately connected to each other and to political and symbolic usage via communication. Food is never simply matter to fill the belly-- politics, power, identity and culture are inseparable from our understandings of food's rather basic function—as necessity for survival. We communicate through food all the meanings we assign and attribute to culture (space, home, memory) and thus, to identity. Whether we look at the social and cultural construction of waste as an historical and political process or at waste as an uncomplicated problem of excess, there are real consequences for people and the planet. Given the interdisciplinary breadth of food studies, this course will provide a survey of studies on food waste from a variety of viewpoints that look at how food/waste is a vehicle for personal, cultural and political identity/ usage in the city of Rome and in Italy. Through this course, you will have the opportunity to study about Italian contributions to the study of food waste and foodways in urban and rural settings, and to analyze different cultural approaches to the study of food justice. The city of Rome is our laboratory for the study and research of food waste. For more information about our research project, please contact our director, Dr. Sonia Massari at sonia.mass...@gustolab.com If you want to know more about us and our course, visit our website <http://www.gustolab.com/summer-programs-in-vietnam-italy-japan/#tab-id-2> or or watch a short video <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wo2XtO7emhs> about one of our course partners in Italy. To request applications, write to i...@gustolab.com. It is possible to apply until April 25, 2017. Suitable for students studying: ecology, sustainability, environmental sciences, nutrition, family and consumer sciences or general food studies. We await you in Rome! Thank you, Salem [image: GLI Gustolab International] <http://www.gustolab.com> SALEM PAULOS Assistant to the Director salem.pau...@gustolab.com 130, via Giulia Rome, Italy 00186 Office phone +39 06 83087975 / +39 06 68804073 Fax +39 06 92912046 www.gustolab.com facebook <https://www.facebook.com/GustolabInstitute> twitter <https://twitter.com/gustolabinst> instagram <https://instagram.com/glinstitute> linkedin <https://www.linkedin.com/company/gustolab-institute-center-for-food-and-culture> vimeo <https://vimeo.com/gustolabinstitute> Testimonials from our past students <http://www.gustolab.com/what-alumni-say/> Testimonials from faculty <http://www.gustolab.com/what-our-faculty-say/> Our research initiatives <http://www.gustolab.com/research-inititatives-2/>
