Food studies minor looking to grow, support students across disciplines

With over 80 undergraduate majors and minors, there are many unique avenues for UNC students to study, but one minor created in 2019 crosses multiple disciplines. 

From 2015 to 2018, a subcommittee explored the possibility of developing an interdisciplinary minor in food studies. The effort was spearheaded by former UNC professor James Ferguson, Amy Cooke, co-director of the food studies minor, said in an email.

As of 2023, 66 students are pursuing the food studies minor. 

Cooke said that she collaborated with the former chair of the Environment, Ecology, and Energy Program, Jaye Cable, to house the minor in Cable's department. 

Unlike the nutrition major in the Gillings School of Public Health, Cooke said the minor seeks to look at food as a part of culture rather than the environment, health, disease and social aspects of nutrition that the major focuses on.

Kelly Alexander, professor of American studies and co-director of the food studies minor, said the program has two goals. The first is to introduce students to how food is studied across disciplines and the second is to help students visualize a career in a food-related field, Alexander said.

With only five classes required, and many of the options being first-year seminars or Triple-I’s within departments ranging from American studies to communication to public policy, there are many ways students can fulfill the food studies requirements.

“I think it’s one of those minors that gives students a truly eclectic view of the different ways that all departments can talk about and think about a central subject,” Rachel Briggs, an assistant professor of anthology, said.

Briggs teaches Anthropology 151: Anthropological Perspectives on Food and Culture, an elective for the food studies minor.

Anna Taylor, a senior at UNC and an exercise sports science major with a minor in food studies, first learned about the minor while taking Exercise and Sports Science 360: Sports Nutrition.

“[While in class] I realized that I loved nutrition and the impact it had on health overall,” Taylor said.

Taylor, who is now looking to become a physician’s assistant, did not apply for the Gillings School of Public Health but still wanted to pursue something related to nutrition. Her professor suggested the food studies minor.

As an exercise science major, Taylor found that becoming a food studies minor helped to enhance her major and figure out her future. 

“I feel like I have such a good background of knowledge because of the classes I’ve taken in food studies,” Taylor said.

With the creation of the minor, Briggs said she hopes the program grows. She also said she is seeking to support this form of food study outside of an agricultural lens.

Briggs said she looks to students to spearhead support for growing the minor. 

“We are doing our best to reach for it and get it out there, but if students want more of this, we need y’all to start writing that,” Briggs said. “What y’all say really matters.”

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