First Essay Assignment: Food and Identity

Paper Prompt

What we eat can be deeply tied to our sense of selfhood. But the relationship between food and identity is not always uncomplicated. Drawing from our readings and discussions, explore how, for African Americans, soul food is connected to family traditions (memory), social connection (community), and the history of slavery. Select a pair of contrasting stories chosen from the individuals interviewed in Rouse and Hoskins, Klindienst, and the film Soul Food Junkies and explore how they are seeking in their different ways to come to terms with this complicated history in their search for well being. To what extent does their struggle for health reflect dilemmas not just for consumers of soul food but of the wider US society in relation to changes in the food landscape? Can you reflect on similar changes in your own family food traditions in terms of the shifts of identity construction as well as changes in food processing and dietary advice in the last 50 years.

3 pages, double-spaced, 12-point font Times Roman (approx. 800-1000 words), standard margins.

The paper assignment is constructed to give you some creative latitude in composing your essay. You are welcome to incorporate personal experience in your discussion of the relationship between food and personal identity if you would like to, but you are also expected to use material from the course materials and critical concepts presented in class in developing your ideas. The essay is an opportunity for you to demonstrate what you have learned and to integrate the course materials by making thoughtful connections.

Grading Rubric

• The essay makes connections to discussions in the readings of the links between food and memory, community, history, ethical selfhood and/or cultural identity.
• It uses contrasting stories to address how these associations differ in time and space.
• It cites readings and films (all of the readings up to now are relevant to use) to develop the argument. It uses well selected quotes that are well embedded in the flow of narrative.
• It makes a personal reflection on how changes in the food system have impacted identity and constructions of ethical self-hood.
• Grammar, organization, and style.