The home of the IU Food Project, an organization dedicated to raising awareness about food issues, is a work in progress, much like the Certificate in Food Studies that rolled out this fall. Dusty books sit waiting to be unpacked in the corner, and a few brightly colored posters hang above the fireplace at the small duplex on North Park Avenue. Students pursuing the certificate will become more aware of the culture, politics and science surrounding food.
Professor Carl Ipsen is the director of the IU Food Project and has spearheaded the creation of both the project and the certificate. Though there are many ways to study food at IU, this was not always the case.
“At that time, there was a minor in anthropology, and that was it for undergraduates,” Ipsen said. “Since then, there’s now also a food track in sustainability studies in SPEA ... but it doesn’t do any of the things we do.”
Both indoor and outdoor internships are also a required part of the certificate. Ipsen said having real exposure to both the academic and practical sides of food studies is important. The Food Project works with Arts and Sciences Career Services to help find these internships locally, but experience isn’t restricted to Bloomington, according to their website.
The structure of this certificate allows students to work more closely with the Food Project faculty and fellow students, as opposed to the more hands-off approach with a minor.
“We have to know that you’re in there,” Ipsen said. “At a certain point, you sign up so that we know who the people are and can bring them together and create a sort of community.”
The certificate has been four to five years in the making and is a natural extension of the IU Food Project’s goals to promote awareness about food issues. The inspiration for the project came from Alice Waters, a sustainable food activist and chef. Ipsen based the IU Food Project off of the Yale Sustainable Food Project, which Waters helped launch. Waters will be speaking at IU in April.
Nicole Coghlan is the Food Project intern and a senior in dietetics. She said if she had the chance to pursue the certificate, she would have without a doubt because of its compatibility with her studies.
“The certificate would have made me take two other classes, so that would have forced me to broaden my horizons,” Coghlan said.
Coghlan said nutrition science and dietetics students already complete a significant portion of the certificate’s coursework by fulfilling their major requirements, and she has been advertising in many of their classes. However, the certificate is flexible enough to complement any major on campus.
There are three categories of classes: the history, art and culture of food; the political economy of food; and the science of food. Students in the program can ask to include courses that don’t initially appear on the list, expanding the range of classes that can be taken significantly.
Ipsen worked with various departments across IU to compile the certificate. It includes courses from the School of Public and Environmental Affairs, the School of Public Health and the College of Arts and Sciences.
“We’d like to work with the students to make it a program that fits for them,” Ipsen said.
