American Magazine: August 2014
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syllabus<br />
INTERNATIONAL<br />
SERVICE 419<br />
Conflict Cuisine<br />
The best way to win hearts and minds<br />
might be through the stomach.<br />
Last semester, 19 School of<br />
International Service students<br />
whet their intellectual appetites<br />
with a first-of-its-kind course on<br />
gastrodiplomacy: the use of food<br />
to foster cultural understanding.<br />
The undergrads munched their way<br />
across D.C. to learn how conflicts in<br />
Vietnam, Afghanistan, Ethiopia, and<br />
El Salvador influenced local cuisine<br />
and the diaspora who prepare it.<br />
“Sitting around the table with<br />
the chef . . . who can explain the<br />
history of a cuisine or a specific<br />
regional dish is an invaluable way to<br />
understand the course of a nation’s<br />
history,” says scholar in residence<br />
Johanna Mendelson-Forman.<br />
SIS students aren’t the only<br />
ones taking a bite out of<br />
gastrodiplomacy. In 2012, former<br />
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton<br />
organized a corps of 80 chef<br />
ambassadors who travel abroad<br />
on public diplomacy missions.<br />
Next course<br />
HEALTH AND FITNESS 535<br />
Global Nutrition<br />
On students’ plates: a survey of<br />
the nutrition-related aspects of<br />
infectious and chronic diseases<br />
in developing countries.<br />
MANAGEMENT 596<br />
The Business of Water<br />
Kogod students are lapping up this<br />
class about the $450 billion water<br />
industry. Topics include regulation<br />
and sustainability.<br />
14 AMERICAN MAGAZINE AUGUST <strong>2014</strong>
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