Food and Freud

Pointe Viven - Jesse Bluma. All rights reserved.

I recently attended the first session of a series about food history with a friend.   The series was through the History Project, University of California Irvine.  The promise was "fun" and "interesting" content.  My first and last session included a good overview of international foods by Simon Fellowes.   He gave us a good challenge of looking at food items on plates, then identifying the ingredients.  Simon also gave us a map and a food list to match the origins of foods. 

"Simon Fellowes earned a BA with Honors in European History and English Literature at the University of Northumbria in England, and later went on to earn a Masters in Environmental Science with a focus upon education and communication, at Cal State Fullerton."

Unfortunately, Simon was not the main presenter.  He was a good presenter with useful information and engaging ideas.  Maybe that has to do with his experience at Call State Fullerton, which emphasizes teaching and learning skills.  

Professor Yong Chen was the main instructor of the session.  He gave us some food for thought about the role of food in culture, identity, history, and the contrast between foodies and foodists.  Perhaps most memorable was his continued reference to food being more important than sex.   Maybe it was an off day for him, we did not find the majority of his instruction as valuable or interesting as promised.  The delivery of the information also needed work.  A good spell check of some PowerPoint slides was also needed.  This may be due to the fact that he is from a University of California, which emphasizes research rather than teaching and learning skills.  This may be one more reason to avoid attending college at a UC.  

"Yong Chen received his Ph.D. degree from Cornell University. He is associate professor of history at the University of California, Irvine."

http://csmp.ucop.edu/files/news/files/217_UCI%20flyer.pdf

http://www.humanities.uci.edu/history/ucihp/about/

http://www.humanities.uci.edu/history/faculty_profile_chen.php