Fall 2024 courses related to food systems
Each semester, faculty across Duke offer courses on topics connected to the food system. This makes it possible for students to customize their studies and incorporate their interest in food systems issues into their majors and certificate programs.
This course considers the role that congregations can play in fostering food economies —ranging from food production, distribution, and consumption —that promote the health of persons, communities, and the places in which they live.
Churches have been the center of U.S. emergency food assistance since its creation. Fundamentally, nutrition support has roots in biblical mandates. This course will explore how people of faith provide support to individuals in need. This course will draw upon field experiences with local food assistance programs and international non-profits. Learners will also engage individuals who benefit from these programs. We will assess the challenges of these efforts and develop constructive, alternative approaches to providing food for people in need.
Special topics course. Information about specific sections available in course synopsis. For more about House Courses, visit the following website: https://trinity.duke.edu/house-courses. Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory grading only.
This class covers the fundamentals of Food Web Theory and their connections to modern takes on the discipline while also having a component of mathematical modeling, coding (in R and Mathematica), paper discussions, and visits from prominent Food Web Ecologists.
Examines role that individual consumer can play in promoting marine conservation. Course considers array of issues that confront seafood consumers and tradeoffs that only an informed consumer can assess. In context of evaluating seafood students will learn to evaluate tradeoffs systematically, assess how different policy options affect incentives for users and polluters. This process allows students to place consumer initiatives in context of other approaches to marine conservation. Interdisciplinary approach but economic themes will inform course. Course intended for Master of Environmental Management students, but open to advanced undergraduates with permission. This course is intended for MEM students and is based on a Marine Conservation Leadership Certificate capstone course offered previously to undergraduates. Advanced undergraduates permitted pending space availability.
Examination of concepts related to theory and practice of environmental justice including: data and analytics used by researchers, decision-makers and other parties; concepts related to meaningful engagement with special attention to American Indian tribes and Indigenous peoples; and broader perspectives on environmental justice related to climate change, cumulative impacts, and other topics. Investigate recent case studies involving food, energy, water, and climate through readings, guest speakers, and classroom discussion. Required field trip.
Introduction to the sources and impacts of pollution in marine and freshwater environments. Examination of biological pollutants, such as pathogens and invasive species; chemical pollutants, such as nutrient loading, oil spills, pesticides, and heavy metals; and physical pollutants, such as plastics and thermal perturbations. Principles of aquatic biogeochemistry, primary production, and food webs applied to ocean and freshwater pollution.
This course seeks to deepen our understanding of foodways and food systems, and of the roles that nourishment and nourishers play in our lives, while regenerating connections with food practices and food creators through the study of global French narratives, scholarships on foodways and foodscapes, and hands-on, in-person experiences with nourishers in our local community. A strong emphasis on experiential learning, including community engagement in systems of food access and production as well as work with chefs and farmers, and the study of French-language narrative, culinary, scholarly, journalistic writing, and other cultural documents.
This class covers the fundamentals of Food Web Theory and their connections to modern takes on the discipline while also having a component of mathematical modeling, coding (in R and Mathematica), paper discussions, and visits from prominent Food Web Ecologists.
Humans are the dominant species on Earth and ecology is key to understanding the multiple feedbacks through which their activities affect human health. Fundamental principles of ecology, from population to ecosystem levels, will be examined through the lens of human health. Topics include human population growth and carrying capacity, why we age, infectious disease dynamics, the microbiome and human health, sustainable agriculture and food security, sustainable harvest of wild foods, dynamics of pollutants in food webs, ecosystem services to humans, and human impacts of climate change. Not open to students who have taken Biology 209 or Biology 209D-2.