The College will offer an eclectic new master’s degree in Food Studies in Fall 2021

Next fall, students at IU Bloomington will be able to earn a master’s degree in Food Studies through a new interdisciplinary program run by the departments of Anthropology and Geography in the College of Arts and Sciences.

“Food studies is really emerging as a viable and vibrant academic area,” says Andrea Wiley, who chairs the Anthropology department. “The College has long been at the forefront of food studies, and now is the perfect time to launch an M.A. program to provide individuals from a wide range of backgrounds with holistic training in this area.”

Thanks to Richard Wilk, professor emeritus of Anthropology, IU was an early leader in the study of the anthropology of food and has offered a Ph.D. minor in Food Studies since 2008. So, the department was in an ideal position to capitalize on the growing interest in food by offering the new master’s degree, Wiley says.

“Many people have been contacting us about studying food who don’t necessarily want to earn a Ph.D. or do academic research,” she explains. She hopes that the new master’s degree will draw diverse students from many backgrounds: chefs, restaurants owners, and growers, for example, as well as recent college graduates from a wide variety of majors.

Anthropology Professor Brian Gilley imagines that graduates of the program will fan out in many directions. “I think the real impact of this new degree is going to be felt when our graduates go to work for NGOs, or the Department of Agriculture, or start nonprofits,” he says.

While IU won’t be the first university to offer a food studies master’s degree, Gilley believes the program will be attractive. “We have a synergy of faculty right now who are doing really interesting stuff in food studies,” he says. Gilley himself looks at the impact of tourism and environmental change on heritage foods on Italy’s island of Ischia, for example. Wiley is currently examining milk consumption and child health in the U.S. and India. Anthropology Professor Sarah Osterhoudt studies vanilla and clove farmers in northeastern Madagascar, and Professor Jennifer Meta Robinson is an expert on local food movements and farmers’ markets.

Another appealing aspect of the new degree will be the chance to do an internship and a capstone project. As Wiley explains, because IU anthropologists conduct research around the world as well as locally, they can help students line up a broad range of internships—from an Indiana farmer’s market to working with the International Food Programme to reduce hunger in multiple countries across the world.

Just as food brings people together around the table, Wiley imagines that the new master’s degree program will be a great gathering place. She looks forward to welcoming the first class, which she projects to include 10 or 12 students, next fall.

“One of the cool things about food studies is that there aren’t rigid boundaries,” she says. “it’s very interdisciplinary. For me that’s really exciting.” So, students will take courses like “Urban Alternative Agriculture,” “Climate Change, Food and Farming Systems” and “Nutritional Anthropology.

Story by Julie Gray