Purpose

The degree serves those students interested in the myriad aspects of different types of food systems wanting to further their education beyond the bachelor’s degree and who wish to enter arenas in the private and public sector upon completion of the M.A. in Food Studies. You do not need to have a background in Food Studies to enter the program. This program may also serve as an entry point to Ph.D. programs nationwide or an effective pathway to careers related to food systems. This degree program is unique in that it provides students with a multidisciplinary background and it combines classroom and intern experience within a single degree program.

Course requirements

Students are expected to complete 36 hours of coursework distributed as follows (see also general University Graduate School requirements):

Core Curriculum from Anthropology (6 credit hours)

Choose 2 from:

• ANTH-B 545 Nutritional Anthropology
• ANTH-P 575 Food in the Ancient World
• ANTH-P580 Prehistoric Diet & Nutrition (planned; currently offered for grad credit under P380)
• ANTH-E 621 Food and Culture
• ANTH-E 626 Ethnographies of Global Food Systems

Core from Geography (6 credit hours)

Choose 2 from:

• GEOG-G 549 Political Ecology
• GEOG-G 558 Food and Poverty in America
• GEOG-G 557 Urban Alternative Agriculture
• GEOG-G 578 Climate Change, Food and Farming Systems

Methods Curriculum (6 credit hours)

Choose 1 from:

• ANTH-A506: Anthropological Statistics
• ANTH–A525: Community Based Research I
• ANTH-B 527 Human Evolutionary Biology Laboratory
• ANTH-A525: Community Based Research I
• ANTH-E601: Research Methods in Cultural Anthropology
• ANTH–P601: Research Methods in Archaeology

Choose 1 from:

• GEOG-G538: Geographic Information Systems
• GEOG-G576: Qualitative Methods in Geography
• GEOG-G588: Applied Spatial Statistics

Electives (9 credit hours)

You are encouraged to utilize your elective courses to build specific strengths such as community agriculture, marketing, nutrition, communications, philanthropy, or nonprofit management.

Internship (6 credit hours)

Split hours among health, nutrition, policy, food industry and agriculture

Project/Capstone (3 credit hours)

The advising committee will consult with course faculty and students to ascertain the outcomes that each course satisfies.

Project/Thesis/Essay requirements:

In the capstone course, you will design a synthetic, practically-oriented research project of your choosing and complete it within a single semester. The capstone normally takes place in the fourth semester of the degree program. Deliverables for students in the capstone can be of various kinds, but may include papers, demonstration projects, and multimedia works. The National Science Foundation International Research Experience for Students Program will be targeted to fund research projects for students in this program. You may also assist Ph.D. students, postdocs, and faculty with their research programs from across disciplines at IUB.

See course descriptions