Develop a Course in Food Humanities

Bronx Food Humanities invites faculty across the arts and humanities at Lehman College, Bronx Community College, and Hostos Community College to develop new courses — or adapt existing ones — around the theme of food and culture, with support from the New York Botanical Garden's LuEsther T. Mertz Library.

How Course Development Works

Each year eight faculty members are selected to develop their courses through a series of collaborative workshops, working toward a balance of four new courses and four adapted courses each year. Once developed, we aim to offer at least three of these courses each semester.

Courses can come from existing course stock — many departments already have courses with a broad enough methodological or topical focus to accommodate a Food Humanities angle. General education requirements, special topics courses, and research seminars are also good starting points. Eligible departments include, but are not limited to, English, Latin American and Latino Studies, Africana Studies, Languages and Literatures, Theater, History, Philosophy, and Art.

Courses developed through this program count toward students' majors and minors in the usual way and remain part of the regular curriculum — as well as the faculty's regular teaching load — beyond the life of the grant.

The Co-Teaching Model

Many electives are designed for a co-teaching model: a CUNY faculty member serves as instructor of record, while course content and learning experiences are designed and delivered in collaboration with a Bronx-based practitioner, artist, writer, or researcher.

Curriculum Development

In our first cycle of Curriculum Development Workshops in June 2026, a group of 18 faculty members from all three Bronx CUNY Campuses worked to develop an impressive range of Food Humanities courses and projects leveraging NYBG resources. These include:

• reflective journaling and “food as medicine” assignments tied to Botanical Garden visits;
• a restorative cartography/digital humanities collaboration on the botanical, medicinal, and agricultural practices of enslaved Africans and Lenape people in the Bronx;
• biology- and public-health–inflected explorations of food, amino acids, fasting, and embodiment using creative modalities such as rap battles;
• writing and creative writing courses linking Transcendentalism, deep ecology, and rare book/herbarium collections;
• multi-campus literary magazine and Saturday “drop-in” writing days at NYBG;
• creative projects on sorfrito, food memory, and Bad Bunny’s culinary/gentrification narratives;
• anthropology units using foodways and food justice as a lens on culture, economy, and reciprocity;
• music courses tracing Silk Road exchanges, instrument materials, and NYBG soundscapes;
• and expanded collaborations with the Bronx River Alliance and community food justice initiatives.