MA Anthropology of Food at SOAS | University of London

Overview

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Convenor

Minimum Entry Requirements: Minimum upper second class BA degree (or equivalent) in the humanities, social sciences or natural sciences, or significant experience in a relevant food- and/or agriculture-related career

Food is a fundamental human necessity, essential to the sustenance of the human body. At the same time, food may be associated with pleasure, passion, even luxury. Food is also essential to the social body. Who eats what, who eats with whom, and whose appetites are satisfied and whose denied, are all profoundly social dynamics through which identities, relationships, and hierarchies are created and reproduced.

The SOAS MA programme in the Anthropology of Food offers students the opportunity to explore historically and culturally variable foodways, from foraging to industrial agriculture, from Europe and North America to Africa, Asia and South America. The programme asks students to trace the passage of food from plant to palate, and to examine who benefits, and who suffers, from contemporary modes of food production, exchange, preparation, and consumption. Students examine food policy at national and international levels, as well as the role played in its formation by the food industry.

Focus is given to the study of famine and the controversial role of food aid in securing food supplies. Debates over the impact of agricultural biotechnology on agrarian livelihoods and knowledge systems, as well as on the natural environment, are assessed. Movements toward organic agriculture, fair trade, and slow food are also analysed.

An anthropological approach to the study of food draws upon and challenges the perspectives of other disciplines, whether agronomy or nutritional science, economics or law, history or literature. Dependent upon individual interests and experiences, graduates of the programme may pursue research degrees in any number of academic disciplines, or find employment in food-related government ministries, international organizations, development agencies, or non-governmental associations, as well as in the fields of public health, education, and media, or in the catering industry.

Click here for a last of past Dissertation Titles

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Course teachers Johan Pottier, Harry G. West, and Jakob Klein were awarded the 2009 Excellence in Instruction Award by the Agriculture, Food, and Human Values Society. West was named joint runner-up for the SOAS Director’s Teaching Prize in 2011-2012.

Scholarships

Applicants for the MA Anthropology of Food may be eligible to apply for the Tallow Chandlers Scholarship, as well as other Scholarships and Bursaries.

Structure

Learn a language as part of this programme

Degree programmes at SOAS - including this one - can include language courses in more than forty African and Asian languages. It is SOAS students’ command of an African or Asian language which sets SOAS apart from other universities.

Programme Structure Overview

The programme consists of four units in total: three units of examined courses and a one unit dissertation of 10,000 words.

Core Courses:

The Anthropology of Food - 15PANC013 (1.0 unit).
Dissertation in Anthropology and Sociology - 15PANC999 (1.0 unit). This is a 10,000 word dissertation on a topic agreed with the Programme Convenor of the MA Anthropology of Food and the candidate’s supervisor.
Additionally all MA Anthropology students 'audit' the course Ethnographic Research Methods during term 1 - this will not count towards your 4 units.

Foundation Course:

Theoretical Approaches to Social Anthropology - 15PANC008 (1.0 unit). This is compulsory only for students without a previous anthropology degree.

Option Courses:

The remaining unit(s) of your programme, either 1 unit of option courses (if taking Theoretical Approaches to Social Anthropology) or 2 units (if exempted from Theoretical Approaches to Social Anthropology), may then be selected from the Option Courses list below.
Your 1 or 2 total units may be made up of any combination of 0.5 or 1 unit option courses.
However, courses without a "15PANxxxx" course code are taught outside of the Anthropology Department. No more than 1 unit in total of these courses may be selected.
Alternatively, one language course may be taken from the Faculty of Languages and Cultures.

Programme Detail

Core Courses

The Anthropology of Food - 15PANC013 (1 Unit) - Full Year
Dissertation in Anthropology and Sociology - 15PANC999 (1 Unit) - Full Year

Foundation Course

Theoretical Approaches to Social Anthropology - 15PANC008 (1 Unit) - Full Year

Option Courses

Anthropology Option Courses

Anthropological approaches to agriculture, food and nutrition - 15PANH053 (0.5 Unit) - Term 2
Directed Practical Study in the Anthropology of Food - 15PANH045 (0.5 Unit) - Full Year
Culture and Society of China - 15PANC089 (1 Unit) - Full Year
Culture and Society of Japan - 15PANC086 (1 Unit) - Full Year
Culture and Society of South Asia - 15PANC087 (1 Unit) - Full Year
Culture and Society of South East Asia - 15PANC088 (1 Unit) - Full Year
Culture and Society of the Near & Middle East - 15PANC097 (1 Unit) - Full Year
Culture and Society of East Africa - 15PANC084 (1 Unit) - Full Year
Culture and Society of West Africa - 15PANC083 (1 Unit) - Full Year
Perspectives On Development - 15PANH033 (0.5 Unit) - Term 1
Therapy and Culture - 15PANH027 (0.5 Unit) - Term 1
African and Asian Diasporas in the Modern World - 15PANH010 (0.5 Unit) - Term 1
African and Asian Cultures in Britain - 15PANH009 (0.5 Unit) - Term 2
Issues in the Anthropology of Film - 15PANH022 (0.5 Unit) - Term 2
Comparative Media Theory - 15PANH028 (0.5 Unit) - Term 1
Anthropology of travel and tourism A - 15PANH051 (0.5 Unit) - Term 1
Anthropology of travel and tourism B - 15PANH052 (0.5 Unit) - Term 2
Anthropology of Urban Space, Place and Architecture - 15PANH029 (0.5 Unit) - Term 2 - Not Running 2012/2013
Media Production Skills - 15PANH050 (0.5 Unit) - Term 2
Comparative Study of Islam: Anthropological Perspectives A (Masters) - 15PANH047 (0.5 Unit) - Term 1 - Not Running 2012/2013
Comparative Study of Islam: Anthropological Perspectives B (Masters) - 15PANH048 (0.5 Unit) - Term 2 - Not Running 2012/2013 - Must be taken with the first term course - 15PANH047 Comparative Study of Islam: Anthropological Perspectives A (Masters)

Courses taught outside the Department of Anthropology

These courses are available subject to approval by the course convenor. Students may take no more than one full unit of courses taught outside of the Department of Anthropology. A language unit taught in the Faculty of Lanuages & Cultures may be taken.

Political economy of development - 15PDSC002 (1 Unit) - Full Year
Globalisation and development - 15PDSC005 (1 Unit) - Full Year
Agrarian Development, Food Policy and Rural Poverty - 15PDSH026 (0.5 Unit) - Term 2
The working poor and development - 15PDSH030 (0.5 Unit) - Term 2
Civil society, social movements and the development process - 15PDSH001 (0.5 Unit) - Term 1
Gender in the Middle East - 15PGNH001 (0.5 Unit) - Term 2
Gendering migration & diasporas - 15PGNH002 (0.5 Unit) - Term 1
Famine and food security - 15PDSH022 (0.5 Unit) - Term 1
Intellectual property rights and development - 15PLAC113 (1 Unit) - Full Year
Jainism: History, Doctrine and the Contemporary World - 15PSRC024 (1 Unit) - Full Year
Non-Violence in Jain Scriptures, Philosophy and Law - 15PSRC062 (1 Unit) - Full Year - Not Running 2012/2013 - Please note that from September 2011 this course unit will be named "Non-Violence in Jain Scriptures, Philosophy and Law"

Programme Specification

Programme Specification 2012/2013 (pdf; 147kb)

Teaching & Learning

Destinations

Students who study MA Anthropology of Food develop a wide range of transferable skills such as research, analysis, oral and written communication skills.

The communication skills of anthropologists transfer well to areas such as information and technology, the media and tourism. Other recent SOAS career choices have included commerce and banking, government service, the police and prison service, social services and health service administration. Opportunities for graduates with trained awareness of the socio-cultural norms of minority communities also arise in education, local government, libraries and museums.

For more information about Graduate Destinations from this department, please visit the Careers Service website.

How to apply

Scholarships

For further information visit the Scholarships section

SOAS, University of London (The School of Oriental and African Studies)

Department of Anthropology and Sociology