This course invites you to explore how culture, ecology, and food intersect in shaping sustainable futures through immersive and hands-on experiences engaging directly with landscapes, producers, and microbial life.
The course examines food systems at macro (landscape), meso (producer), and micro (microbial) scales, emphasizing the values of locality, diversity, and quality. Activities include fermentation workshops, culinary labs, storytelling, and co-cooking sessions. By connecting tradition, taste, and environmental care, you will cultivate a deeper understanding of food system resilience and your own role in driving transformation toward more just and sustainable food futures.
Syllabus
Fall 2026 (Draft)
This is a draft syllabus. The final syllabus will be available here a few days prior to the new course’s first start date.
You only take one Core Course per semester, and each Core Course includes two Study Tours: one Short Study Tour to a nearby destination for three days, and one Long Study Tour to another European country for six days.
Led by your faculty, Study Tours take you into real-world settings where you will apply what you’ve learned outside the classroom.
Ph.D. (American Studies & Environmental Humanities, University of Michigan, 2009). Assistant Professor of Environmental Humanities, Whitman College, USA, 2024; Linköping University, Sweden, 2018-2023. Program Convener of the Seed Box Environmental Humanities Collaboratory, Sweden, 2016-2017. Visiting Fellow, Posthumanities Hub, Sweden, 2016. Developmental Editor, 2009-2015. Communications Coach at Stanford University, 2007-2013. With DIS since 2025.
Long Study Tour
About this tour
On our Study Tour, we will journey by low-carbon travel through Europe to the Alpine region of northern Italy, centering our stay in Milan. Here we will explore how taste, tradition, and sustainability intersect in one of the world’s most storied food landscapes. This tour brings together small-scale farming, artisanal food production, and global food industries, offering a unique lens to study how resilient food systems are shaped by both local heritage and global pressures. Through farm visits, factory tours, urban foodscape explorations, and encounters with producers, we will experience firsthand the challenges and opportunities of sustaining food traditions in a changing climate, both culturally and environmentally speaking.
Alongside these experiences, we will engage with concepts and research perspectives that critically examine the role of innovation, policy, and consumer culture in shaping the future of food. By moving between artisanal and industrial contexts, we will reflect on the tensions and synergies between tradition and modernity, local and global, and taste and sustainability—bringing concepts of resilience, food sovereignty, and sustainability to life in one of Europe’s most iconic food regions.
Learning outcomes
Examine how Alpine food systems balance tradition and innovation—from small-scale artisanal producers to large industrial actors—in shaping sustainability, resilience, and regional identity.
Explore how landscapes and economies across the region intersect with food practices, highlighting the roles of (bio)diversity, quality, and locality in the food system.
Critically reflect on the tensions between local food sovereignty and globalized markets, and how these dynamics inform (or not) pathways toward resilient and just food futures.
Engage in your personal learning process outside the classroom by actively participating and challenging your current ideas and assumptions.
Possible activities
Visit small-scale farms to learn how producers balance tradition, biodiversity, and economic sustainability in Alpine food systems
Meet and interact with farmers to gain hands-on experience with artisanal production, such as lentils, ancient grains, or artisanal cheeses, and reflect on the labor and social costs behind sustainable food practices
Explore local food markets to understand how regional identity and tradition are expressed through taste, seasonality, and place-based products
Tour large-scale food production facilities, such as pasta or cheese factories, to examine the industrial side of food systems and its relationship to sustainability and tradition
Meet with researchers and practitioners to connect Alpine foodscapes with broader questions of resilience, globalization, and sustainability
Short Study Tour
About this tour
Learning outcomes
Analyze how cultural practices, policies, and innovations contribute to diversity, quality, and locality in the local foodscape
Examine the tensions and synergies between industrialized food production and alternative food networks in shaping sustainable futures
Apply systems thinking to real-world Swedish foodscapes, connecting local experiences to global food system challenges and opportunities
Engage in your personal learning process outside the classroom by actively participating and challenging your current ideas and assumptions
Possible activities
More info to come soon!
Looking for some advice? We’ll support you every step of the way.
