Cultivating the critical food artisan: the emergence of an undergraduate food studies program in Australia

Abstract

In early March 2016, William Angliss Institute (WAI) welcomed its first cohort of students into the Bachelor of Food Studies, the first undergraduate degree of its kind in Australia. This article shares the pedagogical rationale and reasoning behind the development of the Bachelor of Food Studies at WAI within the context of other food-related study in Australia and overseas. It calls for a pedagogical acknowledgement of and response to the need for socio-political, economic and ecological transformation within the food system more broadly. It also sketches out some preliminary reflections on the challenges of integrating food and its materiality into higher education curriculum and concludes by offering up an agenda of hope.