As a visiting professor in the Environmental Studies department at Haverford College, I taught two classes during fall 2020:

Black & Asian Foodways: An Exploration. This course examines environmental and social histories and stories of Black and Asian foods and cuisines in the US. It includes an introduction to environmental food studies, US Black and Asian migration histories, conflict, and solidarity, as well as case studies of specific foods. The focus is primarily on the US and its ancestors and antecedents, but we welcome experiences and expertises from elsewhere. This course is topical and multidisciplinary rather than focusing on the theory or skills of a particular discipline.

This course is structured like a graduate student seminar: at least once during the semester, each student will be expected to conduct research in the academic literature on a given topic, find readings, and lead discussion. The course also includes a number of guest speakers.

In some courses, I’m trying to pass on knowledge that I’ve been lucky enough to have others teach me. This is not that kind of course. This course is a voyage that we are going on together. I will provide structure and skills, and some content, and we will explore together. I’m hoping that you will bring with you your personal and family histories and experiences, especially in relation to food, and that they will provide important stepping stones for our academic work and help us all learn.

Working syllabus from fall 2020 is here and I can share readings/resources on request.

Introduction to fisheries science. Fisheries science is the study of fish in the context of harvest. Fisheries scientists study questions like: how many fish are there? Where are they? How big are they? How fast do they grow and reproduce? How do you catch them? The million dollar question in the field is: how many can we take out and still have enough for the future?

This course will provide an introduction to some of the concepts and quantitative methods and skills involved in fisheries science. It will include a general overview of fisheries science as a field, but the bulk of the course will be devoted to learning to build mathematical models in the open-source programming language R, and understanding how those models can be used to generate and evaluate sustainable fisheries management strategies. The data and examples used in this course will be fish-specific, but the programming and modeling skills developed here will be applicable across many disciplines and fields.

This is primarily a do-ing course, rather than a talking and/or listening course. You will learn the most through doing the coding assignments.

“Managing fish is hard; it’s like managing a forest in which the trees are invisible and keep moving around.” – John Hampton

Syllabus is under revision and will be re-posted shortly.