Program Overview

The Bronx is one of the richest places in the country to study food and culture — home to generations of immigrant foodways, community gardens and land stewardship, and grassroots food justice organizing. Bronx Food Humanities gives students the tools to study that abundance through a humanities lens: food writing, oral history, archival research, journalism, and creative work, alongside science- and policy-based approaches.

This program is led by faculty in the arts and humanities across three Bronx CUNY campuses, with the New York Botanical Garden as a research library and living laboratory. Students join the community of Bronx food justice activists, take courses across all three campuses and have access to NYBG's experts, gardens, and collections — building on a history of collaboration that includes NYBG's Food Humanities in the Local Community initiative and CUNY-based oral history and community garden projects.

Courses

Every student begins with Introduction to Bronx Food Humanities (3 credits), taught each fall at Lehman College and rotating each spring between Hostos Community College and Bronx Community College. From there, students choose electives ranging from food-focused journalism and expository writing to a seminar on the Hunts Point market and an audio journalism course producing a narrative podcast on Bronx foodways.