Student or Group Info
Name(s): Amelia Pressman
Term: Spring quarter
Credits: 8
Title of ILC or Group Project: Civics and Spirit: Food and Identity in Fascist Italy
Field Supervisor
Field supervisor: Sarah Williams
Program of Project Description
Narrative: This one-quarter project, titled Civics and Spirit: Food and Identity in Fascist Italy, is designed to explore the life and work of Italian food writer and chef Marcella Hazan. Specific learning objectives are to gain a foundational understanding of Italian foodways at the time she was cooking, what food and life experiences affected her relationships to cooking and eating, and the philosophies behind Italian cooking and eating. To gain a sense of Hazan’s cooking, the student will cook select recipes from Hazan’s 1972 cookbook The Classic Italian Cookbook. Written work includes food memoirs for both Hazan and themselves. Texts to be studied include: The Manifesto of Futurist Cooking byFilippo Tommaso Emilio Marinetti, Amarcord: Marcella Remembers by Marcella Hazan, History of the Italian Agricultural Landscape by Emilio Sereni, The Italian Way: Food and Social Life by Douglas Harper and Patrizia Faccioli, and Tasting Fascism: Food, Space, and Identity in Italy by Ruth W. Lo.
| Learning objective | Activity | Deliverable |
| Learn more about the cooking of and philosophy behind Italian food. | I will cook select recipes from Marcella Hazan’s The Classic Italian Cookbook as well as read her writings on the subject. | I will take pictures of the food I cook, provide recipes, as well as Hazan and mines input on specific dishes and Italian cooking as a whole, and chronicle this on my WordPress ePortfolio. |
| Examine Hazan’s connections to cooking and eating in comparison and contrast to mine. | I will read her own memoirs and construct my own. | Write her food memoir and mine in tandem with each other. |
| Examine the political and cultural background Hazan’s cooking and food experiences were set against. | I will research Italian agricultural and food practices coming out of fascism and World War Two as well as the specific footways of Emilia-Romagna where she was born and raised. | I will post my findings on my WordPress ePortfolio. |
Evaluation of Work
- WordPress ePortfolio
- Final week ten presentation
- Narrative evaluations from field supervisor and/or subcontractor
- Narrative mid-quarter and final self-evaluations