The English 100 Conference will be on Friday, April 27 from 3:00pm-4:30pm. This year’s theme, and therefore your projects’ theme, is food.
Deadline for submitting papers/projects is Friday, April 13. Complete paper of 500-1000 words or presentations, 10 minutes maximum, can be turned into Cherry Hall 135. The following is Dr. Jane Fife’s call for papers document.
Food is a necessity for survival and so much more. How we prepare the food we need contributes to the richness and differences of human cultures. Our differences of opinion about food also lead to many interesting conversations and controversies. Here are just a few current food conversations that might get you thinking about topics to explore in an English 100 project:
- What foods should be served in schools?
- What should people eat to live a long, healthy life?
- What role should the government play in helping/mandating our decisions about what to eat and how to eat?
- Should unhealthy foods be banned or taxed to discourage consumption and make a healthier populace?
- Are modifications to crops beneficial or harmful?
- How do scientists, nutritionists, and food producers try to convince us what to eat and what to avoid?
- What are the implications of our food coming from a factory farm versus a farmers’ market?
- What are the arguments for and against vegetarianism?
- What does it mean to be a “fast food nation?”
- What are the goals of the “slow food” movement?
- Why do some people advocate “raw food” diets?
- How can we combat hunger, worldwide and in the U.S.?
- How do diet fads affect what we eat?
- How does culture shape what we eat and how we eat?
These questions are meant to be suggestive, not limiting: Let them get you thinking, but don’t be restricted by them. Our conference invites papers and alternative forms of expression (including multimedia presentations or creative pieces) exploring any aspect of the broad food theme. Your explorations of the meaning of food could take many forms, including a memoir, a narrative, an analysis, or a research-based argument.
