Course Syllabus

 

Course Description

This course invites you to explore how culture, ecology, and food intersect in shaping resilient, sustainable futures through immersive and hands-on experiences engaging directly with landscapes, producers, and microbial life. Through study tours in around Stockholm and a week in Copenhagen, and hands-on engagement with living foodscapes, you will connect taste, tradition, and environmental care to envision and enact transformative change.

The course examines food systems at macro (landscape), meso (producer), and micro (microbial) scales, emphasizing the values of locality, diversity, and quality. Activities include food system mapping, farm/production facility visits, culinary labs, storytelling, and co-cooking sessions. By connecting tradition, taste, and environmental stewardship, you will cultivate a deeper understanding of food system resilience and your own role in driving transformation towards just and sustainable food futures.

 

Learning Objectives

The assessment of this course design is set up around the idea that “no one thing does just one thing.” The overall course project and participation assessment has multiple metrics which act as a type of ‘Field Guide’ . The Field Guide, developed throughout the course, will be a living record of activities that the students will complete throughout the course. This Field Guide is given at the start of the course and allows the student to record and reflect upon experiences and learning throughout the course. Each course meeting will be recorded as a Table of Contents in their final Field Guide assignment.

By the end of this course you will be able to:

ILO#	Integrated Learning Outcome
1	Independently identify and explain food systems challenges, selecting and integrating interdisciplinary evidence relating to food systems issues
2	Use systems thinking approaches to analyze land and food issues related to building resilient, sustainable, and just communities, both locally and globally (micro, meso, macro)
3	Define, describe, analyze and interpret food system sustainability, food security, food sovereignty, food literacy, and resilience
4	Explain (written, orally, graphically, etc.) complex food systems challenges with systems approaches based on a series of individual and group experiences
5	Develop critical reflections on learning and responsibilities as professionals addressing food systems issues

 

Faculty

Dr. Rachel Mazac has worked most recently on the Mistra Food Futures program at the Stockholm Resilience Centre and on the Sustainable Niche for Farmed Livestock project with Drs. Iryna Herzon and Minna Kaljonen at the University of Helsinki. Mazac's teaching and research interests are broadly centered on the nexus of global food systems sustainability, agroecology, and food.

Mazac completed a PhD in Interdisciplinary Environmental Sciences at the University of Helsinki in 2023. Prior to the PhD, Mazac completed an MSc in Integrated Studies in Land and Food Systems at the University of British Columbia. During the MSc, Mazac also worked with collaborators on the Think&EatGreen@School project and with the New Westminster School District on a universal school lunch program for Canada. Before the MSc, Mazac graduated from Hamline University in St. Paul, Minnesota, UISA with double BA degrees in Biology and Environmental Studies and worked for and urban agriculture and youth empowerment nonprofit, Spark-Y: Youth Action Labs.

More at https://rachelmazac.weebly.com/

 

Main Themes

This course explores how food systems shape and are shaped by culture, ecology, and power, combining systems thinking with hands-on, experiential learning. From the historical forces of globalization and productivism to contemporary movements for food sovereignty and biodiversity stewardship, students will examine how values of locality, diversity, and quality inform sustainable and resilient futures.

 

Readings

There is one reading for the course (course book), to be read throughout, with individual pre-readings/listenings for each session. 

• Course book: Dan Saladino's Eating to Extinction - provided as physical copies to students from DIS Library
• See Course Session Pages for each pre-reading listening
• In addition to the above, students will engage with an online resource for all things food systems: TABLE Debates’ series of “Explainers” and Podcast episodes.

All readings will be available in PDF format on Canvas.

 

Format

Summer Session 2: The course meets each weekday, with half of each session devoted to lectures and discussions introducing key concepts, and the second half dedicated to tutorials, hands-on activities, and field studies.

Tutorials foster active engagement through collaborative exercises, debates, fieldwork, and creative projects that connect theory to lived experience in the food system. Students will also take part in guided field guide development, storytelling sessions, and a celebratory shared meal.

Learning extends beyond the classroom through immersive activities in both Stockholm and a week Study Tour in Copenhagen. Study visits and tours include sensory and cooking workshops, producer and farm visits, foraging excursions, and encounters with chefs, food entrepreneurs, and political actors.

 

Field Studies/Tutorials

The course will have out-of-the-class-room sessions on location to experience the different facets of food first hand. Students are expected to be able to find and be at the external locations on time. The external locations will not be far from DIS's location and maps and addresses will be given in advance. Office hours are held after class or by appointment.

Example Field Studies:

• Retail, restaurant, and food non-profits and organization visits
• Farm visits – dairy/livestock, grains, urban allotments
• Culinary kitchen visit

Example hands-on Tutorials:

• Food system mapping and debates
• Cooking workshop
• Food Systems Crisis and Risk Management Simulation

 

Study Tour

Study Tour in Week 2 – Copenhagen (Denmark)

 

Evaluation

Field Guide

Throughout the course, students will create a handwritten Field Guide that documents their learning journey week by week. Work will be evaluated on completeness, clarity, and depth of engagement—rewarding curiosity, creativity, critical thinking, and the ability to connect theory to experience. Strong entries will go beyond summary, demonstrating reflection, synthesis, and attention to the quality and creativity of presentation. Minimal, rushed, or incomplete work, or entries that fail to engage with the readings and activities, will not be marked highly. The Field Guide will form a central part of the course grade, reflecting the value placed on consistent, active, and thoughtful participation.

Participation

Students will also be evaluated on in-class, tutorial, field study, and study tour participation, as well as periodic peer- and instructor-review—see Grading below for more details.

 

Grading

Assignment	Percent
Participation (in class, field studies, tours, tutorials)	30%
Field Guide (x3 submission points)	3x10% = 30%
Peer-review (x2 assessment points)	2x10% = 20%
Instructor Review and Course Feedback	2x10% = 20%
Total	100%

 

Participation

• Attend all class sessions and field studies unless you have an emergency, your presence is essential for participation—see Absences below for more details.
• Complete all assigned readings and preparatory materials before class to ensure discussions can be held at an advanced level.
• Be prepared to answer questions about the readings and preparation materials, as students may be asked to summarize key points.
• Contribute actively and thoughtfully to class and group discussions, both in lectures and tutorials.
• Engage respectfully and with an open mind toward the perspectives and contributions of fellow students.
• Submit assignments on time and to the expected quality standards.

 

Field Guide

Students will hand these in for grading purposes only, periodically throughout the course. They will receive their Field Guide back to take home with them as a journal and documentation of their time in the course. Additional description in Evaluation section above.

 

Peer + Instructor/Course Review

Students will also give and receive peer-review on their Field Guide at two points during the course. As peer-review is reliant on having material to review, if a student does not have their material ready for review, further penalties for late submissions will apply.

It is important to me to continually improve and practice giving and receiving feedback throughout the course. There will be two opportunities to give instructor and course feedback. It is expected that students will have constructive input to improve the course and instruction at the middle and end of the course.

 

Additional Course Expectations

Policy on Late Assignments

When written work is submitted after the due date:

• Deduction of 5% of the total mark for each calendar day after the due date.
• After ten calendar days late, a mark of zero will be awarded.

 

Electronics in the Classroom

There should be little need for use of electronics in class, as the participation and Field Guides will all be analog experiences, in-class work, and handwritten. Use of laptops is allowed for the purpose of note-taking ONLY and requires prior consultation with the instructor. Students should refrain from all other computer activities, as they prove distracting to themselves and fellow students. It is expected that there are no mobile phones and other electronic communication devices present while in class, these should be turned off and stored away. Using the laptop for other purposes than note-taking will have a negative impact on your participation grade.

 

Use of Generative AI

There should be no need for the use of any generative AI tools, as your final, submitted work is all hand-written.

Any final submitted work must be your own, original work. You must acknowledge any use of generative AI tools that have been used in the assessment, and any material that forms part of your submission must be appropriately referenced. For example:

Prompt to ChatGPT: “Generate a short set of guidelines for use of generative AI in the course. My expectations are that a student's final submitted work must be their own, original work. They must acknowledge any use of generative AI tools that have been used in the assessment, and any material that forms part of their submission must be appropriately referenced.”

Output (personal edits in tracked changes):

Use of Generative AI Course Guidelines[1]

• All final submitted work must be your own, original work. Any use of AI tools much be done so with critical and thoughtful engagement. For example, the process of thinking through ideas, learning new methods for research, or processing thoughts can be critical or thoughtful uses of AI.
• Any use of generative AI tools (e.g., ChatGPT, NotebookLM, etc.) in preparing assignments must be clearly acknowledged in your submission, including the tool used and how it was applied.
• Any material generated by AI that is included in your final submission must be appropriately referenced with a footnote
• AI tools may be used to support, learning, idea processing, or feedback, but they must not replace your own critical thinking, analysis, or creative contribution—such uses of AI do not need to be reported in your final submission. I expect that you have included all prompts and output in your final draft if using an AI service for drafting or writing purposes.
• Submissions that rely on AI without proper acknowledgment, or that misrepresent AI-generated content as entirely your own work, will be considered a breach of academic integrity.

 

[1] Example reference: This list of statements is from ChatGPT, any edits made are tracked in changes.