AAS 3749

Contrary to most reviews of Professor Shutt on Course Forum, I do not see her as a qualified and worthwhile professor. As a white woman, despite her studies in AAS, she is blind and unaware to many toxic dynamics in her course, which were traumatic to students of color. Her course in food and meaning is rooted in anthropology with no attempts to decolonize the course; in essence, students read white authors who spend some time in African nations and then return to the States to report back their findings. This furthers the afterlives of colonial violence.

Furthermore, her assignments are often questionable and certainly unclear in their purpose. This might seem to some as desirable. Because they are so mindless in nature, they are "easy" in the conventional sense. None of these assignments really brought any intellectual growth in me.

If you are looking for a riveting and "life-changing" AAS course to take, this is not it.

This class is okay (from someone who isn't innately interested in the material; took it for the requirement). There is sooo much reading some weeks (or at least coming from someone who doesn't enjoy reading) and each class there is a "simple" reading quiz that sometimes asks for random details in the readings to make sure you read them. There are also a couple writing assignments that aren't bad. During class we either watch a film or discuss our readings and sometimes it's pretty interesting but sometimes it's completely boring. However, Prof. Shutt brings in food a couple times and that's always a plus. By the nature of the class, a lot of students and the professor tend to criticize the current society, government, and media based on what we're reading/watching if you're into that.