According to Professor Stephen Wooten, one of the creators of the food studies initiative at the University of Oregon, food studies is “an interdisciplinary approach to understanding food’s place in our world. Food is at the center of inquiry, and the study looks at how food mediates all the different realms.”

Food studies isn’t new to our campus. People like Geraldine Moreno, professor emeritus of the anthropology department, have been teaching it for decades. But the excitement surrounding the topic certainly is new, agree two professors, Professor Wooten and Professor Jennifer Levin.

Both Wooten and Levin, who has also played a big role in the initiative’s beginnings, said that the Food Justice Conference had a lot to do with the initiative’s early success. The event, held here in February 2011, hosted food studies experts and activists and “created a huge buzz and really made people interested in the subject,” Levin said.

In the wake of the event, an inspired Professor Levin started the Food in the Field Research Interest Group, based out of the Center for the Study of Women in Society. The group, open to all members of the campus community, began as a small niche of food enthusiasts but has expanded to include 50 faculty members and graduate students. It serves as a great growing point, according to Wooten. It has also been responsible for bringing renowned food figures to campus, including wild food expert Hank Shaw and fermented foods specialist Sandor Katz.

Now, Levin, Wooten and their fellow enthusiasts have their sights set on turning the initiative into a full-fledged program. A $6,000 investment in the winter of 2011 from the College of Arts and Sciences, combined with $6,000 more from programs across campus, gave the initiative some traction. The initiative, as with any other, must be housed under a pre-existing program until it eventually becomes its own and hires dedicated faculty — it is currently aligned with environmental studies.

The first order of business is establishing a graduate specialization, which the graduate school recently awarded an additional $10,000-$12,000 grant to help grow. This specialization is not a degree but will be a way for graduate students to indicate food studies as an area of expertise. It will tentatively be available next year.

“I think they’re the future of education, these cross-discipline projects,” Levin said. “There’s so much promise in terms of interdisciplinary education and connecting students with what they put in their mouths.”

The subject can be viewed from many different angles, according to Wooten. “There are a lot of people with a lot of different backgrounds who would be drawn to it,” he said. Wooten also commented that the study can draw scientists, English teachers or historians because there are so many lenses through which you can view food.

Food studies is an up-and-coming field across the country, with notable programs at New York University, Boston University and Indiana University, among others.

“Our developing program is very distinctive and doesn’t actually exist anywhere,” Wooten said, adding that this is particularly true because of the unique northwest climate.

“We really want to use it as a way to cross the faculty/staff divide and galvanize the campus community,” Levin added.

If all goes according to Levin and Wooten’s plan, next year’s food studies graduate specialization program will evolve into a minor, and ultimately, food studies will become its own program at UO.

“We’re approaching it progressively, building it slowly and deliberately,” Wooten said.