Courses

• MET ML 715: Food and the Senses
  This course is an interdisciplinary exploration of the sensory foundations and implications of food. We will study the senses as physical and cultural phenomena, the evolving concepts of terroir and craft, human nutritional and behavioral science, sensory perception and function, and the sensory and scientific aspects of food preparation and consumption. Understanding these processes, constructions and theories is key to understanding a vast array of food-related topics; cheese-making, wine-tasting, fermentation, food preservation, culinary tools and methods, cravings and food avoidance, sustainability and terroir, to name just a few.
• MET ML 719: Food Values: Local to Global Food Policy, Practice, and Performance
  Reviews various competing and sometimes conflicting frameworks for assessing what are "good" foods. Examines what global, national, state, and local food policies can do to promote the production and consumption of these foods. Participants learn how to conceptualize, measure, and assess varying ecological, economic, nutritional, health, cultural, political, and justice claims. Students analyze pathways connecting production and consumption of particular foodstuffs in the U.S. and the world. Emphasis is on comparative food systems and food value chains, and the respective institutional roles of science and technology, policy, and advocacy in shaping food supply and demand.
• MET ML 720: Food Policy and Food Systems
  This course presents frameworks and case studies that will advance participants' understandings of U.S. and global food systems and policies. Adopting food-systems and food-chain approaches, it provides historical, cultural, theoretical and practical perspectives on world food problems and patterns of dietary and nutritional change, so that participants acquire a working knowledge of the ecology and politics of world hunger and understand the evolution of global-to-local food systems and diets. Global overview of world food situations will be combined with more detailed national and local-level case studies and analysis that connect global to local food crisis and responses.
• MET ML 721: US Food Policy and Culture
  This course overviews the forces shaping U.S. food policies, cultural politics, diet, and nutrition situations in the twenty-first century. After reviewing the history of U.S. domestic food policy, course discussions consider globalization, new agricultural and food technologies, new nutrition knowledge, immigration, and "sustainable-food" ideology as drivers of American dietary and food-regulatory change. "Food systems," "food chains," and "dietary structure" provide the major analytical frameworks for tracing how food moves from farm to table, and the role of local through national government and non-government institutions in managing these food flows.
• MET ML 722: Studies in Food Activism
  In this class students will explore the work of anthropologists and other social scientists on food activism citizens' efforts to promote social and economic justice through food practices and challenge the global corporate agrifood system. The class will explore diverse individual and collective forms of food activism including veganism, gleaning, farmers' markets, organic farming, fair trade, CSAs, buying groups, school gardens, anti-GMO movements, Slow Food, Via Campesina, and others. It will address the questions: what is food activism, what are its goals, what is working and not working, and what are the results?
• MET ML 800: Masters Project
  Students nearing the completion of their degree requirement for the MLA in Gastronomy may register for the Masters Project. This graduation requirement is available for students who entered the MLA program during or after Fall 2009. The Masters Project must be completed under the direction of a full-time Boston University faculty member. The coordinator of the Gastronomy program must approve a topic, outline, bibliography and schedule for the project. Please contact the program coordinator for further details and guidelines. Students must also concurrently enroll in ML 802. 2 cr.
• MET ML 801: Master's Thesis
  Students nearing the completion of their degree requirement for the MLA in Gastronomy may register for the Master's Project. This graduation requirement is required for students who entered the MLA program before Fall 2009. The Master's Thesis must be completed under the direction of a full-time Boston University faculty member. The coordinator of the Gastronomy program must approve a topic, outline, bibliography and schedule for the project. Please contact the program coordinator for further details and guidelines. 4 cr.
• MET PH 101: Basic Problems of Philosophy
  Introduction to classical philosophical problems concerning human nature and knowledge, freedom and morality, and reason and justice.
• MET PH 110: Great Philosophers
  Introduction to the life and thought of five preeminent philosophers from classical times through the modern era.
• MET PH 150: Introduction to Ethics
  Who ought we to be, what ought we to do, what ought we to strive for? Examination of our obligations to ourselves, to other humans, and to the natural world in light of ethical theory and contemporary problems. Readings from a wide range of texts in philosophical ethics.
• MET PH 155: Politics and Philosophy
  A study of the theoretical foundations of modern industrial democracy, with special attention paid to the Enlightenment. Readings from Machiavelli, Locke, Rousseau, Madison and Toqueville. 4cr.
• MET PH 160: Reasoning and Argumentation
  A systematic study of the principles of both deductive and informal reasoning, with an emphasis on reasoning and argumentation in ordinary discourse.
• MET PH 248: Existentialism
  Analysis of existentialism as a movement or orientation in contemporary philosophy. Topics include contingency and the grounds for belief and value; depth, superficiality, and the intense life; commitment and open-mindedness; tragedy and the healthy self; boredom, anxiety, and adventure; and existentialism as a philosophy of the possible.
• MET PH 265: Minds and Machines
  An examination of the efforts of artificial intelligence to model the human mind and explain human thought by means of suitably programmed computers. Attention is given to the historical and mathematical origins of such efforts, as well as the main psychological and philosophical assumptions on which they depend.
• MET PH 270: Philosophy of Science
  Main features of the scientific enterprise will be illustrated by examples in the study of physics, biology, and mind: the aims of scientific activities, the nature of scientific understanding and procedures, the structure and interpretation of scientific theories, and the development of science.
• MET PH 300: History of Ancient Philosophy
  Classical Greek philosophy from the pre-Socratics through Plato and Aristotle.
• MET PH 310: History of Modern Philosophy
  Main currents of modern philosophical thought from Descartes through Kant.
• MET PO 241: Introduction to Public Policy
  Undergraduate core course. Analysis of several issue areas: civil rights, school desegregation, welfare and social policy, education and urban housing, energy and the environment. Characteristics of policy systems in each issue area are analyzed to identify factors which may affect the content and implementation of public policies.
• MET PS 101: General Psychology
  Basic introduction to the study of psychology as a behavioral science. Emphasis on learning, motivation, perception, personality, and social psychology.
• MET PS 221: Psychology of Human Sexuality
  The course provides a psychological framework for reviewing the science of human sexuality. Emphasis is placed on not only what has been learned, but how it has been studied. The clinical, developmental, personality, social psychology, and neuropsychological theory and research of human sexuality are presented. Specific topics include sexual dysfunctions and sex therapy, bio-social views on sexual differentiation, alternative sexual orientations, and attraction to love.

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