School of Sociology and Social Policy celebrates World Food Day 2025
How is academic work from the School of Sociology and Social Policy addressing hunger, food security, and sustainable agriculture?
For World Food Day 2025, the School of Sociology and Social Policy is proud to showcase the impactful work of our academics who are advancing knowledge and expertise in areas relating to hunger, food security, and sustainable agriculture through research, teaching and community engagement.
Food and society
Dr Bethany Robertson has developed a new Undergraduate module titled ‘Food and Society’.
Why food matters
Everyone has a relationship with food, and within recent years it has underpinned global challenges and disruptions such as climate change and Covid-19. The Food and Society module considers how lived experiences of consuming and producing food are at the centre of cultures, identities and inequalities. Students will engage in contemporary debates about everyday food practices such as growing, acquiring and eating to develop a critical perspective on the social institutions and discourses that shape them.
Research-led teaching
This new undergraduate module on Food and Society in 2025/6 is informed by research conducted in the School of Sociology and Social Policy to encourage students to think critically about how food-related issues are framed and dealt with locally and globally. For example, during the pandemic, farming was classed by UK Government as ‘essential’ work yet often referred to as ‘unskilled’ when referring to the seasonal migrant workers on farms. These tensions about what counts as good food work illuminates social, cultural and political issues raised by food.
Experiential learning
The phrase ‘you are what you eat’ shows how eating can be seen to reflect identity and politicised to stigmatise communities. In Food and Society, undergraduate students will experience a trip to the M&S Archive to examine what their collections can reveal about the relationship between food, social class and gender. Through an archive handling session, students will evaluate the shifting meanings of the avocado and the role of the market in changing tastes.
Learning through discussion
Dr Roxana Barbulescu and Dr Bethany Robertson have featured in the ‘SSP spotlight video series’ discussing the ‘Feeding the Nation’ ERSC-funded project. This project explores the vital role of seasonal workers and farming in supporting our food system.
Watch the full video of ‘Feeding the nation: seasonal migrant workers and food security’ to learn more about the project.
Professor Karen Throsby, author of ‘Sugar Rush: Science, Politics and the Demonisation of Fatness (MUP, 2023)’, recently featured on Anna Nguyen's podcast 'Critical Literary Consumption'. In the episode titled ‘The Many Biopedagogies of Sugar’, Professor Throsby discusses her research on sugar.
Listen to the full episode of ‘The Many Biopedagogies of Sugar’.
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