Food Studies Initiative
About the Food Studies Initiative
The USD Food Studies Initiative (FSI) seeks to engage the entire USD community on urgent questions concerning food, generating a scientifically informed and justice-oriented approach to food on campus that aligns with all Six Pathways of USD’s strategic plan: serving as an anchor institution, supporting engaged scholarship, promoting changemaking, increasing access and inclusion, advocating for care for our common home, and exemplifying liberal arts in the 21st century.
At the foundation of the FSI is a commitment to interdisciplinary scholarship that empowers community members to analyze and respond to racism, especially anti-Black and anti-Indigenous racism, colonialism, climate change, violence to animals, and the ways in which all these issues often intersect in questions of food justice and food sovereignty. The FSI will bring together longstanding faculty strengths at USD that utilize food as vehicle for science education, for advancing more ethical supply chains, and for socially engaged scholarship in the humanities and social sciences.
Ultimately, the FSI wants to shape the USD campus into a model of how universities can leverage food scholarship and food services—including USD’s own food supply chains—to build community on and off campus and establish more engaged and ethical foodways.
The immediate goals of FSI leadership include (1) creating democratic and transparent processes to govern important areas of our work, like a curriculum committee that will develop a food studies minor, (2) executing a Speaker Series that will run through 2022 in partnership with the nonprofit Farm Forward, and (3) creating opportunities for USD students, staff, and faculty to raise their voices and get involved.
We encourage you to join our mailing list and add your name to the list of USD community members supporting FSI—which already includes 35 faculty and staff from more than a dozen departments across the College of Arts and Sciences, the School of Business, and the School of Engineering, as well as leadership from Mulvaney Center for Community Awareness, The Changemaker Hub, and the Center for Inclusion and Diversity. To join, email FSI Program Manager John Millspaugh at revjgm@gmail.com.
Food-Related Courses at USD
A sampling of food-related courses offered Spring 2021:
- Anthropology 315: Modern Human Variation (Jennifer Parkinson)
- Biology 113: Plants and People (Marcelle M. Darby)
- Chemistry 102: Science of Food and Cooking (Ashley L. Corrigan Steffey)
- Chemistry 494: Biochemistry of Food and Cooking (Joseph J Provost)
- Education Recreation 148: Virtual Nutrition & Personal Wellness (Lisa L. Taylor)
- Engineering 110: The Design of Coffee (Shai S. Cohen, Giovanni G. Facco, and Samuel D. Fleischman)
- Engineering 315: Coffee: Engineering, the Global Industry and Social Justice (Truc T. Ngo)
- English 230: Food, Love, and Stories (Koonyong Kim)
- Italian 202: Four Semester Italian: Food, Diversity, Culture (Brittany K. Asaro)
- Philosophy 321: Social Ethics (Holly M. Hamilton-Bleakley)
- Political Science 346: Food and Politics (Andrew Tirrell)
- Theology & Religious Studies 313: Jewish Faith and Practice (Aaron S. Gross)
- Theology & Religious Studies 334: Christian Social Ethics (Christopher Carter)
A sampling of food-related courses offered Fall 2020:
- Biology 113: Plants and People (Marcelle M. Darby)
- Chemistry 102: Science of Food and Cooking (Ashley L. Corrigan Steffey)
- Environmental & Ocean Sciences 531: Human Impacts on the Coastal Environment (Steven P. Searcy)
- Honors 318: Conceptions of Nature (Christopher R. Carter)
- Law General 510: Animal Law (Laurence P. Claus)
- Philosophy 116: Morality and Justice (Matthew D. Wion)
- Philosophy 118: Philosophy Through Food (Nicholas A. Riggle)
- Philosophy 321: Social Ethics (Holly M. Hamilton-Bleakley)
- Political Science 494: Politics and Animals (Jonathan D. Wadley)
- Spanish 440: Food and Politics in Spain (Rebecca E. Ingram)
- Theology & Religious Studies 232: Religion and Animals (Aaron S. Gross)
Faculty and Staff Interested in the Food Studies Initiative

Ashley Corrigan Steffey is an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at USD with a Masters in atmospheric chemistry. While this might seem like a far cry from the Science of Food and Cooking course she teaches, chemical reactions are found everywhere, including the kitchen. When confronted with a flat loaf of bread or a bitter batch of cookies, Ashley has always asked—Why? Was it too much of something? Too little? The answer? Chemistry.
Ashley is also passionate about animal welfare and is both a founder and board member of The Rescued Dog, where she focuses on advocating for animals in disenfranchised communities.


Samuel Fleischman is an Adjunct Professor in the Shiley Marcos School of Engineering. His research involves X-ray absorption spectroscopic studies of inorganic compounds. He is currently studying agricultural nutrient transport through the environment. He is involved with the San Diego organization Sustainablefood.us, a group committed to reducing food insecurity by promoting home gardens. The food-related course he teaches is The Engineering of Coffee. He is author or co-author of research articles including, for example, "Phosphorous chemistry affecting nutrient runoff in agriculture," and has been published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society and the Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters.