A new course from the Department of Africana Studies will examine the geographic, social, and economic histories of okra, watermelon, fried chicken, and more.
A new course at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, will show students there’s a rich cultural history behind the delicious flavors on a plate of Southern food.
Southern Food Cultures, Africana Studies 115, will not only trace the legacy of Southern foodways but engage students in thinking about their own histories and food cultures.
The course, which meets a Volunteer Core curriculum requirement for arts and humanities, also will introduce them to Knoxville area chefs and nonprofit organizations shaping the contemporary stories of food in the region. “I’m excited about our community connections,” said Professor Natalie Graham, head of the Department of Africana Studies, who is teaching the course for the first time at UT in fall 2026.
Rooted in the Community
Over the summer, Graham and a student assistant planted three garden plots at CAC Beardsley Community Farm, which works with local organizations to increase access to fresh produce. Students will visit the farm during the course, harvesting produce and trying a recipe with food from the garden.
“Southern food culture begins in the garden,” Graham said.
For the course she has planted butter beans, spinach, and two varieties of tomatoes. “A lot of these crops are foods that came from Africa to the Americas through the slave trade,” she said. “We’re thinking about all of the ways that we have this legacy of colonization and slavery, but we kind of reap a harvest of something a little more substantive and fruitful, even though it comes out of dark times.”
She’s also connecting UT students with Real Good Kitchen, a shared commercial kitchen and food business incubator, to explore food businesses, local entrepreneurs, and the vibrant food ecosystem in Knoxville. “I think that Knoxville punches above its weight class when it comes to food culture and availability,” Graham said. While UT and Knoxville are on the rise, so is the local food culture.
Writing Cookbooks
Through the course the students will explore how people associate identities with different foods. They will analyze how food is presented in advertisements and newspaper articles, read narratives of formerly enslaved people collected through the Works Progress Administration, and study Southern cookbooks and cookbook history.
Working in groups, the students will create their own cookbooks as they examine recipes from centuries past, think about their own food culture, and bring new recipes together in a chapbook with an appetizer, main course, side dishes, and a dessert.
“They actually begin by writing a food culture diary,” Graham said, recording what they eat and thinking about the ecosystem of how it gets to their table.
The cookbooks will include a theme and introductory narrative. “Students will be asked to think about what their cookbook says about each of them, as a collective, and how it speaks to Southern traditions,” she said.
“I love food as a window into culture, because it absolutely affects students every day,” Graham said. “As a poet, I know students don’t read poems every single day, but they eat. It’s exciting to think about the stories we can tell about food, because they’re going to be reminded at every meal about conversations they’ve had. It’s a really organic way to create thoughtful discussion and discourse.”
by Amy Beth Miller