First Annual

Interdisciplinary Student Conference

Friday, April 19, 2013

9 to 5 Food for Thought: Nourishing our minds and bodies

(draft as of Monday, April 15)

PRESENTATIONS
____________________________________________________________________________

SESSION 1 9:15-10:15
Teaching About Food
EDU 380
Janna Prout, Jordan Elston, Renee Choiniere, Greg Doiron, Tristen Hinkle Chair: Cindy Dean

KATZ 5

In public schools the testing frenzy has all but taken over the curriculum often leaving out many important social topics that support our students' academics. Among these topics is food, in particular how our choices of food affect our social and academic lives. Helping students learn and practice healthy living, good nutrition, and exercise can help in stemming the national epidemic of childhood obesity. Each presenter will address an important aspect of food and how schools can teach children about the science of food and how to make healthy and appropriate choices.

Creative Writing Workshop

KATZ 36 UMA Writing Center Adrienne Beacham, Kayla Rhiannon Bates, Vanessa Valley, Patricia Swain Chair: Michelle Lisi UMA Writing Tutors will help participants to practice food writing, and to evaluate their own work about food.

Student Poster Session

A variety of student work will be displayed in the Fireplace Lounge.

Fireplace Lounge

______________________________________________________________________________

SESSION 2 10:30-11:30
Reading Food through Theory
ENG 300: Literary Criticism and Theory Trish Swain, Rebecca Lux Soc, Megan Smith Chair: Kendralee Tessier A panel presentation and discussion of several images and a poem that represent the conference theme of food. Students will share their work from their midterm assignment where they were asked to apply at least two theories to a particular image or poem about food. Students' work explores literary and cultural KATZ 5

implications of consumption, WWII propaganda and women's role as providers, and the transmission of cultural values via a child's environment, among many other interesting interpretations.

Pets & Food & Nutrition: Two Perspectives

Chair: April Doughty Michelle Moon Veterinary Technologies Pet Food and Nutrition

Fireplace Lounge

Nutrition is not just important for humans, our furry friends also have very specific needs. Pet food commercials and labels can be very confusing. I would like to talk to about pet foods (cats and dogs). I will mostly focus on pet food labeling. Im planning on bringing in a bunch of pet food pack ages for examples and explain the differences between reading labels for human foods and pet foods for the savvy pet owner. The way pet foods are formulated and nutritional content is determined may be interesting to some people. I would also like to spend some time talking about common pet nutritional deficiencies and toxicities. Q & A.

Lauren Verow Liberal Studies and Women's Studies minor Raising Rabbits for Food: From the Practical to the Political AME/WST 305: American Fitness: Culture, Community, and Transformation Rabbit meat is a traditional American meat that it largely misunderstood. At this informational session on raising rabbits as a sustainable meat source, I will outline some of the practical aspects of this practice as well as providing education concerning the nutritional value of rabbit meat, its sustainability, and the ways in which it supports local Maine business. Fliers and Q & A. ______________________________________________________________________________

SESSION 3 1:15-2:15
Food & Intersections
AME/WST 305: Race, Class, Gender, and Sexuality in American Culture
Michelle Fontaine, Janet Ramey, Shawn Spellman, Caroline Campbell, Katelynn Denis, Chris Enman

KATZ 5

Chair: Rillyria Sherifi Continuing the conversation from the English Student Conference on April 9, and taking it in interdisciplinary directions. .... Students explore the connections between Ruth Ozeki's novel, My Year of Meats, and a variety of issues related to food in and out of this novel. In an informal discussion, students will present a number of ideas that consider food through a lens--or multiple lenses--of race, class, gender, and sexuality, using the ideas from AME/WST 305 and inspired by Ozeki's work.

Go Organic! Individual to Structural

AME/WST 305

KATZ 40

Jessica Bishop, Melissa Bolduc, Kristin Dubay, Alexandra Ireland Connecting individual experiences with organic products with the impacts these personal choices can have on our individual health and well-being as well as the health and well-being of our communities.

Greenhouse Collaborative Project

ARC 305

Fireplace Lounge

______________________________________________________________________________

SESSION 4 2:30-3:30
The Zombie Project
Fireplace Lounge ENG 475 Postcolonial Fictions Nicole Bayley (ENG); Suzanne Jones (LIB); Ryan Locke (ENG); Julia Ranks (ENG); Rachel Sherifi (BUS); Jessica Shoudy(INT); Vanessa Valley (ENG) The class has created a large visual art project that includes images, text, and music. The project focuses on the development of zombie culture and the ways it has evolved as a colonial and postcolonial discourse. An exploration of zombies is a natural fit for a conference on food for obvious reasons. But invisible from contemporary discussions of zombies are the colonial underpinnings and dispossession of Caribbean subjects. This project attempts to connect the missing links between the oppressive appropriation of zombies and their current ubiquitous presence in popular culture.

Peacemakers Project
Interdisciplinary Studies Capstone Project Tessa Hayes

Fireplace lounge

Smorgasbord: International Foods & Metabolic Pathways

Katz 5 This panel brings together business and science, biological processes with the pleasure of eating. Jessica White BUA/CIS 303 Foods of Jamaica Jennifer Kilgore BUA/CIS 303 Foods of Italy David Gonella Liberal Studies, Biology and Natural Science Think Microscopically, Drink Locally BIO XXX Biochemistry My paper will demonstrate the metabolic pathway in which ethanol molecules travel, from their absorption in the stomach and intestinal tract, to their oxidation by the two enzymes primarily in the liver, and finish with alcohols excretion as carbon dioxide and water. These scientific processes are important for a better understanding of heart disease risks. They are also connected to the many high-end microbreweries throughout Maine that have made a positive impact on our local economy.

______________________________________________________________________________

CLOSING ACTIVITY 3:45-4:45

Organic Dance
Professor Sarah Hentges Organic denotes the ways in which the parts of something fit together to create a harmonious whole. Organic suggests something that is of the body or of the earth. Organic is characterized by continuous or natural development. Organic Dance is all of these things...and more. During our conference we have been asked to think about what we put in our bodies, what we put on our bodies, and what impacts these choices have on our health and wellness as well as the health and wellness of our culture and communities. To end our day, we'd like to think about the ways in which we might treat our bodies well through movement, through letting go and finding our own organic movements. Organic Dance is a fitness program designed to connect the mind and body. This innovative fitness dance draws from a variety of popular styles of dance and fitness, adapting forms, methods, and patterns into a workout that encourages participants to move as it feels good to them. Bare feet are recommended but not required. No dance experience needed. Klahr Theater