Emily Munro-Hernandez, Upper School social studies faculty, shares a reflection of the interdisciplinary Food & Colonialism course she teaches, highlighting the impact of experiential learning in this thought-provoking course. The Food & Colonialism course is a part of the interdisciplinary course offerings of our Upper School. 

One of the main goals of the Food & Colonialism class is to study how power dynamics determine both who feeds us and how food has been produced, distributed, and consumed in the United States. An early case study during the first semester was investigating the history of Chinese-American food on both a national and local level. This included not only exploring the development of meals like General Tso’s chicken, but also figures like Seattle’s own restauranteur and politician Ruby Chow. 

As an extension to this learning, in December students took a field trip to the Wing Luke Museum in the Chinatown-International District of Seattle. We were given a guided tour by museum educators, starting with an examination of historical resources related to immigrant family owned businesses in the Tateuchi Event space of the museum itself. We then walked and ate at three different neighborhood restaurants, including at Tai Tung, the oldest Chinese-American restaurant in Seattle. While eating delicious meals, students were able to talk one-on-one with the museum educators about not only the history of family run restaurants in the CID, but also current celebrations and dilemmas of the neighborhood. Through this trip, students were able to immersively connect their learnings about food and immigrant history from class to the Pacific Northwest while also getting to enjoy the communal nature of a good meal.