معرفی
Gansen Caillaud is a Professor in the Modern Languages Department at Grand Valley State University's Brooks College of Interdisciplinary Studies, where they teach French language and culture courses with a specialized focus on food studies.
Their primary research and teaching interests center around French Food Culture, Cuisine and Communities, exploring how food functions as a form of cultural identity and historical expression. Through their courses, they examine the literature, history, and social dimensions of food across different communities, connecting culinary practices to broader societal contexts.
Prof. Caillaud has developed and taught a specialized course on 'French Food Culture, Cuisine and Communities' in French for several years, demonstrating their expertise in this interdisciplinary field that bridges language education with cultural studies.
They co-teach a freshman honors sequence through the Frederik Meijer Honors College that takes an experiential approach to food studies, incorporating hands-on cooking activities, local food excursions in the Grand Rapids area, and discussions with food experts. Their pedagogical approach integrates Reacting to the Past games to explore historical food policy debates, including 'Food Fight: Challenging the USDA Food Pyramid- 1991' and 'Food and Killer disease: The McGovern Committee hearings – 1977'.
Through their teaching philosophy, Prof. Caillaud emphasizes that food is 'about experience as much as it is about learning,' helping students develop 'a deeper enjoyment of food by preparing and sampling it' while gaining 'an appreciation for it as a form of identity with all the connections that entail to the world (past and present) at large.'
