Academic Credit Courses
Summer 2024
Session I May 20-June 1, 2024
HIST 3803: A History of Food – Taos Edition
Marten W. Brienen, School of Global Studies
Bailey F. Norwood, Department of Agricultural Economics
Taos represents a unique way of delving into the history of food. The cuisine of this region not only combines culinary traditions from different parts of the world, but also preserves traditions and practices that are unique. It is an ideally suited location to discuss the Columbian Exchange and how it transformed not only the planet, but what and how we eat. The forced integration of the New World into global trade networks transformed food and cuisine around the globe, while food and food production in the region were transformed by the arrival of the Spanish and later the American settlers with their diverse backgrounds.
The regional cuisine of Taos is marked by the fusion of Puebloan, Spanish, Mexican, and American cuisines and traditions, giving us the opportunity to explore important themes within the history of food through this very particular lens. As part of the course, we will explore traditional Puebloan agricultural practices and the resulting foods in collaboration with the Taos Pueblo farm. It will also be important to examine the transformation of agricultural practices and the expansion of farming through the acequia system. Students will learn about the transformation of regional foods by looking at the arrival of new crops and the integration of bread into the diet through an examination of the hornos (adobe outdoor ovens) we find throughout the landscape.
Students will additionally learn about modern farming and ranching and their adaptations to the landscape and climate of Northern New Mexico through visits to local farms and ranches. Likewise, we will explore modern systems for the maintenance of fisheries by visiting the fish hatchery near Questa. Our plan is also to integrate cooking into the course by working with our students to recreate some of the dishes that are so symbolic of the region and its history. This would include traditional Puebloan foods, foods consumed by frontiersmen such as Kit Carson, the bread made in a traditional horno, sopapillas, and green chili stew.
Session II: June 3-14, 2024
ART 4800 Special Studies in Art — Large Format Analog Photography/
ART 4280 Photography Studio
Andy Mattern, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Photography at Oklahoma State University in Stillwater.
In this hands-on course, students will learn the basics of large format film photography and create one-of-a-kind cyanotype contact prints from the negatives they produce. The photography program in the OSU art department has 14 large format 4x5 “field cameras,” which present a unique — and much slower — way of photographing. The process includes using a tripod and deliberately adjusting a bellows camera under a dark cloth in order to capture singular images on 4x5" sheets of film. These sheets of film can be handled in dark bags and then processed in tanks, all within a fully lit room. The negatives can then be scanned, or contact printed directly onto cyanotype coated paper, for example.
Session III: July 1-13
ENGL 4220/5480: The Bomb & The Bohemians
Ryan Slesinger, Ph.D.
This course will illustrate two entwined cultural histories of the Northern New Mexico region: the successive waves of countercultural populations attracted to Taos, and the development of the atomic bomb in Los Alamos. The course foci will be organized into three sections: First we will focus on the collection of bohemian artists who gathered in the region in the first quarter of the twentieth century. Then we will turn our attention to Los Alamos, and finally we will consider the counterculture artists of the 1960s, how their art differs from their predecessors who lived in a pre-bomb world, and their legacy in the region.
ARCH 4100: Collective Housing in Taos: An Architectural Historical Inquiry
Jared Macken, Ph.D., OSU School of Architecture
Collective Forms are architectural structures consisting of many different aggregated parts that form larger cohesive wholes. Taos provides historically important examples of collective form. These structures include Taos Pueblo, 1350 CE–present, Taos Earthship Community, 1970’s , Valverde Intentional Living Commons, 2006; and Taos Town Square and Main Street, 1796–present. Each of these examples of collective form integrate housing with public/social space in order to create vastly diverse examples of miniature cities. By studying these structures through the lens of architecture, students will gain a better understanding of the architectural history of early America, but also explore different lifestyles and ways of life that span centuries.
