One of my favorite units in my Global Aesthetics class is “Can food be art?” Philosophers are paying more attention to the aesthetics of taste and the ethics of food production.

For my unit on food, I ask students to read the Telfer, “Can Food Be Art?” – and in 2020 I won (hooray!) an instructional video contest through Humanities Edge! It was my first attempt at a video for class (done at the beginning of COVID) – I’m not as good as most of my students, but it was fun to do. I won in the category “how to disagree with experts.”

Video about whether food can be art (video does have captions)

But my attempt at a video cannot compare to the videos submitted by my students! For the class, I asked students to make an instructional video on how to make a “dish” important to their identity (e.g., as a Cuban-American, as a college student, as a Miamian, etc.).

Here are just a few of the amazing videos submitted. I learn more than a few cooking tips and I learned some really interesting things about my students.

Alexa teaches us how to make Cuban coffee (and we learn some slang as well from her Dad).
Ale teaches us how to make good pasta (from the culture of learning how to cook)
Christopher teaches us to make pupusas!

Well done all!