This course traverses the study of modern day perceptions and behaviors of food and eating. We will closely examine and discuss both scholarly and popular texts, studies, and research experiments from the areas of social, cultural, and cognitive psychology. Topics will include disgust, etiquette, and perceptions of taste, comparative perceptions of fullness and pleasure, cravings and comfort, commensality and eating as social ritual, psychological impacts of starvation versus excess, the implications of food advertising on choice, neurogastronomy and synesthesia, disordered eating behaviors, and the formation and facets of shame over what is or is not consumed. Reading reflections, discussion board posts, and a final project on a topic one’s choosing will compose the final grade.