Note: "Buffet" should be pronounced BOU-fay in this context.

As part of the George Washington University Symposium on Research and Writing, my class is going to submit a proposal for a "session" entitled "Foiid Fights Political Grocery and Cultural Buffet. Less a formal academic conference than an installation, the session will be a political, historical, economic and scientific deconstruction of a number of food ranging from Twinkies and Coca- Cola to egg rolls to olive oil.

As one of their major assignments, my students are producing a "Food Backstory" paper in which they take an item of food and a disciplinary lens (say, bananas and international trade) and research and report on it. The idea is to have them write a research report to contrast later with a persuasive essay they'd write as part of or parallel to this research.

Their part in the Political Grocery is to present their backstory research in an appealling way, one that gives passers-by something to take with them, ideally both food and food for thought. I'm completely interested in what will transpire!