Cup of Noodles: Lessons in Commensality & Co-design (Malloy 102)

Anthropologist Naomi Leite described commensality as the “powerful means by which human beings create, express, and solidify feelings of mutual trust, intimacy, and kinship.” The same could be said of co-design. This workshop offers the opportunity to learn how to leverage both practices in university spaces for first-generation students. To begin with, we will acknowledge some of the pain points around food in first-gen communities and hold space for the complicated relationships some may have with it. Next, we will explore the potential of food to welcome, to inspire participation, and to build relationships. Then, participants will have time to work through a co-design session during which combined groups of students, faculty, and administrators will collaborate to reimagine the first-gen support system through a gastronomic lens.