What role did food play in the constitution of European empires? What are the different ways in which food was understood across cultures as Europe colonized America, Asia, and Africa? Did colonialism alter the diets of the ‘colonizer’ and ‘colonized’? How did the end of European imperialism and the Cold War impact our food system? What does the call for ‘decolonize your diet’ mean? The objective of this course is to understand the historical relationship between food and power in the modern world. It will draw on cases from across the world (particularly from the British Empire and the U.S.) to understand how the roots of our modern-day food system can be traced back to the colonization of ‘native’ and ‘indigenous’ people, their lands, and animals. Students will read about food from the various vantage points of imperial politics, society, and economy: trade and commerce (e.g., tea and coffee), science and medicine (e.g., rice and soya bean), foreign policy (e.g., corn and wheat), migration and diaspora (curry and chop suey). We will also look at various sites of colonialism (e.g., the military, the laboratory, and the kitchen) where matters of what, when, and how to eat were intensely discussed and debated.