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 Cornell Clayton
Clayton spent early 2003 in Siena, Italy, a magical, almost
perfectly preserved medieval walled city in Tuscany, where a
consortium of Northwest universities, including WSU, sponsor a
study-abroad program for American college students. The program is
jointly operated with AHA International, a Portland, Oregon-based
non-profit organization that runs 15 different study-abroad sites
worldwide. With most of the language and core courses taught by
permanent Italian faculty, the Siena professorship is open to only
one visiting faculty member each semester. Clayton was chosen from
a pool of Northwest faculty members to teach a quarter in 2003. He
taught a course on Machiavelli, Italy's famed political
philosopher, as well as this class, Italian Politics, subtitled,
"The Politics of Food and Wine in Italy and Europe."
"The biggest problem I have is that nobody really believes I'm
working," says Clayton, who normally specializes in American
constitutional law. "But I'm working harder on these courses than
most of the regular courses I teach."
While food and wine were the hooks to attract students, the
course work includes plenty of solid political science-the study of
European political institutions, agricultural trade policy,
terrorism, corruption, and current events, for example. Clayton
admits that introducing American students to Italian politics via
epicurean explorations into European wine and cuisine is a grand
idea he unfortunately cannot take credit for. The course was
originally the brainchild of his WSU colleague, Lance LeLoup, who
designed it for a similar professorship he was awarded in Angers,
France, in 2001.
"I was looking for a unique way to teach American students about
French and European ag policy," explains LeLoup, the C.O. and Mary
Johnson Distinguished Professor of Political Science at WSU. "Since
eating and drinking is one of the best ways to get to know a new
place, and since these issues have been critical to the EU, I
thought it was a perfect marriage."
The bottom line, LeLoup says, is that 50 percent of the European
Union budget goes into the common agricultural policy to resolve
issues of trade, food safety, the effectiveness of traditional
farming methods, and the role of cuisine in family structure and
culture. In fact, Clayton adds, one of the biggest current
political disputes between Europe and the U.S. today involves the
introduction of genetically modified food products, considered safe
and ethical in the U.S., but no less than heretical in Europe.
"Anybody who looks a little deeper into what we are doing will
see that this is a serious area," says LeLoup, " . . .one that has
been critical to the EU since the 1950s, and continues to be as the
EU considers its 10-member expansion."
In fact, LeLoup has requested a one-year sabbatical to study the
issue more in depth next year at the University of Bordeaux.
"It's very relevant now, especially in terms of
French-European-U.S. relations, and WSU is in a strong position to
be part of that dialogue because of its relevance in the biotech
areas," he explains. "People in political science may not be out
there creating new breeds of plants, but we are able to develop
courses that can promote a better understanding for American
students, as well as others abroad, for some of these emerging
issues."
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