Students in the DMLL special topics courses, ITAL 370: The Slow Food Movement and SPAN 370: Slow Food in Latin America, attended the world summit of Slow Food, TERRA MADRE in Turin, Italy September 26-30, 2024, with Denise Caterinacci and Jacqueline Nanfito. The Eirik Borve Fund for Foreign Language Instruction funded 6 student travelers to this biennial, global event. The official languages were Italian, Spanish, and English, conveying content in anthropology, economics, biology, environmental studies, and much more. There were reportedly 300,000 attendees at Terra Madre 2024.

Over 1,000 events that included speakers, workshops, and tastings were held. Students have benefitted from the collaborative approach offered through holding the two parallel courses this fall semester, and they were immersed in Italian and Spanish throughout the duration of the summit. Simultaneous interpreters in booths at each session provided several languages that attendees could listen to through headsets. There were abundant displays of Slow Food’s activities around the world. The overlapping disciplines and humanities-based activities, for which Slow Food has evolved into a worldwide initiative, were highlighted and celebrated.

Key speakers were Italians Slow Food founder Carlo Petrini and world-renowned physicist Federico Faggin, and American, Slow Food School Gardens pioneer Alice Waters. Faggin delivered an impassioned talk that linked quantum physics to spirituality, the focus of his latest book “Irreducible – Consciousness, Life, Computers, and Human Nature” (2024) and then tied it all to Slow Food and Terra Madre. The special topics students of Italian and Spanish are currently reading Petrini’s seminal books, “Good, Clean, and Fair” and “Food and Freedom”, in the respective languages. Students of Spanish have learned about Petrini’s past collaborative work with acclaimed Chilean author and journalist Luis Sepulveda.

Students attended talks and activities of their individual preference and reunited each day to share their impressions. They were immersed in experiential learning about the multi-faceted features of this topic and the movement, along with putting their language skills to work. They enjoyed meeting and interacting with Carlo Petrini and many other speakers, producers, vendors, educators, and delegates from around the world.

On October 15, a special exhibit will open at Kelvin Smith Library, from 3-5 p.m. in the Freedman Center Collaborative Commons, which will highlight student involvement in the courses and at Terra Madre, and the varied collaborations among disciplines: SLOW MATTERS – Intersecting Food and Fields. Speakers, including the interim director of Slow Food USA, Bilal Sarwari, will be hosted throughout October and November, and other events are also scheduled, all free and open to the public.