This article is reproduced from the original feature on Sciences Po website on 21 July 2016. In June 2016, eight USP students, together with NUS and Sciences Po students, participated in a two-week undergraduate intensive non-credited seminar led by USP faculty Dr Mark Brantner. Under the theme “Rhetorics of Food”, the programme introduced students to methods of rhetorical analysis and production developed in and appropriate to Asian, European and American contexts. Students studied for one week in Singapore and one week in Reims, France.

In June 2016, Sciences Po ran a summer programme with the National University of Singapore (NUS) called "Comparative Cultural Rhetorics Academy: Rhetoric and Food". This two-week programme started in Singapore and ended on the Sciences Po campus in Reims. Beverly Goh Ting Xuan was one of the nine students from NUS.

Why did you take this programme?

What attracted me at first was the idea of learning about France’s food culture by actually travelling to France, as it is not common for such an opportunity to come up.

During the programme, I was further motivated by the interesting ways in which we can study and talk about food. We can look at food in many ways – mundanely as a source of energy to live, or from many other different and interesting perspectives, such as explaining how food can affect people’s behaviour, or even discovering ways in which texts and space around food, as it is presented to consumers, can affect consumers’ choices. These are ideas and concepts that we may forget to appreciate, especially since food is something that is closely connected to our day-to-day activities.