This path was created by Collin Hardwick.
Introduction
As an avenue for understanding space and place, I turn to one of the oldest "local foods" -- wine -- in one of its most recent incarnations -- the Washington state wine industry.
In this book, I recount a history of the Columbia Valley AVA. Further, I will theorize the underlying assumption behind viticultural areas: the concept of terroir, or that specific agricultural zones will yield different flavors, just by virtue of location. I plan to investigate terroir as a way of conceiving of the local, acknowledging both its commodified and colonizing purposes.
Questions that will drive the research include: To what extent has terroir affected our understandings of place and locality? And, can we leverage this understanding of the local for decolonizing and pedagogical purposes?