Fulton, MO – At William Woods University, students get to travel the world through innovative experiences like the Woods Around The World program. In the university’s latest foray into cultural education, WWU is bringing the world to its campus in Fulton.
On Thursday, November 29, the university will be hosting the first of eight international dinners that will be the kick-off of a new program called the World Supper Club. The World Supper Club will provide students with the opportunity to sample the best cuisine from a specific nation of the world. The experience will include table conversation over dinner about the nation that is the subject of the dinner, plus the showing of a short film about the world travels of Anthony Bourdain, the former celebrity chef, author and CNN travel documentarian.
Bourdain, host of award-winning series No Reservations and Parts Unknown, passed away tragically last June.
“The World Supper Club will honor Mr. Bourdain and his spirit of adventure, curiosity and good will, which introduced the world to millions of people,” said Travis Tamerius, Director of the Center for Ethics and Global Studies at William Woods University. “This experience is another example of our unique approach to education here at William Woods, whereby we take the student beyond the classroom and the textbook and into the real world of another culture.”
The first meeting of the World Supper Club will be on Thursday, November 29 from 5-6:30 p.m. in the Ivy Room, located inside Tucker Dining Hall, on the William Woods campus. The nations featured will be Spain and Portugal, and the dinner will consist of Spanish paella, stuffed aubergines, patatas bravas, stuffed peppers and onions, Portugese egg tarts and non-alcoholic sangrias.
Other dinners throughout the year will consist of Cuba (January 24), Brazil (February 7), India (February 21), Morocco (February 28), USA-New Orleans (March 14), Greece (March 28) and Japan (April 4).
“Rudyard Kipling held that ‘the first condition to knowing a foreign country is to smell it.’ He recognized that learning should be a fully embodied, sensory experience,” said Tamerius. “We might add that another condition to knowing a foreign country is to taste it, to let the spices and flavors of another culture dance on your tongue. That is what we are hoping to do with this series of dinners which can serve as a gateway to the world.”
Tamerius is also director of the university’s innovative Woods Around The World program, which marked its 10th anniversary in 2018. Through Woods Around The World, a cultural education program with a service component, more than 400 William Woods students have journeyed to the far corners of the globe, visiting all seven continents. Experiences have included travel to Cuba, Australia, New Zealand, Antarctica and Argentina, as well as destinations in Europe, the Middle East and South America. During the current academic year, World Around The World will be taking William Woods students to Costa Rica and Japan.
For more on the Woods Around The World program, please visit https://www.williamwoods.edu/student_experience/undergraduate_student_experience/multicultural_opportunities/woods_around_the_world.html.
