Fall 2018: How Tea Conquered the World
Have the Chinese always drunk tea? Is the Japanese tea ceremony really centuries old? What happens when tea becomes a commodity, and is drunk around the world? And what about the adverts telling you how healthy tea is?
These are some of the questions we will be asking as we examine the relation between tea and history. We will read texts, watch videos and taste tea, to connect with the story of tea, and to trace the role of tea in the lives of many different people across the world and throughout history. And at the end of the course, you will be ready to tackle any other topic you put your mind to, with the skills you learned in this seminar: thinking and writing analytically.