Developing the teaching programme

In the area of teaching, the partnership between the IEHCA and Tours University enables the provision of wide-ranging and thoroughly multidisciplinary training at an advanced level, available as a full-time course or as part of a CPD programme and aimed at a “research” or “professional” market. It provides an in-depth understanding of food as a social and cultural phenomenon, familiarising (undergraduate and postgraduate) students with the methodological and critical tools developed by the humanities and social sciences.

→ Advanced training to meet new needs

Tours University, the IEHCA and the universities of Bologna and Brussels (ULB and UVB) have created the Master Européen Histoire et Cultures de l’Alimentation (European master’s in food history and cultures), which offers students the opportunity to discover a rapidly evolving discipline. It enables a pooling of the knowledge and specialisations of university centres that are recognised across Europe and facilitates international exchanges between students or young researchers. Legitimised by the successful inscription of the Gastronomic Meal of the French on the list of intangible cultural heritage by UNESCO, the IEHCA committed itself to creating a Master Professionnel Patrimoine Culturel Immatériel (professional master’s in intangible cultural heritage) in conjunction with the Centre d'Études Supérieures de la Renaissance (CESR) (centre for advanced studies of the Renaissance). The programme took its first student cohort for the 2012-2013 academic year.

→ A summer university

Since 2003, the IEHCA and Tours University have joined forces to organise weeklong summer universities in Tours, dedicated to Food Studies. They are attended by international academics recognised by the scientific community in the field of food history and cultures, and young researchers working in all disciplines. In previous years, we have attracted 250 students and 90 experienced specialists from all continents who made the journey to attend.

→ Short courses made to measure

Professionals and scholars collaborated to devise these brand-new courses delivered by university academics and specialists. They comprise programmes and modules entirely tailored to the demands and needs of companies, such as the “Fromage et Patrimoine” (cheese and heritage) university diploma, created in 2009 in partnership with the international guild of cheese-makers. All these courses will be expanded over time, resulting in a true university of gastronomic sciences in Tours that will be the only one of its kind in France.