Location: Scott-Bates Commons Salon C

Sugar

The word has its roots in Sanskrit, Persian, and Arabic, with influence from Malayalam and Portuguese. In plantations exploiting the labor of enslaved Africans in the Caribbean, Asian migrants in the American South, and Indigenous peasants in the Philippines, the cultivation and spread of sugar across the world can be mapped onto this etymology. Through this event, we come together to ask: How can something that seems as simple, scientific, and natural–a desire for sweetness–be influenced by systems like slavery, colonialism, capitalism?

In this event hosted by students of the Critical Diaspora Studies (CDS) major, Black Student Union (BSU), African Students Association (ASA), Inter-Asian Council (IAC), and the JHU Young Democratic Socialists of America (YDSA), we will explore this history while trying Thai sugarcane drinks, Japanese castella cakes, and Jamaican rum cakes. 

This event is open to undergraduate students.