Southwestern professor finds a chocolate calling

Students learn about history, economics, biology and more through class.

By Janet Elliott
HOUSTON CHRONICLE
Monday, December 31, 2007

Romi Burks went to Belgium four years ago to study the behavior of a shrimp-like crustacean. She found inspiration in the country's rich, dark chocolate.

An aquatic biologist with a degree in English, Burks has long tried to find a balance between her interests in science and the liberal arts.

Chocolate helped her bridge the gap.

After returning to Southwestern University in Georgetown, the assistant professor of biology began reading everything she could find about chocolate.

"It just amazed me how many examples within culture and within disciplines that could be connected with chocolate," Burks said.

She developed what she believes to be the first college course in the country with an interdisciplinary approach to chocolate. Students in her course get to taste some of the best bars around. They also learn about different cultures, marketing and fair trade.

"Multi-Chocolated: An Aesthetic, Historical and Scientific Journey into the Wonders of Chocolate," was among 28 freshman seminars offered this fall at Southwestern. Eight male and six female students signed up for the class, which will be offered again next fall.

"It was a beautiful class," said Burks, whose scientific research centers on an apple snail from Uruguay that has invaded the Houston area.

Raising the bar

In her class, Burks wove lectures on evolution, environmental justice and history with tastings of fine chocolates from around the world.

Brian Tidwell, an 18-year-old from Trinity, said the first class featured a bar of nearly pure cacao, the bitter seed used to make chocolate.

"It tastes a whole lot like dirt," he said.

Future sessions brought what Tidwell called the "magical mystery of chemistry": The cacao level is just below 90 percent, and the result is "just delicious."

"Once you take the class, you really can't eat something like a Hershey's bar anymore," he said.

Tidwell's roommate, 18-year-old Steven Solis of Corpus Christi, said Burks was a good instructor.

"It took quite the imagination to realize you can use chocolate as an all-encompassing subject matter," Solis said.

Burks, 34, had previously employed common chocolate bars to help students understand a key concept of evolution: how different species might have a common ancestor.

After discovering dark European chocolate while in Belgium working on her dissertation, Burks took her studies to new depths.

She learned that American pilots dropped care packages of chocolate to children in Berlin to rebuild relations after World War II. And she explored the gaps between workers in the countries that grow the cacao trees and those who process it into gourmet candy.

Tasty assignments

Freshman seminars use one topic to expose new college students to skills such as reading, writing, critical thinking, discussion and creativity. Southwestern also offers seminars in human relationships with pets, religious conceptions of food, why people believe weird things, terrorism and surfing.

Most of the 35 types of chocolate that students tasted came from Zingerman's Cafe in Ann Arbor, Mich. Burks discovered the deli during a vacation there last summer.

"They had an entire wall of all the chocolate I had read about in books," she said.

She even had her students try one she found hideous: a chocolate bacon bar.

Homework assignments included writing a paper on a recent trend in chocolate and creating a piece of art using chocolate as the centerpiece.

Solis built a Mayan pyramid out of Hershey's chocolate bars. Playing with the idea that chocolate is in everything we do, Tidwell took photos of a chocolate bar attending class, playing football, leaving the chapel and in various other settings around campus.

Burks said there are many misconceptions about chocolate. It doesn't cause migraines, acne or tooth decay, she said. And there's no scientific evidence that it triggers more pleasure for women than for men.

A chocolate connoisseur doesn't need a pile of money, she notes: Just a nibble of really good chocolate can satisfy.

"It's a much more accessible gourmet hobby than even wine or cheese," Burks said. "It's nice to have this sort of hobby that is really enriching for myself and my students."