Students in Dr. Michelle Robinson’s AMST 201: Literary Approaches to American Studies course have put together a website showcasing a multi-pronged creative research project inspired by Octavia Butler’s novel Parable of the Sower.
A survivalist “tradeshow” invited students in UNC-Chapel Hill’s course “Literary Approaches to American Studies” (Spring 2016) to reckon with questions surrounding the future(s) of food raised by Butler’s novel: What can, and will, sustenance look like in an unstable environmental future, for whom do we provide it, and who has access in the first place?
Students took on these questions through documentary writing exercises and conducted a taste-based investigation of survivalist food items. The website (linked above) includes several student essays, photographs of the “tradeshow,” and a survivalist food catalog.
“Seeds of Survival” was sponsored by a UNC Food For All micro-grant and produced in collaboration with AMST 201 Graduate Research Consultant Michaela Dwyer.
