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Bob Rhoades knows the country. Whether it’s the country
in South America, Nepal, or the United States, this professor
of anthropology knows agrarian landscapes and lifeways.
Now, his students are engaged in a hands-on project at a 320-acre
farm called Agrarian Connections in the piedmont of Georgia’s
Oglethorpe County, a short drive from UGA. A number of projects
such as the Southern Seed Legacy, the Trail of Time, and the
Georgia Log Cabin Project are up and running, and students
are learning how the past intersects with the present and
future.
“With my students and local citizens, we are studying
the historical ecology of the landscapes by using experimental
methods and hands-on learning,” says Rhoades. “This
farm is like a lifetime painting in which we are creating
our personal relationship with the land.”
Since Rhoades purchased the property in 1993, the value of
the land as a laboratory for studying biodiversity and sustainability
has been steadily rising. With 150 of woodlands and 150 acres
of badly eroded farmland, along with 15 acres of federally
protected wetlands, Agrarian Connections could be the entire
piedmont South in a nutshell.
Along with Dr. Virginia Nazarea of the anthropology department,
co-director of the Southern Seed Legacy, Rhoades has seen
his dream for the property blossom.
“I was born on a farm in Oklahoma and never quite got
the red dirt out from under my fingernails,” says Rhoades.
“We’re using interdisciplinary methods borrowed
from oral history, archival science, historical archaeology,
and ecology to enrich the educational experience for students
at the University of Georgia.”
Building
the New Learning Environment
The new learning environment is an academic and intellectual
community on the campus of the University of Georgia humming
with the vibrancy of the true college experience—bright
and talented students working with brilliant faculty formally
in the classroom and informally over a cup of coffee or lounging
in the greenspace which stretches from one end of campus to
the other. It is a place which recognizes that new information
technologies are transforming traditional academic disciplines
and embraces those opportunities. |
Professor
Bob Rhoades’ students are engaged in a hands-on project at a
320-acre farm called Agrarian Connections in Georgia’s Oglethorpe
County. There, students are learning how the past intersects with
the present and future.
