AU students return from "study away" trip

AU students visited St. Helena, S.C. to learn about midwifery and medicine traditions in a “study away” trip. (photo courtesy of Seretha Williams)

By Clara Sorrow | Staff writer

Seretha Williams, department chair and professor of English and Women’s and Gender Studies, recently returned from a trip to Penn Center in St. Helena, S.C. with her undergraduate classes.

It functioned as a “study away” trip. The difference between this and “study abroad” being that this is domestic, while a “study abroad” trip is international through AU’s Study Abroad programs.

Augusta University’s involvement and exposure to this trip was due to the partnership with the University of Georgia–specifically, Pamplin College’s collaboration with Barbara McCaskill and Nicholas Allen, professors at UGA.

AU is also an institutional partner with Culture and Community through the Penn Center Project.

The trip primarily focused on healing practices of women throughout history–specifically, that of African American women on the southeastern coast.

“We will also investigate the folk healing practices of rural Georgia and South Carolina. The intention of our research is to understand the value and the values of African American healing practices,” states Penn Center’s website describing the course.

While the information learned in the specific classes may have varied, once the students got to St. Helena, they were all focusing on one specific topic: Midwifery and Medicine Traditions.

Descriptions of the class list how, though women in healing practices have culturally been demonized, they have been held of high esteem within literature. Through analyzing the history and archives of women as healers in South Carolina, students would learn to understand the nuances of their local history and literature regarding the topic.

“Lay midwives were typically the only people providing healthcare for people living in rural communities, so the professionalization of midwives was important to improving the health of the entire community, especially women and children,” Williams elaborated.

This specific course goes over the Gullah-Geechee community spanning from North Carolina down through the Florida coast. Once the students were well-informed through the classroom setting, they were able to apply their knowledge at Penn Center.

“The most interesting part to me was the history, as it was the first place that enslaved people owned land and ran government in the US,” Austin Plagen, student attendee of the study away trip, explained.

The history he, along with the others on the trip, were taught directly coincided with the literature they were reading for the course–that being among the works of Margaret Walker, Toni Cade Bambara, Gloria Naylor and Julie Dash.

“I hope students recognized the importance of seeking knowledge beyond the physical walls of the classroom,” Williams responded when asked what her hopes were for students’ engagement and takeaways from the class. “They had the opportunity to seek knowledge from content experts from the Gullah-Geechee community; to exchange ideas with students from Morehouse College, Emory University, University of North Carolina, and the University of UGA; to see historically important sites and to immerse themselves in a culture different from their own.”

“I got to meet a lot of amazing people on this trip, other college students and professors and just community members overall who were all amazingly kind and I hope to be able to work alongside them sometime in the future, either with the national park and history preservation or with SOLO on Sapelo Island off the coast of GA,” Plagen commented when asked about his experience with the program.

Penn Center includes many other classes based around the documentation and education of the Gullah-Geechee community. Some of these include a class on using photography to capture the environmental and cultural relevance of the land, Black food geographies and a workshop on liberation farming. Many of these are sponsored by different schools in the surrounding area, though the vast majority of these classes are operating through the University of Georgia. These course options are continuing to grow as more students become involved in the program.

Williams expressed hope to be able to work with Penn Center again in the future for projects such as this. Students have expressed hope for this, as well.

“I definitely will be going on trips like this in the future, as the amount of historical landmarks that was a part of the trip was fascinating and being able to stay on the Penn Center campus was a great experience,” said Plagen.

For more information on Penn Center’s programs, visit: https://penncenter.uga.edu/about/public-programs/research-residencies/
Learn more about Augusta University’s Study Abroad programs here: https://www.augusta.edu/studyabroad/

Contact Clara Sorrow at csorrow@augusta.edu.