Finding The Edge: Writing & Community at the Georgia Coast

If you have ever taken a yoga class, you may have heard an instructor use the term “find your edge,” referring to the place where comfort meets discomfort. For Dr. Elizabeth Davis and a group of eleven intrepid undergraduates, that phrase captures the essence of their experience in a new Domestic Field Study Program, “Writing & Community at the Georgia Coast.” Developed by Dr. Davis in collaboration with UGA’s Marine Extension unit, and with support from a 2023 Domestic Field Study Fellowship and from the Willson Center’s Culture & Community partnership with the Penn Center Historic District, the program was designed to create an immersive learning experience researching and writing in and for coastal communities.

A longtime practitioner of service-learning in her courses, Dr. Davis was comfortable working with rural communities in Georgia when MarEx came calling with a project idea that would bring student writers to the Georgia coast. While she was in her element developing new academic classes and projects, designing and implementing a study away program pushed Davis to her edge. Budgets, travel logistics, health and safety planning, and student recruitment – the nuts and bolts of creating a study away program were complicated and, at times, frustrating. But the work came to fruition and the new program began enrolling students for Maymester 2024. 

The class met on campus for the first four days of the term, reading articles and books on the history of the Global Atlantic, coastal geography and ecology, and oyster aquaculture. Before they knew it, the time had come to depart Athens and they set off, arriving at St. Helena Island, SC for their Penn Center residency. Davis was excited to observe her students making themselves at home in the charming dormitories there, playing cards, sharing favorite music and movies, and relaxing at the dock after each busy day’s activities. 

Again, though, Davis and her students were pushed from their comfort zones as they absorbed history they had not been taught in school and learned about the ecological and economic challenges that threaten the future of Sea Island communities. But this foundation proved critical as the group moved on to their next destinations to learn more about the work that happens in UGA facilities like the Marine Education Center and Shellfish Research Lab on Skidaway Island, the UGA Marine Institute on Sapelo Island, and the MarEx Field Station in Brunswick. Students in the program challenged themselves to do new things: piloting a research vessel in the estuaries, recording data on the marine life hauled up in trawl nets, cooking meals, lugging gear, picking crab and heading shrimp, getting muddy in the salt marsh, and listening intently to community members’ stories of the past and concerns for the future. And all the while, they wrote - their own stories inspired by their travels, and stories of people and seafood that illuminate MarEx’s critical work supporting coastal communities. 

The opportunity to get outside the comfort of Park Hall proved invaluable. Sophomore English major Ava Gruszczinski said, “I treasure the experiences I gained from this class and standing face to face with pioneers in the seafood industry and descendants of a beautiful Gullah culture is something I will never forget.” What better place for English scholars, after all, than out in the world? Gruszczinski sums it up well: “Writing and Community on the GA Coast reminded me how much literature and storytelling can genuinely have an impact. English majors are not just writers—we are part of keeping legacies alive.”