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Students examined the social, economic and religious significance of corn
and found tangible links between modern and ancient American cultures.by Kathie Dickenson
llison Rose had a revelation last fall at the kick-off event for the Year of Corn and Culture. "When Marilou Awiakta held up an ear of corn, with the husks coming off it, she spoke about all the different colors, about how each kernel was separate but was part of the corn," said Rose. "And I thought, that's what the theme of Corn and Culture is at Radford. Everyone is part of the topic, even if they feel distant from it at first."
Rose, a senior media studies major and dance minor, was student coordinator for the Annual Spring Honors Symposium, a series of special events and speakers, which this year adopted the theme of Corn and Culture. The theme implies connections, and Rose has taken steps to involve as many people from the university and community as possible. For example, she initiated a new event, "Show and Tell Day," an opportunity for students and faculty from any department to showcase their connection with the theme. The local community was invited to attend the presentations. "The one thing I want to do as I leave Radford is try to put the university in a positive light among the local community," said Rose. "That's why I invited people to come on campus and be part of the Honors Symposium."
Rose worked with Honors Program director Earl Brown and the Appalachian Regional Studies Center on plans for the symposium for nearly a year and met with her symposium committee weekly. Being student coordinator gave Rose "a chance to incorporate everything I've learned from the Honors Program, everything the Honors Program stands for. I gave the students on my committee the opportunity to take responsibility - to plan an event or publicize one, for example. I wanted them to feel they each played an important part in the symposium. It gave me satisfaction when they did that well." She was pleased by the support she received from faculty. "There was a great deal of interest this year because Corn and Culture was a year-long theme," she said.
Rose, whose goal is to be a theatre and film director, said coordinating the symposium was like directing a performance. "In a performance, you have the actors, the set designers, the costume people - everyone has a different talent, and the director's job is to bring them all together," she said. "Everyone is here at Radford for a different reason and from a different background. When they came to the Corn and Culture symposium I wanted them to bring that with them."
t's easy to see how corn fits into a foods and nutrition course, but where does the study of culture come in?
Junior dietetics major Colleen Wavrek volunteers in a hospital when she's at home in New Jersey. "The first time I was asked to prepare a kosher meal I had no idea what to do," she said. "If I work in a city I'll need to know about different cultures," whether she's preparing meals or counseling people in proper nutrition.
Health services department chair Barbara Chrisley was delighted when she heard about the Year of Corn and Culture because it fell on a year when she would be teaching a course in community and cultural nutrition. Understanding different cultures has always been a focus of the course, but last fall was the first time she had concentrated primarily on one food. "I think it's good that we focused on something so basic as corn," said sophomore Melissa Anderson. "Most people eat corn - I eat corn."
Each student in the course researched a different cultural group - Mexican, Jewish or Creole, for example - and studied community agencies in which nutritionists work. "As nutritionists," explained Chrisley, "we must provide any culture with proper nutrition." Nutritionists need to be willing to work with what people are used to eating, said senior Alice Edwards. "We have to learn acceptance of foods we wouldn't usually touch," she said, whether that means sweetbreads or seal blubber.
After students in the course examined the nutritional aspects of corn and learned about its other uses - as a fuel, for example - they went to work adapting traditional corn recipes to make them healthier. They experienced a windfall when Nancy St. Clair Finch '60 spotted an article about Corn and Culture in the last issue of RU Magazine. Finch, who happened to be writing an article on corn for the January Cooperative Farmer magazine, interviewed Chrisley for facts about corn and asked to see some of her students' recipes. Chrisley sent all of them, and Finch included those by Anderson, Wavrek and Edwards. The publication will be a boon to the resumes of the three dietetics majors.
enior geography major Zack Karantonis grew up in Fallston, Md., with a back-door view of corn fields. As a boy he and his friends would sneak out into the fields and stomp some of the small, tender corn stalks in patterns that became mazes for them to explore when the other stalks grew tall. Corn has always been a presence in his life, and he never thought of where it came from until he took geography professor Susan Woodward's human ecology course this semester.
Human ecology focuses on how people of the past have modified ecosystems and organisms on the planet. Woodward's course emphasizes the domestication of plants and animals. During spring semester's class, each student researched a crop or animal with wild origins in the Americas and presented a poster-paper at the Day of the Corn Celebration in April.
Karantonis researched maize and quickly recognized a few connections between his world and the world of the Native Americans who developed this wild grass into a staple crop. Karantonis has long played lacrosse, a game played by Native Americans, depending on the tribe, as a pre-battle game, as a ritual for healing or for settling disputes. Karantonis's father, a teacher, leads camping trips for which he uses Native American stories and games. And of course the colored "Indian" corn is part of his family's Thanksgiving traditions.
Karantonis's interest in maize grew when he attended a campus lecture by Jane Mt. Pleasant, a Cornell University agronomist specializing in Native American agriculture. It was from Mt. Pleasant that he learned about the three sisters crop system - the planting of corn, squash and beans together. "Each plant benefits the other," said Karantonis. The squash's large leaves keep the weeds down. The beans supply nitrogen for the corn, and the corn stalk provides a pole for the beans to climb. Mt. Pleasant loves and lives the culture of the Native Americans. "She gave us seeds," said Karantonis, "and encouraged us to plant them as a way of passing the Native American heritage on to future generations."
am Appalachian," said English professor Jo Ann Asbury. "I was born and raised in Pulaski and I'm a graduate of Radford." Having seen countless Appalachian stereotypes in movies and on television, she feels compelled to show the true Appalachia, so she embraced wholeheartedly the theme of Corn and Culture. Both her freshman expository writing students and her sophomore American literature classes read work by Marilou Awiakta and other literature that embodies Appalachian values. This spring's freshman honors class was immersed in the theme.
"All of my students seem to relate directly to Appalachian values," said Asbury, "even if they're not Appalachian." Such values as a strong sense of family, love of beauty and love of place recall an earlier America, she said, and students can find some, if not all of them, in their own heritage. Non-Appalachian students take away a better appreciation of their own region and become more aware of their roots. In addition, she said, "Awiakta's book Selu gives answers to today's questions about what we're going to do to save mother earth."
When asked about the practical benefits of the university-wide theme, Asbury said, "What is more practical than being able to get along in your world better? What better way than to learn tolerance of others' values and an appreciation for what they are?
"It's been a fascinating year," said Asbury. "We've learned so much about other people and places. And the university has made connections. For example, the people at Plimoth Plantation in Plymouth, Ma., want to do something on Corn and Culture, and they're talking to us about our celebration. In terms of recognition, this is one of the best things we've done."
Salam, who was born in what is now Bangladesh, said, "Coming from a culture where we have to be very careful about what we eat - and think about who sacrificed so we can eat - I ask my students what connection they have with their food. Some really don't know where it comes from. Hamburger comes in a package. They don't know how corn is grown or any other way to cook it besides boiling it.
"We have become divorced from these aspects of food," said Salam, "but we need to think about these things in order to know who we really are and what is really important. ... In my classes we talk about these things and about the relationship of art to life. Students find out art is not just painting and drawing."
The undergraduate and graduate students in Salam's spring collage class learned to make connections between the life that feeds their art and the life in their surrounding community. Working with a client -- a bank, for example, or a community agency -- each student created a site-specific piece of art based on some manifestation of Corn and Culture. The student gave the finished work to the client as a permanent installation. "Based on such an integral symbol, I hope the art will add meaning to people's lives as they come in and see it," said Salam.
Salam and her students also are developing a three-dimensional piece of art incorporating corn as an icon for the Selu Retreat Center. Salam has an idea for an outdoor piece too, one that would include plants native to the conservancy.
Every discipline, said Salam, must realize that it is "not only unto itself. It must see where it came from and how it is connected to other disciplines." The focus on Corn and Culture, she said, has provided an opportunity for art students to raise questions about their discipline, about ethics and harmony. "That's education," said Salam. "Not just learning the formulas but where the formulas came from."
hanks to media studies major/anthropology minor Sherrie Austin, the speakers and special events of the Year of Corn and Culture are preserved in a video library to be housed in the Appalachian Regional Studies Center.
When she first heard about Corn and Culture, Austin felt an "immediate connection and understanding." Her interest in Native American culture, through a slight blood connection and through her familiarity with the work of Marilou Awiakta, runs deep. "For Radford University to do something like this, something I was so concerned about and wanted to learn about -- I thought, Wow! I'm going to be right in the middle of this. In the past, information about Native Americans has been pretty hard to find. To have it at your back door is pretty amazing."
Having been present at most Corn and Culture events, Austin said that from the student perspective, the Year of Corn and Culture "has worked, partly because teachers have required that it work. For those who already had an interest, the events were great. Those who didn't have an interest, but were required to attend an event, became interested and came back for others."
The fact that Radford's faculty and administration embraced the theme "says a lot about the university's openness to things that are above the norm," said Austin.
Austin, who has worked as a professional videographer for over four years, interviewed Marilou Awiakta, whom she had long admired, at Selu Conservancy last fall. "A lot of my philosophy in life and things I say to myself to get through come from her work," said Austin.
"One of the biggest benefits of being involved in Corn and Culture, for me, has been meeting the people who are directly involved -- Awiakta, the speakers, John Bowles, Kathy Hensley, Juan Negrín," said Austin. "When you're interested in something, it's always good to meet people who share your interests. Without Corn and Culture, I would never have met those people -- I wouldn't know what they're about.
"Boiled down, the Year of Corn and Culture has meant two things to me: knowledge and opportunity."
Selu: A Slice of Paradise
Selu Conservancy provides a rich variety of academic and recreational opportunities with the opening of the new retreat center.
By Rob Tucker
Huichol Magic
An RU graduate shares her fascination with the unique art of the Huichol Indians.
By Kathy Hensley
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