Auburn Shines Light On Decline of Rural Life in Alabama

Program Participants Gain Perspective On Rural Life

Critically, Rural Studio does not observe its surroundings from an isolated place; rather, students and instructors have lived and worked in Newbern since Samuel Mockbee and D.K. Ruth co-founded the studio in 1993.

“I remember when I came here, there was a big amount of mistrust in academics,” Freear said. “[Academics] would come to this part of the world, they would do their research, get tenure, and then they [would] disappear again, and we [have not done that].”

Students and faculty also live in Newbern as a function of their studies and work.

“It’s really expected that you’ll be part of a community,” said Judith Seaman, a thirdyear instructor. “We get jobs in the area. We rent apartments in town. [This is] not a helicopter program. We’re rooted here. I worked at the library locally that we actually built about a decade ago.”

By embedding in the community, Rural Studio members gain perspective on rural living outside their degree program. For example, one of the persistent challenges of rural life is limited access to fresh foods due to limited access to supermarkets or grocery stores.

Despite its proximity to the agricultural industry, Newbern is considered a food desert. However, reflecting the can-do attitude of their community, members of Rural Studio began growing vegetables in their front yard 13 years ago.

“My dean once said, ‘Why are we doing this? We’re architects, not farmers,’ and we basically [realized] this is out of necessity,” according to Freear. “We can drive 10 miles to get prepackaged processed foods, or we can start to grow it. So why not make it an educational thing?”

Each morning at 6:30 a.m., Rural Studio students start their day by helping to grow the 7,000 lbs. of food their community farm produces annually. Students and instructors not only eat what they grow but share the bounty with surrounding communities.

While the farm does not solve the food desert crisis, it does help students understand the space around them, Freear noted, while also helping, in a small way, to protect a vital part of Southern tradition.

Despite the challenges rural communities face, their residents continue to come together to solve the problems they face, and Rural Studio is no exception, the Plainsman noted.

“People involved in agriculture and policy and community health, and all kinds of fields, can be involved in a similar way in their communities and work to affect it on a small scale that becomes kind of a larger system,” Seaman said. 