From Press Release
A group of ECU students and faculty are in the area for a community engagement project.

Dr. C.Avenarius, Associate Professor of Anthropology at East Carolina University and five graduate students are in the area, renting a house in Columbia, until August 20th 2014.

The project is entitled:

“Restarting the Dialogue About Coastal Management Policies: Understanding Perceptions of Environmental Change Among Inner Banks Residents of Tyrrell, Hyde and Eastern Washington Counties”

 

Students working on the project include:

Whitney Bronson

Jessica Handloff

Max Mccameron

 

From mid June to mid July,

In addition to Whitney and Jessica there will also be:

Tom Garcia

Emily Ayscue

Stefanie Benjamin

 

From mid July to mid August there will be:

Whitney Bronson

Jessica Handloff

Max Mccameron

 

Some stated general purposes of the project include:

To give local residents who are currently not part of the elected political leadership a forum to voice their opinion.

To compare and contrast the opinions and look at general distributions by gender, age, ethnicity, occupation, location of residence. Residents might be more alike or more different  in their opinions than they think themselves to be.

To stimulate reflection and interest among local residents in thinking and talking about the immediate environment, the treasure that surrounds them and the hopes and wishes they have for its future.

“Tyrrell County, eastern parts of Washington County and Hyde County are home to a very small total population of people. However, people who reside in the area are diverse in their cultural background and religious affiliations. At the same time, they defy the stereotype of small town close mindedness. So far we are surprised about the range of opinions and level of tolerance for different ways of making a livelihood and different cultural practices. In addition a, history is very much alive among residents as many can trace their ancestors to the first settlers who arrived in the 1700s.

Residents are very knowledgeable about their natural environment and treasure its abundance of natural wildlife. Agricultural production is highly sophisticated and operates with few needs for labor and high level of technology.

All three counties are challenged by the changes in built infrastructure in recent years, federal and state regulations for land and resource management, and most recently by state budget cuts. We admire the deep commitment of local residents to their native land and their interest to find creative ways to continue to thrive in their home areas, integrating the need to manage the resources of nature with the needs for a healthy economy,” said Professor Christine Avenarius