Where others see art, the Johnston Center sees a teaching opportunity. In 1993, Sebastio Salgado began a photographic investigation into the phenomenon of mass migration at the end of the 20th century. For six years, and in more than forty countries, he focused his lens on the plight of the dispossessed, on the road, and in the refugee camps and urban slums where they lived.

The culmination of his work, Migrations: Humanity in Transition, an exhibition of more than 300 photographs, was on display at the Ackland Art Museum at Carolina and at the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University in February and March of this year. "The exhibit provided an extraordinary opportunity for collaboration across disciplines," said Dr. Randi Davenport, the center's Associate Director.

"The Johnston Center began working with the Ackland to develop activities related to this show almost as soon as we learned Salgado's work would be coming to campus." The results of that collaboration included an evening of student research paper presentations in the galleries of the Ackland, sponsored by the Johnston Center, where students responded to Salgado's work from anthropological, geographical, and literary points of view.

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It also led to the World Dinner, made possible by the Director's Fund and hosted by the Johnston Center. Students from four different courses in Anthropology, City and Regional Planning, and English were invited to dinner at the Johnston Center. Professors Patricia Sawin (Anthropology), Meenu Tawari (City and Regional Planning), and Todd Taylor (English) told their classes they'd hear a speaker and meet other students who, like themselves, had attended the Salgado exhibit as part of their course work.

When they arrived, each student was handed a color-coded ticket at the door, directing them to a place at a table labeled for one of the seven continents covered by Salgado’s work. The color of their ticket determined where they’d be seated at the table: some places were marked with a red welcome card, others with a blue card, and still others with green cards.

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As they waited for dinner to be served, students were able to watch images from the Salgado exhibit on a large screen and were asked to talk with their table mates to answer questions devised by the faculty: Many of the images illustrate displacement by the move from a rural agrarian economy to an urban industrialized economy. Do you think people would be better off staying on the land? Why or why not? How do documentary photographs like Salgado’s encourage the viewer to think about issues like hunger, poverty, and displacement?

When dinner was served, students who sat at the seats with the red cards were served a three-course meal with a beverage; those at the blue cards were served rice and beans and water, and those at the green cards were served undressed field greens, which represented forage. The distribution of meals at each of the tables was based on world hunger statistics.

Faculty didn’t exempt themselves from the experience either, nor did Barbara Matilsky, curator of the Ackland, or speaker David Swanson. Each took his or her place at the “Latin America” table and was served a meal whose contents were determined by the color of the placemat at which he or she sat.

Students who expected a fancy catered meal were surprised to discover that they would only have rice and beans or a plate of forage. They reported having their eyes opened by the experience--and feeling anger about having less than those who were served a luxury meal and by the fact that there was nothing they could do about it.

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“For the first time in my life, I could understand a fraction of the suffering of the displaced world,” said one student.

“Honestly, I have never experienced want,” said another.

“This was the first time I actually realized how much others might actually lack proper nutrition. The sheer numbers that would not have a healthy meal were truly astounding.”

Students were asked to respond to the dinner and a lively discussion ensued. “Imagine if this were your only sustenance, “said one student. “There would be so many different feelings—envy, hate, despair, hunger.” Others reported that those who were served the deluxe dinners quickly shared their meals with those at their table who had less, but worried that such fixes aren’t available on a global scale. All were struck by how effectively the meal represented the global economic conditions portrayed in Salgado’s photographs. The evening concluded with a talk by hunger relief leader David Swanson, “Cultivating Solutions in the Developing World.”

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Afterwards, students swarmed him, asking for information about how they could help. Unlike the rest of the world, no one left the dinner hungry. Students who’d been served greens were given a boxed meal before they left. By then, they realized how much that meal was fit for a king.

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A complete listing of all events at the Johnston Center for Undergraduate Excellence is available at our Event Calendar.