“How on earth can anyone cruise around, eat barbecue for a month, and earn a grade?”

I was standing at a party at a friend’s house one night in late December, eating little nibbly finger foods off of a party-sized paper plate. Most of my friends are teachers of some ilk—college professors, instructors, graduate TAs—so even when we get together outside of work, we tend to talk about, well, work. In this case, the discussion had turned to what I, specifically, was teaching for Birmingham-Southern’s Interim term. I mentioned the classroom-based course I was teaching for the Honors Program, then added that I was also sponsoring the BBQ Boys contract.

Conversation halted in my small corner of the room and three pairs of eyes all turned to me. “Really, Robin. Where’s the intellectual pursuit in that?”

Below, you will find links to the evidence of our intellectual pursuit. We offer our course documents as well as a copy of one of the student’s final essays—an exploration of creative nonfiction that steps away from the food to consider the larger implications of the life-changing travel these students experienced.

Bon appetite, Robin