When Amy Potter, Ph.D., attended a panel discussion in Ireland about environmental changes in the summer of 2023, she didn’t expect to be inspired to create a cross-disciplinary learning experience for students in Georgia Southern University’s Honors College. 

A professor of geography, Potter had already been guiding her students through the history of Irish farming and agriculture at the University’s Learning Center in Wexford, Ireland. But it was the passion of one Irish farmer, Jer O’Mahony, who spoke on a panel about the challenges facing farmers, specifically those who operate family-owned farms, that truly resonated with her.

“That summer, two days after we met him at the panel, he came and gave a talk to our students in Ireland,” she said. “What was so interesting about his presentation was that it touched on mental health, geography and biology — all of these different groups that were in the room. He engaged everyone in the room.” 

When Potter took on the leadership of the Honors Global Scholars in 2024, she knew she wanted sustainability and agriculture to be central themes. 

Established in 2023, the Honors Global Scholars is a cohort-based learning experience for first-year students from a variety of academic disciplines. The program combines courses with multiple themes — including migration, nationalism, sustainability and belonging — to help students develop global perspectives and competencies. The coursework is team-taught by faculty from across the University, including Potter and Howard Keeley, Ph.D., director of Georgia Southern’s Center for Irish Research and Teaching.

“My class reads a journal article called, ‘The Precarity of the Irish Family Farm,’ which explores the different factors impacting the sustainability of the Irish farm,” Potter said. “When we talk about the Irish family farm, we can’t just talk about the farm itself — we have to talk about the grocery stores, the middlemen in terms of food distribution. There are so many layers of who’s actually making the money versus the family farm.”

Through the coursework, students begin to see how topics like agriculture, environmental changes, migration and culture are deeply intertwined — even if those connections aren’t immediately obvious at first.

“Whether it’s literature or understanding the importance of food and what food means, particularly in a post-famine culture, they get all these different elements to come at these ideas,” Potter said. “I feel like it’s a very well-rounded approach.”

Visiting farmers in Bulloch and surrounding Georgia counties, as well as in County Wexford, gives students firsthand insight into the people at the origin of food production — and the challenges they face in both local and global contexts.