Chicken, rice and sausage … sometimes. Chicken bog (or chicken perlou), this region's hallmark dish, has a wide range of variations, many of which have been passed down for generations. One consistent factor among recipes is that it is a dish that brings people together.

Students in the fields of history, politics, studio art, graphic design, communications, photography and the Master of Arts in Liberal Studies program spent eight months investigating and interviewing people on the intricacies of chicken bog in a project initiated through the Athenaeum Press, CCU's student-driven publishing lab. The endeavor culminated into a DIY bog kit that includes recipe variations as well as a booklet that highlights eight stories of chicken bog cooks from across Horry and Georgetown counties.

The luncheon and presentation brought together some of the diverse variations of chicken bog with a panel discussion on the continued importance of the dish to our changing community.

Alli Crandell, Athenaeum Press project manager and director of digital initiatives of the Thomas W. and Robin W. Edwards College of Humanities and Fine Arts, said the learning process surrounding the dish elicited numerous heated proclamations from cooks and community members regarding the superior version of chicken bog. However, project developers maintained an objective stance on the matter.

"We've become a bit bog agnostic over this project," said Crandell. "We've had great bog with nothing but onions, and great bog with mushrooms. It's been amazing watching students, some of whom aren't from this area, get to know chicken bog and perlou and get excited about trying more."

For the project, students traveled from Loris to interview Ricky Dew and Melissa Todd, both winners of the famed Loris Bog Off, to Murrells Inlet to talk with Latonya Gore, who won the Murrells Inlet Bog Off. While the stories are personal, the students also investigated the history of bog, from the enslaved peoples and chefs of the rice plantations to the tenant farming that spread across most of this region.

"I came into this project pretty familiar with chicken bog from my dad. He was a Conway native, and I thought I had bog pretty well figured out," said Valerie McLaurin, a graduate student who worked with the Athenaeum Press on the project. "But this project has really opened my eyes to the bigger history of chicken bog and perlou and how they're intertwined. This project has been interesting because it's a dish that a lot of people know, but a lot of people know it in a different way. But it's still a dish that brings people together."

Unlike other university presses, the Athenaeum Press develops projects from the ground up with a team of faculty, students and community members. Teams generate, refine and storyboard the project, then design and build the project across a wide variety of formats. The result is a multimedia work that is both digital and tangible. Over the past five years, the press has produced a photography book about a 19th century journey in a paper canoe, a web series documentary about homelessness in Myrtle Beach, and an interactive and traveling museum exhibit on African-American soldiers during WWII, among others. More press projects can be found at the press' website at theathenaeumpress.com.