Read A.D. New Orleans After the Deluge ( if you have not bought the book through the bookstore or Amazon already, the limited-in-functionality online version and totally functional for-purchase digital copy are available at https://www.smithmag.net/afterthedeluge). You may also want to consider some current-events news coverage about the flooding in coastal and central Texas (or South Asia, if that’s closer to home!) to offer additional insight/perspective. As you read, think about the following: If you had been in New Orleans at the time, what course of action might you have followed? As you read each character’s story and consider his or her choices, ask yourself “would I have done that? Why or why not?” What kinds of help could these people have used that might have made their experiences very different? Don’t just brush off the question with “the government”–which government, and what specific aid are you thinking of? What other organizations do you know of that might have made a difference? And at the more local level, what could individuals, businesses, or professional organizations have done? What have you learned, or are you learning, in your field of study that might help you understand what happens to these characters? (What choices they make, what problems they encounter, how they handle those problems, etc.) For example, if you’re a psychology major, what psychological traits and trends do you see playing out in this story? If you’re a sociology major, what aspects of the society (or societies) presented here seem to be working well vs. not working well? If you’re a business major, what kind of business sense do you see the shop owners exhibiting (or don’t you)? As/after you read the comic with these questions in mind.
