Before the Fall Break and Thanksgiving holiday, Log Lunch goers gathered to view short films by the students in the Environmental Ethnography senior seminar. This particular meal featured a special annual Log Lunch dish: squash fondue! The chefs cooked up butternut squash boats filled with three types of cheese and croutons, making a warm, decadent plate that has been a tradition since the recipe was introduced by a former Log Lunch director. Alongside the squash boats, diners enjoyed a kale salad with goat cheese, pomegranate seeds, beets, and apples, as well as a barley and mushroom soup and fresh rolls. For dessert, Log Lunch served a ginger beet sour cream cake, inspired by an Ottolenghi recipe. The squash and beets were sourced from Chenail’s farm.
As the crowd sat down to enjoy their meal, Professor Brittany Meché of the Environmental Studies Department introduced her students’ films. She described the ethnographic study as a qualitative research method based in participant observation and formal and informal dialogue. Each student has conducted an ethnography of a space on campus; some chose to examine racial dynamics in outdoor spaces, while others investigated the dynamics of the figure drawing classes. Each student seeks to observe and define the ways that meaning is made through each of these spaces. Through their study, students are “bringing a new understanding of the environment of Williams College,” as Professor Meché noted, an understanding that they capture both in a written ethnographic snapshot as well as a media component, the latter of which they shared at Log Lunch.
Each of the twelve films carried a personal, unique touch; some students created animations while others layered shots of outdoor spaces and even drone footage. One film was entirely silent, while another was a single shot accompanied with interview dialogue. The first film focused on the meaning of time, showing clips of baby animals and growing plants, ending with the question of, “I wonder what we could give each other on accident, I wonder if our time is enough.” Another film discussed the racial makeup of outdoor spaces on campus, and found that the majority of students utilizing outdoor space for leisure were white. In line with the question of identity and separation in outdoor spaces, another film about hunting in Hopkins Forest projected shots of a student driving to the forest, marking the distance along the drive, and opened with a scene from Bambi to encourage the audience to question their perceptions of hunters, as well as their proximity to the hunting practice here in Williamstown. Community featured as another prominent theme–one student observing the athlete/non-athlete divide at Williams included dialogue from their interviews, in which one student remarked that athletes “have a pre-defined community here, whereas [non-athletes] don’t.” Other communities featured in the films include religious spaces, such as the First Congregational Church and the geography of nearby religious spaces, both of which consider students’ relationships to religion on campus.
One consistent theme throughout all of the films was a sense of connectedness–whether it be from concentric circles marking distance from the college on a map, shots of hands rearranging nametags from Tunnel City coffee cups, or a student’s personal connection to the college’s bog, viewers came away with a broader understanding of the multiple ways that our community creates meaning through connection, both to space and to one another.
BY CAMPBELL LEONARD ’25