Over spring break, four CS students, Destiny West, Sarah Craycraft, Sarah Dove, and Ryann Patrus, joined a team of ten student-faculty researchers for a week of fieldwork in Scioto County, Ohio. This year, the Ohio Field School (CS 5691), an initiative of the Center for Folklore Studies, is working to complicate narratives of post-industrial environmental decay and mass exodus of young people from Portsmouth and Scioto County, so this research focused on grassrootsconservation initiatives and Portsmouth's vibrant millennial population.

 

Over the seven days, the team visited farms and forests, bars and restaurants, artist workshops, businesses, community centers, and people’s homes. They participated in events as varied as watershed cleanup and Portsmouth's St. Patrick's Day celebrations! The Ohio Field School team discovered Scioto County’s diverse communities, histories, beliefs, priorities, and desires for change.

 

Students strengthened their ethnographic research skills as they learned to navigate exchanges with people who had very different interests in participating in the documentation project. We look forward to returning for follow-up interviews and observations! Special thanks to the Columbus Foundation for supporting this work.