Claiming Williams 2025: Braiding our Interconnected Futures

Robin Wall Kimmerer, storyteller of Braiding Sweetgrass and Serviceberry, mother, scientist, decorated professor, and enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, will speak in a day of conversations at Williams College.

“The trees act not as individuals, but somehow as a collective,” she writes. “Exactly how they do this, we don’t yet know. But what we see is the power of unity. What happens to one happens to us all. We can starve together or feast together. All flourishing is mutual.” (Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass).

Claiming Williams’ theme this year explores the intricacies of braiding, the college says, “and we invite all members of the community to consider our individual and collective relationships to people, spaces, technology, and the natural world.

“What innovative insights emerge when diverse fields intertwine their expertise for mutual benefit? How do shared stories and traditions create opportunities for reciprocal cultural exchange? How can we build networks of support and solidarity across different social justice movements? How are our identities both distinct and intertwined to form a stronger, cohesive self? How do we define, understand, and connect the strands from various sectors, cultures, ways of being, and ways of knowing in our community?

In coming together, we honor the individual, the collective, and deep collaboration.”

The day of events are free and open to all. (A few events meant for students will say so.) The college will also hold more events on other days that weave in the theme of this year.

 

Full schedule for February 6

10 a.m. — 4 p.m.

• Journeys beyond Borders: International Student Portraits, Dance Studio, ’62 Center for Theater and Dance

7:30 – 10:30 AM Breakfast: Driscoll and Whitman’s

• Meals on Claiming Williams Day are open to the full campus community, as well as any guest speakers. No need to swipe or register.

9:15 – 10:45 a.m.

• • Archives for Liberation: Williams College and Hawai‘i, Special Collections, Sawyer Library [Note: RSVP Requested]
  • Breakfast & Book Signing with Robin Wall Kimmerer, Goodrich Hall
  • The CARE Team: A Multidisciplinary Approach to Supporting Williams Students, Faculty House Lounge, Downstairs
  • You Belong Here: Exploring Diversity in the Outdoors with Dave Edson & WOC, Bronfman Auditorium 

This keynote introduces the Stages of Belonging, a powerful framework developed by DEI Outdoors to help organizations and communities authentically assess where they stand on the journey to inclusion. Through engaging discussions, personal reflection, and practical tools, participants will explore systemic barriers to inclusion and discover actionable strategies to overcome them. Attendees will gain insights into their unique roles in fostering belonging and learn how to “pack their bag” with the skills and resources needed to build inclusive outdoor communities. By the end of this session, participants will leave empowered with tangible actions to support their staff, volunteers, and broader communities.

11 a.m.  — 12:15 p.m.

• • Bringing Ben Home: A Murder, Conviction and Fight to Redeem American Justice with Barbara Bradley Hagerty and Ben Spencer, MainStage, ‘62 Center for Theater and Dance (this event runs until 12:15 p.m.)

In 1988, Ben Spencer was sentenced to life in prison for a murder he did not commit. He spent 34 years wrongfully imprisoned. Ben and journalist Barbara Bradley Hagerty (Class of ’81, author of Bringing Ben Home) share his story – and larger story about the flaws in the legal system.

Join the AM keynote at the ’62 Center for Theatre and Dance’s Main Stage. Open and free to the public. The link for streaming this event will be posted soon.

• Culinary Connections: Cooking with Dining Staff, Mission Park Dining (this event runs until 1 p.m., RSVP Requested)

11:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m. Lunch: Driscoll, Whitman’s, and the Faculty House (open to all)

 

12:30 – 2 p.m. Lunchtime Dialogues

• Braiding Circles with Verónica Pèrez, Davis Center Multipurpose Room
• Mindful Eating Meditation, Driscoll and Paresky (this event runs only until 1:30pm, RSVP requested)
• N’Satung: Unpacking Colonial Histories to Make Space for Native Voices in Education (Screening), Paresky Auditorium   Student Exploration of Education will screen N’Satung, a documentary film created by Indigenous filmmakers at Western University Ontario to explore Indigenous perspectives on education. N’Satung builds connections between Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities by highlighting ongoing efforts toward dialogues of reconciliation and Indigenous youth representation in education. Through personal stories and cultural reflections, N’Satung considers the harrowing impact of colonialism on Indigenous education and identity​ by addressing the possibilities of integrating Indigenous knowledge systems within mainstream education. (This event runs until 3:30 p.m.)
• Stop the US War Machine: What RIMPAC is and Why You Should Care, Bronfman Auditorium
• The Stories Food Tells: Social Identity, Sustainability, and Culture, Matt Cole Living Room, ’66 Environmental Center (RSVP requested)
• Towards an Inclusive African Aesthetics: Haircare Through Headwrapping, Wachenheim 113. (this event runs until 3:30 p.m., RSVP requested, Williams Students only)

2 – 3:30 p.m.

• Braiding our Threads: A Community Mending Workshop, FabriCation Lab in Sawyer Library
• Community Accountability in the Face of Sexual Violence, Griffin 3
• Embodied Social Justice: Standing on Principles with Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf, Bronfman Auditorium
• Embracing Seasonal Cycles: A winter walk and reflection at Hopkins Memorial Forest, pick up point is Paresky Center/Park Street at 2:00pm. (RSVP requested.) 

  In this presentation, Professor Jamaica Heolimeleikalani Osorio explores the key roles Williams graduates (Richards, Emerson, and Dole) played in the importation of colonial & carceral systems through the dismantling of Native Hawaiian governing institutions and epistemologies. In response to these colonial erasures, Osorio argues for a return to Indigenous governing practices as a part of a global liberatory project. Following movements from Palestine to Mauna a Wākea, Osorio invites participants to envision a path toward collective liberation by building decolonial futures based on mutual care, collective responsibility, and genuine security.

3:45 – 5 p.m.

• Chinese Knotting for Joy, Goodrich Hall 207
• Honoring the Womb, Davis Center Multipurpose Room
• Living, Learning, and Growing: Braiding A Textured Residential Life, Baxter Hall
• E Mau Ke Ea: Sovereignty, Sanctuary, and Collective Liberation with with Professor with Jamaica Heolimeleikalani Osorio, Bronfman Auditorium

5 — 7 p.m. Dinner: Mission Park, Driscoll, and Whitman’s

7:30 p.m. Evening Keynote

• An Evening with Robin Wall Kimmerer, Chapin HallIn the twelve years since the release of Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants, the book has passed from hand-to-hand and became a quiet NY Times best seller. This important and beautifully penned book provides information, inspiration, and provocation toward healthier relationships and communities–from within ourselves to the greater world. The Claiming Williams committee is honored to announce that the author, Dr. Robin Wall Kimmerer will be conversing with Williams’ own Dr. José Constantine about a myriad of subjects covered in her text, and so much more. There will be a brief public Q&A after the discussion.”Robin Wall Kimmerer is a mother, scientist, decorated professor, and enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. She is the author of The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants and Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses. She lives in Syracuse, New York, where she is a SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor of Environmental Biology, and the founder and director of the Center for Native Peoples and the Environment.”

The evening keynote begins at Chapin Hall at 7:30 p.m. Doors open at 7 p.m., and the talk is open and free to the public: no tickets needed. Overflow theater seating provided nearby. The link for streaming this event will be posted soon.

Map of Williams College campus

More Claiming Williams events

Snow Moon Social Dance Field trip to Greenfield Community College | Saturday, February 8, 10 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.

Space is limited to 10 participants; please RSVP to save a seat in the van.

Claiming Williams Field Trip to Mystic: Waterways, Indigenous Food Sovereignty and our Interconnected Futures | Saturday, March 8, 8 a.m. – 7 p.m.

Vans depart Williamstown at 8am on Saturday, March 8th, arriving in Mystic before 11am, and departing at 4pm (to return to campus by 7pm). Space is limited; please RSVP by Feb. 20.