Introduction to Critical Botanical Histories

Botany—a scientific field dedicated to the study of plants—shares a close relationship with histories of colonialism, industrial capitalism, bioprospecting and climate change. Yet working and thinking with plants is often considered an apolitical activity. This course studies how the institutional homes of plants, like botanical gardens, greenhouses, and plantations emerged in close association with colonialism, capitalism and war economies. At the same time, the course locates plants as ‘potent’ actors that variously make/unmake capitalist designs. It tracks ‘weedy’ and ‘recalcitrant’ histories where Indigenous peoples, enslaved and indentured laborers, and refugee communities colluded with plants to re-world, resist, adapt and endure in the wake of colonial/capitalist violence. The course explores possibilities of socio-environmental justice through a reimagination of plant-human history. It includes works by historians, botanists, anthropologists, novelists, filmmakers and immersive learning sessions at Brown University’s greenhouse and herbarium.