Dr. Banu Subramaniam: Migrant Ecologies: Plant Worlds and the Afterlives of Empire
Korenman Lecture
Location
Library and Gallery, Albin O. Kuhn
Date & Time
October 16, 2025, 4:00 pm – 5:30 pm
Description
How have histories of colonialism and their foundational language of gender, race, sexuality, and nation shaped the language, terminology, and theories of the modern plant sciences? How and why do botanical theories remain grounded in the violence of their colonial pasts? Join feminist botanist, Dr. Banu Subramaniam, who develops the concept of migrant ecologies to retheorize plant migration and reproductive biology. This lecture explores new biological frameworks that harness the power of feminist thought to reimagine and reinvigorate our love of plants.
About the Speaker:
Dr. Banu Subramaniam is the Luella LaMer Professor of Women’s and Gender Studies at Wellesley College. Trained as a plant evolutionary biologist, Dr. Banu engages the feminist studies of science in the practices of experimental biology and is author of Botany of Empire (2024), Holy Science (2019) and Ghost Stories for Darwin (2016).
Co-sponsors and Partners: Social Science Forum, The Center for the Social Sciences Scholarship, and the Department of Geography and Environmental Systems
This event is open for full participation by all individuals regardless of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, or any other protected category under applicable federal law, state law, and the University's nondiscrimination policy.
