Call for Applications: PhD Course on "Planting the Environmental Humanities - Theories and Methods"
Convenors: Michelle Bastian and Ursula Münster
When: 4 September – 7 September 2023
Where: Oslo Botanical Garden & University of Oslo, Norway
Organiser: Oslo School of Environmental Humanities (OSEH), University of Oslo
Cofunding: Norwegian Researcher School in Environmental Humanities (NoRS-EH)
Description
What is it that plants can do? These beings, thought for so long in western philosophy to do very little, are now astounding so many as wider understandings develop of their capacities for feeling, communicating and captivating. Already turning towards the agencies of non-human animals, the Environmental Humanities has been called upon to pay more attention to all the ‘unloved others’ that the field has yet to engage with. Plants, fungi, insects, micro-organisms, pests have started to draw scholars attention, analysis and engagement, challenging what forms of life can provoke and inspire research in the field.
Plants in particular have been explored, not only for how they participate in all kinds of human worlds, but the ways they actively shape and influence them via myriad ‘planty agencies’ (Head and Atchison). ‘Invasive’ plants, as well as the ‘superweeds’ produced through widespread herbicide use, challenge the supposed dominance of humanity over all it surveys; while garden and agricultural plants could be thought of as making use of the handy humans to assist in propagation and generational continuation. Not separate from another great interest in Environmental Humanities – the geologic, the botanic also echoes through deep time. The first mass extinction – the Great Oxygenation Event – was caused by photosynthesising bacteria leading to organisms such as ourselves that now depend on oxygen. Fossil fuels, of course, continue to release the energy first captured through photosynthesis many millions of years ago.
Critical work on the role of global monocrop agriculture, together with the forced human labour at the centre of pre-industrial colonial economies, has been demarcated as the Plantationocene. Here the emphasis is on the dominance of tobacco, cotton and sugar, harvested not for local use, but grown in huge quantities specifically for international export. While capitalism is often traced back to the industrial revolution, others have argued that it was the earlier plantations that first introduced and refined the logics of cheap nature, forced labour, and extractive approaches to resources, thus laying the groundwork for what was to follow. This Plantationocene is not to be thought of as only a historical process either, with much work showing the continuing link with the current expansion of palm oil, coffee and cocoa plantations (to name a few), many still reliant on the labour of enslaved peoples.
The continuing expansion of monocrops with their simplified ecologies has led Anna Tsing to call for reconceptualising sustainability as “a multispecies affair” depending on the possibility of the resurgence of more-than-human life forms. She argues that “the biggest threat to resurgence is the simplification of the living world as a set of assets for future investments”. As a contrast then, Natasha Myers has argued for what she called the ‘Planthroposcene’, a “counterpose” to the Plantationocene which emphasises the ways that plants actively make the world within which we live, indeed without them we could not exist. To forge different paths in the Anthropocene then, depends on building new relationships with plants and “learn[ing] to garden otherwise”. Thus as Donna Haraway has argued in her take on these current ‘cenes’, “our job is to make the Anthropocene as short/thin as possible and to cultivate with each other in every way imaginable epochs to come that can replenish refuge.”
In this PhD Course, hosted and organised by members of the Oslo School of Environmental Humanities (OSEH) as part of the Norwegian Researcher School in Environmental Humanities (NoRS-EH), we will explore key contemporary questions around plants that are arising in the field. Facilitated by a group of leading scholars with a range of disciplinary backgrounds, we will focus on emplaced learning, research and teaching-methods through which we will engage with those aspects of our research studies that are best illuminated through the lens of plant agencies and lifeways. Taking place in the Oslo Botanic Garden, and engaging closely with the grounds and botanical expertise, we will explore theories and methods for working with plants in environmental humanities today. Our aim is to generate situated experiences and discussions that will support participants’ evolving research projects. Participants will have the opportunity to exchange ideas about their engagement with plant studies, in all their forms, in their own research, through a combination of place-based activities and facilitated participatory discussions. They will also be expected to read preparatory texts in advance of the school which will inform the activities and communal discussion during the workshop.
The PhD course has two parts and will combine an intensive two day workshop (4-5 September) with optional participation in the NoRS-EH Symposium – Transdisciplinarity in the Environmental Humanities (6-7 September).
Activities
Activities at the two day workshop will include:
- A workshop on “Botanical Somatics” with sensory ethnographer Susanne Schmitt (RIFS, Potsdam)
- An Introduction to Botanical Garden research and walk with Anneleen Kool (Natural History Museum, Oslo)
- Modules on cutting edge work in critical plant studies with an exciting group of scholars including Michelle Bastian (University of Edinburgh/Oslo), Scott Bremer (University of Bergen), Anna-Katharina Laboissière (University of Oslo/OSEH), and Libby Robin (Australian National University).
- Roundtable on botanic gardens as sites for environmental humanities research.
- Opportunities to share and reflect on work with peers.
Participants will be asked to submit a short reflective paper (max 1500 words) on an aspect of their project that they would like to discuss and receive feedback on. This could be focused on approaches to methods, writing, theories, field sites etc., including areas where things are going well, or where supportive ideas would be helpful. During the course, participants will discuss, receive, and give feedback on the paper with fellow participants and the contributing scholars. Participants’ papers should be submitted no later than 4th August 2023.
Application
Places at the PhD course are limited to 15 participants. If you are interested in joining us, please send a short CV (max. 2-pages) as well as a short statement (max. 800 words) in which you outline your current research project, how it relates to the topic of the Researcher School, and your motivation for attending. The deadline for applications is 19 June 2023. We will get back to you with a decision by 21 June 2023.
Who can apply?
Participants must be enrolled in a PhD program to join this course. You can attend at any stage of your project. Please note that we are aware that participants may have different ranges of abilities and support needs and we will adjust our programming, as needed and where we can, to enable all participants to be fully involved.
Application details
Please submit your application by following the link below, and make sure that you include the following:
- your name
- your department or program and your university
- title and expected completion date of doctoral project
- a 800-word(max) statement of your doctoral project and motivation for attending
- a 2-page(max) CV
- contact information with email address
Submit your application by 19 June 2023!
Fees
There is no fee to attend the course, and lunches and two planned dinners are included. However, participants are responsible for paying their own travel and lodging, except NoRS-EH members, who will have their travel and accommodation costs covered by the Researcher School. Membership of NoRS-EH is open to current PhD students based in Norwegian universities working with environmental humanities related topics and methods (see https://www.uis.no/en/node/1760 for details on the membershp process).
Facts about the course
- Credits: 5 ECTS
- Language of instruction: English
- Registration deadline for accepted participants: 1 July 2023
- Evaluation: Pass/Fail based on active and full attendance, engagement with the course literature, reading reflective papers and acting as a main discussant for a nominated paper.