Feb. 12, 2019

'Botanical Relations' Explores Long-term Relationship Between People, Plants

TUCSON, Ariz. — An estimated 250 million roses are given each Valentine’s Day. But in a cultural context, that classic symbol of love reveals even more about the relationship between people and plants.

Humanity is dependent on plants for survival, but scholars have recently begun turning their attention to the myriad ways in which plants also impact human cultures.

Similar to research that established the field of animal studies in the past few decades, a body of scholarship is growing in literary and cultural plant studies, ranging from inquiries into the gendered nature of flower discourses to the investigation of the sociality of forests, says Joela Jacobs, assistant professor of German studies at the University of Arizona. Particularly in the context of environmental humanities, these approaches offer valuable insights into human relationships with nonhuman life.

“Plants have traditionally been reduced to the role of passive bystander, ornamental backdrop or mere symbol,” Jacobs says. “But they have an agency and an impact of their own. People are dependent on plants for our survival, but they’re also central to the cultural imagination.”

In 2016, Jacobs founded the Literary and Cultural Plant Studies Network, an international group of scholars collaborating around that theme. Since then, the interdisciplinary network has produced research on environmental humanities, post-humanism, traditional philology, eco-criticism, language philosophy, and cultural as well as queer and gender studies.

“The scope of it has blown our minds,” says Jacobs, who, with colleagues in Germany and Austria, is organizing the network’s first conference to take place June 2019 in Dresden, Germany. “Everything is plants.”

On the UA campus, Jacobs has collaborated with UA Museum of Art curator Olivia Miller and professor Ursula Schuch from the UA School of Plant Sciences on the exhibit "Botanical Relations," on display from Jan. 26 to March 31.

Jacobs will present an opening talk at the museum Feb. 14 at 4 p.m. "Vegetal Eroticism: Imagining Our Botanical Relations" will draw on Jacobs’ recent and forthcoming articles that engage with plants on topics such as “Crimes Against Nature,” “Plant Parenthood,” “Eden’s Heirs” and “Phytopoetics.”

The exhibit is drawn from UAMA’s permanent collection, and includes work from artistic icons like Georgia O’Keeffe, Andy Warhol and Pierre Auguste Renoir, along with local Tucson artist Barbara Rogers, who will deliver a talk on March 31 to close the exhibit.

Photo courtesy of University of Arizona: Joela Jacobs, UA assistant professor of German studies, stands in front of "Gene Bank" by Alan Sonfist, part of the University of Arizona Museum of Art exhibit Botanical Relations, on display until March 31.

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Media contact:
Eric Swedlund
UA College of Humanities
520-626-7160
ericswedlund@email.arizona.edu