Plants in Africa and Planetary Entanglements: Multi-Species Materialities, Ecologies, and Aesthetics (MMEA).
2024-2025 Online Lecture Series Program.

Co-convened by Jacques Aymeric-Nsangou (University of Manitoba), Abidemi Babatunde Babalola (The British Museum) and Vera-Simone Schulz (Leuphana University Lüneburg / Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz, MPI) at the Consortium for History of Science, Technology and Medicine (CHSTM).

This online lecture series brings together researchers, artists and practitioners interested in plants in Africa and wider planetary perspectives to discuss methodological questions concerning plant research in the humanities and social sciences on and beyond the African continent. Mmea is the Kiswahili word for "plant." What methods are promising for studying plant epistemologies? What methods are suitable for working across disciplines, such as the natural sciences and the humanities and social sciences, but also with disciplines outside of the academy, including Indigenous knowledge systems? What are the methodological specificities of doing plant research with an emphasis on African and planetary contexts? Which methods are useful for research practices that are attentive to the practices of plant practitioners and research that is committed to social justice and climate justice? What methodological innovations come out of plant research concerning interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary approaches, as well as approaches that incorporate artistic research? What specific forms for documenting, presenting and communicating plant research evolve in these activities? The series is concerned with plants in diverse contexts and disciplines, including but not limited to Indigenous knowledge systems, botany and plant sciences, food, medicine, horticulture, plant collecting institutions like herbaria and botanical gardens, literature, and the arts.

Thursday, November 14, 2024, 3:00 pm to 4:30 pm CET
Susanna Ferguson (Smith College): God’s Harmonies, Multispecies Hierarchies, and Plant Belonging in the Arab Renaissance

Thursday, December 12, 2024, 4:00 pm to 5:30 pm CET
Oleksandr Polianichev (Södertörn University): Russia's Own Tropics: Empire and Exotic Plants in the South Caucasus

Thursday, January 9, 2025, 4:00 pm to 5:30 pm CET
Bismark Asamoah (University of Ghana): Ethno-Archaeological Study of Traditional Medicine at Kodiabe, Ghana

Thursday, February 13, 2025, 4:00 pm to 5:30 pm CET
Louis Champion (IRD France - 232 DIADE): L'origine et la diffusion de l'hibiscus (hibiscus sabdarifa): Parcours d'une plante aux racines africaines et son impact social et culturel

Thursday, March 13, 2025, 3:00 pm to 4:30 pm CET
Olga Smith (Newcastle University): Ecopolitical Aesthetics of Weeds

Thursday, April 10, 2025, 4:00 pm to 5:30 pm CEST
Sahar Bazzaz (College of the Holy Cross): Plants of the Red Sea Littoral: PE Botta's Expedition to Yemen, 1836

Thursday, May 8, 2025, 4:00 pm to 5:30 pm CEST
Edwin Coomasaru (London): Plantation Ecologies in Sri Lankan Art: Gender, Sexuality and Environmental Aesthetics

Thursday, June 12, 2025, 4:00 pm to 5:30 pm CEST
Tiago Silva Alves Muniz (Universidade Federal de Goiás): The Struggle for Natural Rubber Species: Local Processes and Global Stories Moved (Around) the World

Thursday, July 10, 2025, 4:00 pm to 5:30 pm CEST
Tuli Mekondjo (Windhoek): Oimbodi Yedu: Herbs of the Soil

Thursday, August 14, 2025, 4:00 pm to 5:30 pm CEST
Banji Chona (Lusaka): The Fragile Lexicon: How Botanical Words Fail to Reflect Zambezia’s Living Plant Knowledge

Thursday, September 11, 2025, 4:00 pm to 5:30 pm CEST
Romuald Tchibozo (Université d'Abomey-Calavi): Plants in Contemporary Art: The Case of Meschac Gaba in Benin

All sessions are free, online and everyone is cordially welcome to attend them! In order to join online, please sign up for free for membership of the "Plants in Africa and Planetary Entanglements" working group here: https://www.chstm.org/content/plants-african-and-planetary-entanglements-multi-species-materialities-ecologies-and

MMEA is an on-going series, you can find an overview of past and future sessions here: https://www.chstm.org/content/plants-african-and-planetary-entanglements-multi-species-materialities-ecologies-and The 2025-2026 program will be announced in autumn 2025.