Scientific research into the myriad abilities of plants to recognize and respond to their environments calls into question the “common-sense” assumptions (for some cultures) that plants are passive, sedentary, and uncommunicative. At the same time, there are important differences between plants and other kinds of creatures, like animals. Revising people’s understanding of plants without inaccurately representing plants vis-à-vis animals can thus be a tricky task for science a

Can Western critical theory decenter anthropos, the human? The formulation of the “Anthropocene” as a geological era suggests that human impact upon the planet cannot be ignored. Yet the Anthropocene simultaneously and ironically calls attention to the anthropocentrism of some human cultures that have contributed to global environmental crises and injustices. This tension between the need to recognize and the need to depart from theories that center the human (or more properl

Many people mark the beginning of contemporary environmentalism with the publication of Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring in 1962. Carson depicts the effects of toxic chemicals, mainly pesticides, on birds, humans, and other animals. Her writing imaginatively and materially links human and non-human bodies—including humans and plants. Chapter 6 of Silent Spring begins with Carson’s recognition that “[t]he earth’s vegetation is part of a web of life in which there are intimate and

On Oct. 2, 2014, Ursula Heise [http://www.uheise.net/] spoke on “Biocities: Urban Futures and the Reinvention of Nature” to an attentive audience at UNL’s Sheldon Museum of Art. Heise, a professor of English and a faculty member of UCLA’s Institute of the Environment of the Sustainability, was the 17th invited guest of the Humanities on the Edge speaker series. Her lecture previewed ideas from her manuscript-in-progress, Where the Wild Things Used to Be: Narrative, Database,

The plants at the center of Ruth Ozeki’s 2003 novel All Over Creation are agricultural crops, in particular, the Russet Burbank potato. Ursula Heise notices how Ozeki repeatedly uses the potato as a metaphor for humans, and suggests this narrative equation demonstrates the dangers of conflating social and biological diversity. Heise’s larger point is that environmental literature and ecocriticism need a more nuanced engagement with theories of transnationalism and globalizati

This year I’m planning to head into the weeds, to think through some of the growing body of theoretical ideas and scholarship on plants. The phrase “in the weeds” suggests the experience of being overwhelmed with tasks or overtaken by details. In the weeds is off the clear path of knowledge or control. Whether or not such a location is seen as productive probably depends on what you define a weed as, and where, and why. Weeds are conventionally called plants out of place; in

A watershed is a geographic feature that divides water into different systems. A watershed also represents the tributaries and gathering ground for a central body of water. As graduate students at the University of Nebraska, we acknowledge the significance of watersheds to the agricultural industry as well as the ecology of the Great Plains region. However and perhaps most popularly, a watershed is known to be a crucial event or occurrence recognized as causing a turning poin