Botanizing Worlds

Catalog description

What can plants tell us about the human condition, and more broadly about the rapidly changing conditions on Earth? In recent years, scholars, writers, and artists have been calling for new ways to address “plant blindness”; finally, it appears that plants are having a moment. Plants are crucial to the survival of human life. From the food we eat, to the air we breathe, the clothes we wear, plant bodies are used to build homes, cure our ailments, and feed our addictions. Putting plants to use is tantamount to survival but this course aims for a less extractive relationship with plants. This course explores what we might gain by learning from plants–to know them, think with them, and attune our senses to their liveliness. Raising fundamental questions about human-plant relations to reconsider what it means to be human?