Crops and their humans: Vegetal perspectives on agricultural mobilities

Datum
16. Mai – 17. Mai 2024 

Leib­niz Zen­trum Mod­ern­er Orient

„Crops and their humans: Veg­e­tal per­spec­tives on agri­cul­tur­al mobilities”
16–17 May 2024, Leib­niz Zen­trum Mod­ern­er Orient
Dead­line: 28 Jan­u­ary 2024

Agri­cul­tur­al pro­duc­tion cur­rent­ly relies on large num­bers of peo­ple migrat­ing to and from cen­tre­sof pro­duc­tion, par­tic­u­lar­ly for work with plant crops. Mean­while, dis­place­ment and mobil­i­ty due to wars,development projects and land appro­pri­a­tions bring peo­ple in or out of agri­cul­tur­al work. Both flowsin­stan­ti­ate new rela­tion­ships with plants, how­ev­er how plants make a dif­fer­ence to these move­ments, and­how dis­placed people’s rela­tion­ships to plants evolve across their mobil­i­ties has been lit­tle con­sid­ered inthe lit­er­a­ture. The grow­ing field of crit­i­cal plant stud­ies works along­side schol­ar­ship focused on migra­tion­around agri­cul­ture, but rarely con­nect­ing with it. With this work­shop we explore whether greater atten­tion­to veg­e­tal lives pro­vides oppor­tu­ni­ties to recon­sid­er mobil­i­ty relat­ed to agri­cul­ture, and vice versa.Thinking through the lens­es of plant stud­ies and the food-migra­tion nexus, this explorato­ry work­shop is inter­est­ed in new under­stand­ings which may arise through dia­logue across these per­spec­tives. Ques­tions to con­sid­er might include:

· To what extent can migrant labour be under­stood as entan­gled with plant labour in pro­duc­ing value?
· How can we under­stand pow­er dynam­ics of these mobil­i­ties and plants’ posi­tion with­in them?
· How do human-plant rela­tions trans­form in people’s places of ori­gin, includ­ing the plant care work and main­te­nance of fields and gardens?
· How does knowl­edge of plants cir­cu­late with and between peo­ple on the move?
· How do veg­e­tal life and its timescales shape and inter­act with human mobil­i­ties con­nect­ed to agriculture?
· What are the ten­sions between care for peo­ple and care for plants in pro­duc­tion settings?
· How is agri­cul­tur­al work gen­dered and racial­ized in con­nec­tion to plant char­ac­ter­is­tics and needs?
· What out­comes do the affec­tive and embod­ied encoun­ters between plants and dis­placed peo­ple have in the con­text of agri­cul­ture and horticulture?

In the light of these ques­tions this work­shop invites schol­ars from the dis­ci­plines of anthro­pol­o­gy, geog­ra­phy, his­to­ry, eth­nob­otany, agri-food stud­ies and all relat­ed fields to con­sid­er how peo­ple relate to plants in the con­texts of dis­place­ment, sea­son­al work, and oth­er agri­cul­tur­al mobil­i­ties. Par­tic­u­lar­ly wel­come are schol­ars from or work­ing on Glob­al South con­texts. Dis­cus­sions dur­ing the work­shop will explore whether and how veg­e­tal per­spec­tives enhance under­stand­ing of these mobil­i­ties, seek­ing future lines of inquiry and collaboration.

· The work­shop will take place at Leib­niz-Zen­trum Mod­ern­er Ori­ent, Berlin.
· Lim­it­ed funds are avail­able to cov­er asso­ci­at­ed trav­el and accom­mo­da­tion costs.
· Par­tic­i­pants will be expect­ed to sub­mit full work­ing papers before the workshop.
· Atten­dees will also par­tic­i­pate in two larg­er dis­cus­sion ses­sions on the themes that emerge from the papers, and con­tribute to a joint publication.
· Fur­ther infor­ma­tion will be pro­vid­ed when a deci­sion on select­ed abstracts is made after 18 February.

Please send your abstracts of 250 words and a short bio of 150 words to hilal.alkan.zeybek@zmo.de and pitth2@cardiff.ac.uk by 28 Jan­u­ary 2024.

Cofion cynnes, Hannah​ Dr Han­nah Pitt
Lec­tur­er in Envi­ron­men­tal Geog­ra­phy ¦ Dar­lithy­dd Daeary­d­di­aeth Amgylcheddol
My pro­nouns are She/Her ¦ Fy rha­gen­wau i yw Hi/Ei
School of Geog­ra­phy and Plan­ning ¦ Ysgol Daeary­d­di­aeth a Chynllunio
Cardiff Uni­ver­si­ty ¦​ Pri­fys­gol Caerdydd
https://www.cardiff.ac.uk/people/view/475490-pitt-hannah
029 208 79632
pitth2@cardiff.ac.uk @routesandroots