The Greenhouse is a meeting place for students and researchers interested the history and sociology of plants, food, agriculture and environment to explore how science and technology shape what we grow and eat.
The regular programme of papers and discussions is curated in junction with the project From Collection to Cultivation, which is funded by the Wellcome Trust.
The Greenhouse meets fortnightly on Thursdays, 1–2pm, via Zoom. All welcome! If you're outside the Department and keen to join us, please email hps-cultivation@lists.cam.ac.uk
Organised by Helen Anne Curry and Jessica J. Lee.
Michaelmas Term 2020
15 October
For our first meeting, we'll discuss:
- Gabriela Soto Laveaga (2018) 'Largo Dislocare: Connecting Microhistories to Remap and Recenter Histories of Science', History and Technology, 34:1, 21–30.
- Bray, Francesca, Barbara Hahn, John Bosco Lourdusamy, and Tiago Saraiva, 'Cropscapes and History', Transfers 9, 1: 20–41.
29 October
For our second meeting, we'll hear from Dr Jessica J. Lee, part of the From Collection to Cultivation team. She'll speak about her recent book Two Trees Make a Forest, giving a short talked entitled 'Gaps in Translation: On Taiwan's Plants, Language and Literature'.
12 November
For our third meeting, we'll be reading:
- Elaine Gan, 'An Unintended Race: Miracle Rice and the Green Revolution', Environmental Philosophy 14, no. 1 (2017): 61–81.
- Hetherington, Kregg, 'Agribiopolitics: The Health of Plants and Humans in the Age of Monocrops', Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 38, no. 4 (August 2020): 682–98.
26 November
For our fourth meeting, we'll hear from Dr Katie Dow, a Cambridge research associate in sociology. She'll speak about her recent ethnographic work on seed saving, with a talk entitled 'Seed-Saving in London: Slow Ethnography in Times of Crisis'.