‘Vegetable love’: edible plants between nature and culture

Description

Conveners:
Rachel Ballantyne (Department of Archaeology)
Debby Banham (History and Philosophy of Science/Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic)
Dr Mim Bower (McDonald Institute)
Lindsay Friedman (Department of Archaeology)
Emma Lightfoot (Department of Archaeology)

Registration for Vegetable Love is now closed.

Do food plants belong to science or the humanities? Or to us all? This workshop will explore different kinds of thinking and knowledge – scientific and artistic, theoretical and practical, academic and everyday – about edible plants. Our big question will be: how can these different kinds of knowledge illuminate each other? Participants from a wide range of fields will share their own perspectives, and insights will emerge from both presentations and discussion to inform all of our thinking for the future. We hope that this will be the first of a series of meetings, involving both the same participants and others, allowing a continuing dialogue between people interested in food plants in many different disciplines, and continuing our exploration of the relationship(s) between them. We also hope to share some of our ideas with a wider audience, by means of a volume featuring some of the presentations from this and future meetings.

Confirmed speakers:

Dave Fox (Trumpington Allotment Society)
Plotting for food feet and food security

Dr Judy Fox (Botanic Garden)
Growing food plants with school children

Dr Sally Francis (Economic Botanist and Agricultural Journalist)
Ancient crops today

Jane Frost (Artist)
Food plants in the visual arts

Professor Nick Jardine (History and Philosophy of Science)
The philosophy of fungi: different kinds of knowledge about edible plants

Professor Martin Jones (Archaeology)
Why humans share food

Professor John Parker (Botanic Garden)
The plant’s view of edibility

Dr Anne Secord (History and Philosophy of Science)
Cool Fruits and Hot Beds: The Unnatural Cultivation of the Eighteenth-Century Cucumber

Dr Lydia Smith (National Institute of Agricultural Botany)
What defines a “crop” plant and what drives farmers’ cultivation choice

 

Contacts:
Contact the conveners by emailing Debby Banham.
Direct all organisational enquiries to Catherine Hurley, Administrator, CRASSH