ASLE Panel Topic: “Plant Humanities”

This is a call for papers for the ASLE (Association for the Study of Literature and Environment) Panel at the American Literature Association Conference: May 21-24, 2025, The Westin Copley Place, Boston, MA (in person - Wednesday through Saturday of Memorial Day weekend).

“Plant Humanities” will investigate how plants shape American literary and environmental landscapes, cultural narratives, and material practices. Please submit 300-word abstracts on any aspect of plant studies in American, transnational, or postcolonial literature and material culture related, but not limited to, the following topics:

Representations of plants in literature, film, & popular culture

Plants in narratology / storytelling / oral traditions

Plant poetics & politics

Plants & ethics of care / kinship / reciprocity / veganism

Plant agency & animacy

Plants in postcolonial & Indigenous studies

Plants in national & transnational contexts

Plants & cultural identities, belonging, heritage, & placemaking

Scientific & colonial practices surrounding plants (botany, nomenclature, herbaria, etc.)

Plants & (literary) archives

Plants in Medical Humanities including bioethics & genetic engineering

Plants in Energy Humanities, petrocultures, & green technologies

Cultures of plant cultivation & /or healing (agriculture, gardens, & plant medicine)

Invasion ecologies / decolonizing invasion ecologies

Plant consciousness / intelligence / communication

Arboreal humanities

Fungal networks & collaborations

Abstracts of 300 words, a bio, and description of AV needs due 01/06/2025. Email to Dr. Kathleen Burns: kathleen.burns@okstate.edu. Hybrid papers that feature researched nonfiction or creative scholarship are welcome.

Panelists must be members of ASLE before May 1, 2025. 

The ALA Conference Fee: The registration fee covers the costs of the conference, including the receptions. It does not include any meals. All of those who are on the program are required to pre-register by April 15, 2025. Those who do not register by May 1 will be dropped from the program. The conference fee is $175 with a reduced rate of $125 for Graduate Students, Independent Scholars, and Retired Faculty. Registration Information for the conference will be available on the website in January. We prefer that individuals register online by using the link provided on the ALA website. Individuals may also pay by check along with the registration form, which can be found online after January 1. Please do NOT mail any checks until the registration form is posted.