Flora and Feminists: The Subversive Science of Botany Symposium, Exhibition and Workshop

Join Us for Flora and Feminists: The Subversive Science of Botany Symposium, Exhibition and Workshop!

When:
Friday, September 12 & Saturday, September 13, 2025

Where:
DKU Campus – LIB 1115 & WDR 1003

Explore the powerful connections between plants, culture, and feminist perspectives through engaging talks, workshops, and an exhibition opening.

Highlights include:

• Expert talks on ethnobotany and indigenous knowledge

• Hands-on workshops like creating bespoke herbarium sheets

• Bilingual sessions exploring native plants and feminist science

• Plant-based lunch and evening exhibition opening

Scan here to register for the Symposium and meals

Don’t miss this inspiring two-day event!

SYMPOSIUM SCHEDULE

Friday, September 12

Time	Location	Speaker(s)	Title
11:00	LIB 1115	Dr. Paul Alan Cox	Polynesians Rely on Women’s Knowledge for Healing
12:00	LIB 1115	Dr. Aunchalee Palmquist	Of Birth and Bloom: Biocultural Perspectives on the Ethnobotany of Perinatal Transitions
1:00	CCT	—	Lunch Break
2:00	LIB 1115	Dr. Robin Rodd	Decolonial, feminist and anti-capitalist critiques of the rise of psychedelic medicine
3:00	LIB 1115	Dr. Renee Richer	Hand of Mary: Cultural and Corporal Use of Plants During Childbirth
4:00	LIB 1115	Dr. Liangliang Zhang, Yun Jiang, Chengcheng Liu	Bi-lingual presentation: Sowing Resilience: Indigenous Plant Knowledge and Ecological Feminist Practice in Rural China
5:00	LIB 1115	Dr. Erin Wilkerson	Feral Practices: fieldwork on the embodied feminist landscape
6:30	HUM Space (AB1075A)	—	Exhibition Opening

WORKSHOP SCHEDULE

Saturday, September 13, WDR 1003

Time	Session Leader	Title
12:00	Dr. Renee Richer	Develop Your Plant Relationships: Introduction to Plant Structure and Common Food Plant Families
1:15	Dr. Aunchalee Palmquist	Herbaria for Herstories: Creating Bespoke Herbarium Sheets
2:30	Dr. Liangliang Zhang, Yun Jiang, Chengcheng Liu (Bi-lingual experience)	Sensing the Local: Exploring Native Plants of the Shanghai Region

Biographies and Abstracts

Dr. Renee Richer

Hand of Mary: Cultural and Corporal Use of Plants During Childbirth
Dr. Richer is a terrestrial ecologist working in semi- to hyper-arid environments in Africa and Asia for more than 30 years. She received her BA in biology from the University of Chicago and her PhD in biology from Harvard University in 2004. She joined Duke Kunshan University in 2021. Her work focuses on the intersection of biological processes, sustainable development and human health in regards to photosynthesizing organisms (plants and cyanobacteria). For the last decade she has been working to elucidate routes of human exposure to naturally produced bioactive compounds in desert environments and their physiological effects. She has co-authored two guides to the flora of Qatar including Hidden Beauty (Akkadia Press 2022). Hidden Beauty, a photographic guide to the plants of Qatar, summarizes all records of plants in Qatar, adds an additional 12 species records and clarifies previous plant mis-identifications. She has also co-edited a book on developing university courses for environment, development and sustainability studies in the former Soviet Republics and Soviet bloc countries (Central European University Press). She served as guest editor for a Journal of Arid Environments special issue, Toxins in Desert Environments, and has published numerous peer-reviewed papers. She is a full member of Sigma Xi and Senior Ecologist of the Ecological Society of America, where she serves as Chair of the Applied Ecology section.

ABSTRACT

Anastatica hierochuntica is a small, Brassicaceous plant native to the Middle East and North Africa associated with multiple forms of life and death. It dominates the landscape in the rocky deserts of the most extreme conditions. It also dominates reproductive lore and is known and used within the region as part of the three Abrahamic faiths. Locally it is used by women during childbirth both culturally and corporally to encourage or aid the childbirth process as reflected in the common name. The dried plant is commonly sold in the souq or online to serve diaspora communities. Multiple ways of knowing inform the use of the plant from the Doctrine of Signatures and historical religious lore to recent studies show the biological impact of plant extractions in aiding childbirth and also in use as an abortifacient. These is only this single species within the genus. Its hygroscopic movements are thought to resemble resurrection. It is also known as a resurrection plant reflected in the genus name Anastatica.

Dr. Paul Alan Cox

Polynesians Rely on Women’s Knowledge for Healing
American ethnobotanist whose scientific research focuses on discovering new medicines by studying patterns of wellness and illness among indigenous peoples. He received a Danforth Fellowship and a National Science Foundation Graduate Fellowship for his Ph.D. studies at Harvard University in Biology where, twice, he was awarded the Bowdoin Prize, a distinction he shares with Ralph Waldo Emerson. For seven years he was director of the Congressionally-chartered National Tropical Botanical Garden (NTBG) in Hawaii and Florida.
He was elected as president of the Society for Economic Botany and has been president of the International Society for Ethnopharmacology. Together with Michael Balick, he wrote, Plants, People, and Culture: The Science of Ethnobotany., and for his ethnobotanical studies was awarded the E. K. Janaki Ammal Medal from India, and the Eloise Payne Luquer Medal by the Garden Club of America, which made him a lifetime Honorary Member. He is a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Agriculture and Forestry, a Fellow of the Linnean Society of London, and appointed adjunct professor at the Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden by the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
He is the author of over 250 scientific papers, reviews, and books and was chosen by Time magazine as one of eleven “Heroes of Medicine” in 1997 for his search for new medicines from plants.
ABSTRACT
In Polynesian cultures, healers are typically women, with healing knowledge being transmitted matrilineally from grandmother to mother to daughter. Although remedies for common maladies are often widely known, in the Samoan islands, specific herbal remedies are sometimes known only within a familial matriarchy. This was true for antiviral remedies prepared from the bark of Homalanthus nutans; only a very few families of healers knew how to prepare and use these remedies for the treatment of hepatitis. In Tahiti, this matrilineally system of herbal knowledge has evolved into a unique system of indigenous intellectual property rights. If women outside the appropriate matriarchies attempt to prepare the herbal remedies, they simply will not work. Because of responsibilities for childrearing, and distinct gender differences in re- foraging and subsistence agriculture, women tended to be first responders for childhood illnesses. Men are involved in Polynesian healing either as bonesetters, or in cases of spiritual possession, or diagnosing conflicts with departed ancestors. In contrast to common medicinal knowledge—which by definition is widely held within a culture— specialist healing knowledge within matriarchies requires an apprentice system for continued transmission of this specialist knowledge. Although men typically, but not always, are primary players in village politics, women’s knowledge of sometimes archaeon healing remedies is necessary for the well-being of entire villages and even districts.

Dr. Aunchalee E.L. Palmquist

Of Birth and Bloom: Biocultural Perspectives on the Ethnobotany of Perinatal Transitions.
Dr. Aunchalee Palmquist is an Associate Professor of the Practice at the Duke Global Health Institute with a secondary appointment in Cultural Anthropology. She is an Adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of Maternal and Child Health at the Gillings School of Global Public Health, UNC Chapel Hill. She holds a PhD in Medical Anthropology from the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa and is an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant (IBCLC). Dr. Palmquist is a health equity scholar, feminist ethnographer, and internationally recognized breastfeeding and human lactation researcher. Her scholarship bridges biocultural medical anthropology and global health. Inspired by feminist anthropology, Indigenous methodologies, bioethics, and human rights frameworks, she uses research to uncover root causes of health challenges and to imagine new directions for policy, practice, and advocacy. Dr. Palmquist has over 20 years of experience conducting ethnographic, mixed-methods, and community-based participatory research and collaborates on interdisciplinary research with scholars from around the world. She was the 2021 recipient of a Gillings Faculty Award for Excellence in Health Equity Research and a two-time recipient of a Teaching Innovation Award in the Gillings School, Department of Maternal and Child Health (2020, 2023). Dr. Palmquist was recently awarded the 2024 Solon T. Kimball Award for Practicing and Applied Anthropology by the American Anthropological Association. Dr. Palmquist has served as a CGBI representative on the WHO/UNICEF Global Breastfeeding Collective (2017-2023), the Emergency Nutrition Network IFE Core Group (2017-2023), and the United States Breastfeeding Committee as Co-Steward of the COVID-19 Infant and Young Child Feeding Constellation (2020-2023). Dr. Palmquist has previously served as an International Lactation Consultants Association liaison to the United Nations (2017).

ABSTRACT
This presentation explores the biocultural significance of flora in human reproduction through the comparative ethnobotany of perinatal transitions: pregnancy, parturition, and postpartum. Drawing on cross-cultural case studies from diverse Indigenous and traditional medical systems, the talk highlights the significance of plants through time and space in human societies. Plants are not only sources of nutrition and pharmacological agents, but also intrinsic to ritual practices that nurture maternal-newborn well-being throughout the perinatal period. These botanical traditions reflect deep ecological knowledge systems that sustain reproductive resilience and social cohesion, as well as embodied connections to place and history. Through this interdisciplinary approach, the presentation advances a nuanced understanding of the biocultural significance of ethnobotanical knowledge, emphasizing its relevance for contemporary global health, reproductive justice, and feminist scholarship.

Dr. Liangliang Zhang Yun Jiang, Chengcheng Liu
You Good Ecological Community x New York University Shanghai
Sowing Resilience: Indigenous Plant Knowledge and Ecological Feminist Practice in Rural China
Dr. Liangliang Zhang is NYU Shanghai Assistant Professor of Global China Studies.Liangliang’s research explores the intersection of citizenship, wellbeing, and lived ecology in a globalizing China. Her current book project, Embodying Chinese Citizenship: Self-Transformation and Social Innovation from China’s Revitalizing Ruralities, examines personally and socially transformative practices within grassroots education and healing initiatives based in rural China, with an amplifying reach. As an engaged anthropologist and educator, Dr. Liangliang Zhang is committed to community-engaged, co-creative ethnography and transformative experiential learning, guided by the core ethics of permaculture—earth care, people care, and fair share. She is the founder and curator of the Inclusive Ecology Collective, a Think-and-Act Network based at NYUSH that leverages interdisciplinary research, intergenerational wisdom, and intercosmological expertise to foster urgently needed systemic transformations in response to the planetary ecological crisis. Her research, teaching, and activism converge around the central theme of relational regeneration— nurturing generative connections with the self, other beings, and the Earth.

ABSTRACT
Yun Jiang, Chengcheng Liu, and Liangliang Zhang
This 45-minute bilingual interactive session invites participants into the entangled worlds of plants and women, drawing on community-based ecological feminist practices in rural China. We will explore how indigenous knowledge systems—rooted in local farming, medicinal herb use, and seasonal rituals—intersect with gendered experiences of care, labor, and resilience. Participants will encounter plants such as Leonurus japonicus (益母草), Clitoria ternatea (蝶豆), and Artemisia annua (青蒿), whose embodied forms and traditional applications have long been tied to female reproduction, healing, and resistance. Through storytelling, hands-on sensory engagement, and co-reflection, we will explore how women in rural China’s ecological communities creatively reclaim marginalized knowledge—through cultivating heritage seeds, making food-based medicine, and hosting community feasts—to regenerate kinship and ecological belonging. Bridging botany, art, and feminist ethnography, this session honors plants and their female cultivators not merely as symbols, but as agents of relational healing and quiet subversion.
Keywords:
Indigenous plant knowledge, ecological feminism, reproductive health, feminist ethnography, community-based healing

Dr. Erin Wilkerson

Feral Practices: fieldwork on the embodied feminist landscape

Dr. Erin Wilkerson is Lecturer of Media and Arts at Duke Kunshan University. Dr. Wilkerson is a filmmaker and mixed media artist specializing in both research and practice. Her current research in feral filmmaking proposes a methodology for exploring the tangential histories of colonial invasion and ecological crisis emerging from the Enlightenment era separation of human and nature. She is the co-founder of the art collective and film production company Creative Agitation, as well as the former Managing Editor of “Now,” the journal for cinematic praxis. She co-directed the film “Nuclear Family” (2021), with DKU Associate Professor, Travis Wilkerson which was awarded Mención Especial at the Mar del Plata International Film Festival and is distributed by Arsenal (Berlin). Her work has exhibited in the Venice Biennale, Locarno Film Festival, the Viennale, and the Berlinale. Her follow up film, “The Second Burial” (2023), streamed on MUBI. And she has published writing in the art and cinema journals La Furia Umana, Kino!, and Membrana. She has a BFA from Otis College of Art and Design in Architecture/Landscape/Interiors, which solidified the ecological foundation for her work and a PhD from Liverpool John Moores University in Research and Practice culminating in the written research thesis, “Invasive Species,” which first proposed the feral filmmaking methodology, put into practice with the accompanying hybrid documentary film, “Strange Flower.”

ABSTRACT:

Sylvia Wynter names the Enlightenment as an era of paradigm shift from understanding humanness as entangled with nature, to the centering of Man over all else. This resulted in a rapid disturbance to culture and cultivation practices, and began the current trajectory towards climate crisis and global precarity. Silvia Federici has dedicated her work to studying the commodification of land, the female body, and the foreign body, as a direct result of this ‘othering.’ And connects forms of speculative violence, such as witch trials, to the expansion of colonial invasion and corresponding land privatization. The resulting displacement, extraction, and erasure have been romanticized and mythologized. If ‘civilized’ culture is based on, and upholds, this model of hedonistic hierarchy, then subversion becomes a form of wilding. It must look to the feral. It must spread like a weed. It must search for ontologies lost in this severing of human from nature such as knowledge of plant medicines, methodologies of mutual aid and radical care, and how to reestablish more-than-human community based on reciprocity. This presentation will utilize critical autoethnography wherein Wilkerson explores her personal family history in connection to the Salem Witch trials and early American settlement. An exploration of origin stories in the search for new types of futures.

Keywords:

labor, the female body, landscape, origin stories, witch hunt, pharmacology, settlement

Dr. Robin Rodd

Dr. Rodd began his career as an anthropologist studying with Piaroa communities in southern Venezuela, where he was interested in the use of psychoactive plants, local theories and practices of knowledge, mind, power, and health. He focused on the ways that consciousness practices associated with the consumption of yopo snuff and Banisteriopsiscaapi were socially transmitted and integrated into everyday community life. Dr. Rodd have since examined the ritual practices and theories of selfhood associated with ayahuasca use in Australia. Dr. Rodd’s current research is at the interface of critical theory, Latin American studies and anthropology. His work explores political memory and the symbolic bases of citizenship, democracy and dictatorship in Latin America. He has also done long-term fieldwork in lowland Amazonia focusing on indigenous notions of mind, knowledge, and health. At Duke Kunshan, his teaching interests span medical and political anthropology, Latin American cultures and politics, migration and citizenship studies, and critical theory. Dr. Rodd has edited two special journal issues – International Journal of Politics, Culture and Society and Journal of Iberian and Latin American Research – and published book chapters in English, Spanish and French. His articles has appeared in anthropology and politics journals including Critique of Anthropology, Anthropology of Consciousness, Journal of Psychoactive Drugs, Journal of Latin American Religion, Democratic Theory, and Citizenship Studies. He served as the secretary of the Association of Iberian and Latin American Studies of Australasia (AILASA) from 2016 to 2020, and has twice co-convened the Australian Anthropological Society annual conference.

ABSTRACT:

Decolonial, feminist and anti-capitalist critiques of the rise of psychedelic medicine

Since the first FDA-approved study of psilocybin by John Hopkins medical researchers in 2000, over 27,000 articles on the effectiveness or potential of psychedelic drugs to treat a wide range of mental health disorders have been published. Leading universities in the United States, Australia and Europe have dedicated psychedelic research centres that attract large amounts of private equity in the pursuit of drug-based therapies and media outlets around the world regularly publish glowing press releases on the wonders of psychedelic therapies. All of the compounds intensively researched have origins as, or are analogues of, plant-based substances with long histories of use by indigenous peoples, particularly in the Americas. The dizzying explosion in psychedelic medicine has also been a focus of ongoing critique by socio-medical researchers and communities they partner with. In this presentation, I outline what I see as the three primary lines of critique of the rise of psychedelic medicine which I refer to as feminist, decolonial and anti-capitalist. While they share a common concern for the ways that asymmetrical power relations have shaped research questions, processes, and outcomes they also reflect discrete assumptions about the nature of the problem and the potential for its solution.