2026 SPE Annual Conference: Catalyst for Exchange
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print this pageWeeds: Or, Plants On The Move
li rothrock
Saturday, October 19 - 9:30AM to 10:00AM
Kimball Arts 143
I research non-native plants that now make their home in Taiwan. Plants, like migrant people, face many challenges before they can make a new home away from their origin. Mango trees, once a foreigner brought by the Dutch, now are now nationally beloved. Water hyacinth, brought by the Japanese for its beauty, is now killed and maimed as an invader across the island. Both brought by the hands of people moving to the island, with two different fates. Recent research suggests that our ecosystems have always been in states of flux, shaped by plants and animals on the move. I wish to work against the prevailing colonialist notion that ecosystems are static, unchangeable things to be preserved, a belief which often casts non-native plants (and humans) as aggressive aliens to be removed. I do not wish to argue that non-native plants are solely good, but I am determined to bring nuance and complexity to their stories, to examine the benefits they may bring to their new homes, along with the difficulties. By studying how these plants move and find acceptance or rejection in their new homes, I will open a metaphor for considering human migration while eliding some of the well-worn difficulties that arise when we discuss migrants, and questions of belonging or not belonging, directly. I wish to use this research to slantwise consider the identity of the islanders, old and new alike; how it has shifted, been molded, under waves of new others, who then become part of us.
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