Just launched: a new website called Trans-Plants that asks “what can we learn about humans through plant movements, weeds, and invasive aliens?” It is a joint venture between Priya Rangan, Christian Kull, and their collaborators on three ARC-funded research projects and on all the activities that have spun-off from there.
The “acacia exchanges” project examines the history of multi-directional acacia exchanges across the Indian Ocean, and investigates how conflicts over biological invasions are shaped by changing social priorities.
The “enigma of arrival” project addresses the deep and often foggy history of plant movements: what role did unheralded ancient people play in their spread? This project explores the environmental history the Indian Ocean rim through trandsiciplinary combinations of archival research, molecular genetics, and ethno-linguistics applied to plants such as the baobab.
The “weeds and indigenous people” project asks how new plants fit into local ideas about what landscapes should be. Starting with lantana, and moving on to other plants, we investigate how indigenous and rural communities around the Indian Ocean perceive, classify, and use environmental weeds in their everyday livelihood and cultural activities in the context of dynamic economic and environmental change.
In combination, the Plants-out-of-Place Project investigates how we contribute to, live in, and perceive ‘trans-plant’ landscapes around the Indian Ocean rim and beyond. Here’s to the success of the new site! Visit it here (transplantsproject.wordpress.com) and sign up to follow it!
Christian Kull 