Seminar – 'Seed Sovereignty and Our Living Relatives'

When: February 25, 2019 12:00pm

Elizabeth Hoover, Manning Assistant Professor of American Studies at Brown University, will give a seminar titled "Seed Sovereignty and Our Living Relatives." The master seminar is intended to be a space for providing input on a work in progress, which will be circulated by the author a week prior to the event.

About the seminar:

"Seed Sovereignty and Our Living Relatives" explores how the broader literature defines what constitutes a "heritage" seed or variety of food, and how the different communities Hoover has visited define these for themselves. These seeds, many of which have been passed down through generations of indigenous gardeners or reacquired from seed banks or ally seed savers, were often discussed as the foundation of the food sovereignty movement, helpful tools for education and reclaiming health. Stories of seeds that went on sometimes global adventures before returning to their home communities and some which were spread across they country by enthusiastic nascent seed keepers under unintentionally fabricated stories of ancient provenance all contribute to the broader discussion about the hunger that some are feeling for a connection to meaningful plant varieties. Seed keepers have formed organizations like the Traditional Native American Farmers Association and the Indigenous Seedkeepers Network in an effort to not only pass along knowledge about how to grow these seeds, but also to protect seeds as both relatives and intellectual property through the theorization and enactment of "seed sovereignty."

The seminar will conclude with a discussion about how indigenous conceptions of seeds as living relatives and cultural patrimony have not been considered in the broader debate around genetically modified organisms, as detailed by science and technology scholars like Sheila Jasanoff in 2005 and sociologist John Lang in 2016. In addition, Hoover will include ongoing rematriation case studies from the Science Museum in Minnesota, the University of Michigan, Seed Savers Exchange and the Chicago Field Museum.

Please see the link below to RSVP.


Audience: Faculty
Audience size: Small (1-50)

Where

Campus: Main Campus

Address

Contact info & links

Contacts

Megan Carney Center for Regional Food Studies

Requests for disability-related accommodations should be directed to the event's primary contact: Megan Carney