Plant humanities pedagogy: teaching at the intersection of feminist economics and economic botany

Abstract

The authors posit that exploring complex questions with students about how the social constructions of gender, race, and class shape our relations with the natural world fosters a holistic understanding and a more inclusive learning environment in higher education settings. In an online course taught in fall 2020, a social scientist and a botanist reimagined the study of plant and human relations through the interdisciplinary lenses of economic botany, cultural plant studies, political economy, and feminist theory. Insights from a linked online course taught in winter 2021 that centered a research project are also shared. A similar in-person course was taught solo in fall 2024 and is discussed as well. All three courses offered upper division credit and were not open to first-year students. The fall courses had no prerequisites and drew natural science and political economy students. The winter course with a research component had a signature requirement to assess students’ expository writing and critical thinking skills. Interdisciplinary pedagogy provides strategies that can be applied to institutions committed to doing the hard but important work of reckoning with the legacy of slavery, colonialism, and plantation economies.