Panel: "Rooted Resistance: Plants, Colonial Histories, Radical Futures"

The 2025 conference brought together interdisciplinary scholars, artists, practitioners, and culture keepers to explore the relationship between humans and the more-than-human world through the lens of plant and fungal life. Thinking with Plants and Fungi: An Interdisciplinary Exploration into the Mind of Nature invited participants to reflect on how plants and fungi challenge dominant assumptions about consciousness, cooperation, and coexistence in the face of ecological and social crises. Following in the tradition of the Center for the Study of World Religions' engagement with emerging conversations on ecology, spirituality, and mind, the conference featured keynote talks and panel discussions with leading voices across the sciences, humanities, and social sciences. Speakers included Merlin Sheldrake, Giuliana Furci, Emanuele Coccia, Banu Subramanian, Jessica J. Lee, Zoë Schlanger, Monica Gagliano, Michael Marder, and others. For additional materials and resources, including speaker bios and readings, visit: https://cswr.hds.harvard.edu/publications/thinking-with-plants-and-fungi. Elaine Ayers, Lecturer, History of Science and Medicine, Yale University Rebecca Mendoza, PhD Student, Committee on the Study of Religion, Harvard University & Sabina Cruz de la Cruz,Instructor, Instituto de Docencia e Investigación Etnológica de Zacatecas Joela Jacobs, Assistant Professor of German Studies, University of Arizona & Isabel Kranz, Professor of Cultural Studies, University of Applied Arts, Vienna