Sinofloristics: Chinese Studies / Plant Humanities

Using multiple approaches from the humanities to think through a plant’s cultural significance is the work of the nascent subfield of Plant Humanities. This spring 2025 workshop was an interdisciplinary exploration of what it means to take plants as an organizing focus in the study of Chinese culture. Countering the presentist orientation of much of environmental humanities, the workshop took a long view of plant studies, with scholars whose work spans from the Song dynasty through the Qing, to the present day.