We’re pleased to welcome Dr. Banu Subramaniam, author and the Luella LaMer Professor of Women’s and Gender Studies at Wellesley College, as our 2026 Rachel Carson lecture series guest speaker. Dr. Subramaniam holds a Ph.D. from Duke University and is trained as an evolutionary biologist and plant scientist. Her work explores the natural sciences in relation to race, gender, colonialism, ethnicity, caste, and xenophobia.
Dr. Subramaniam will present her lecture – “Migrant Ecologies: Plant Worlds and the Afterlife of Empire” – on Monday, February 23, 2026. Her presentation will explore how histories of colonialism and their foundational language of gender, race, sexuality, and nation have shaped the language, terminology, and theories of the modern plant sciences. How and why do botanical theories remain grounded in the violence of their colonial pasts? In wrestling with these difficult origins, Dr. Subramaniam develops the concept of migrant ecologies to retheorize plant migration and reproductive biology. She also explores new biological frameworks that harness the power of feminist thought in order to reimagine and reinvigorate our love of plants.
We welcome you to join us before the lecture for a Community Dinner in the Regency Room (in the Anderson University Center) from 5:30-6:30PM. Registration is required for the dinner.
More details can be found at
https://www.plu.edu/natural-sciences/rachel-carson/
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