Vegetal Anima - Why Plant Studies Now?

This volume is a critical examination of the sudden burgeoning of plant studies across the disciplines. From ecocriticism that features fantastical plants, biological studies and concerns about changing plant biodiversity, environmental focus on the role of plants in mitigating climate change, neo-liberal campaigns to offset carbon through tree plantings, and popular tropes of thinking and feeling plants, we see plants as front and center of imaginations for planetary futures. As scholars who have tracked the shifting focus from human to animal studies and now plant studies, we believe something is afoot. We examine the current moment through an examination of the histories that have brought us here, a theorization of the current moment, and finally the lessons we can learn through such analyses.