By Randolph Marcum
On April 14th, the Center for 21st Century Studies proudly hosted Arboreal Humanities: A Roundtable Conversation. Featuring Richard Grusin (a professor of Media, Cinema, and Digital Studies at UW-Milwaukee), Meg Wilson (a Ph.D. student in art history at UW-Madison), and Mishiikenh Vernon Altiman (UW-Milwaukee’s Elder in Residence at the Electa Quinney Institute).
This conversation centered on the artistic, philosophical, community-oriented, and linguistic dimensions of trees. Sitting at the intersection of ecology, history, linguistics, and the liberal arts, arboreal humanities represent an intriguing new direction in the broader field of plant humanities. Each participant brought a distinct and valuable disciplinary focus with deep homologies between their talks. After the talk, participants and audience members met on the ninth floor of Curtin to share both light refreshments and their thoughts on the exciting present and future directions that arboreal humanities might take.
Watch the video below for the full presentation, along with the Q&A session that followed!
