Vegetal Anima

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.