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"Vines, Petals, Nerves: Feeling Floral Skins" -- Lara Farina

October 27, 2016

12:15 PM - 1:15 PM

Hillel House Multipurpose Room (101)

Julie Cline

12:15-1:15 p.m.
Hillel House 101
Lunch will be served
RSVP by Oct. 17 at go.wlu.edu/farina or kaow@wlu.edu

Lara Farina, an associate professor of English at West Virginia University, will give a lecture at Washington and Lee University on Oct. 27 at 12:15–1:15 p.m. in Hillel House Multipurpose Room (101).

The title of Farina’s talk is “Vines, Petals, Nerves: Feeling Floral Skins.” It is free and open to the public.

“Do plants have feelings? This question, while often met with ridicule, has been asked with some urgency in both medieval and modern times of ecological crisis,” Farina said.

“Lacking faces, voices, gestures and perceptible motility, plants have seldom been considered candidates for the category of thinking beings in the West, but the possibility that they may share our corporal sensitivities opens a realm of speculation about human/plant interaction and its role in shaping environments.

“In this talk, I’ll consider recent scientific discussion of botanical feeling alongside recent and ancient depictions of plant/human hybrids, queer vegetosexual figures that challenge post-Darwinian ideas about botanic sensation, desire and futurity," Farina continued.