Friday Lecture Series | Botany's (Un)making: Vernaculars of Plant Knowing in the Early 20th-Century Davao Gulf

This talk addresses the first decades of U.S. colonization of the Philippines and institutions of botanical research aimed to scale up plantation-style production. It, however, extends beyond colonial conceits by offering a contrapuntal story by following a U.S. anthropologist conducting fieldwork among a Bagobo community in the Davao Gulf of Mindananao and the knowledge of weavers this anthropologist obtained. Combined, the narratives present vernaculars of plant knowing within and outside of botany's disciplinary bounds and their transformations found within colonial agricultural expansion. This talk draws from the recently published Unmaking Botany: Science and Vernacular Knowledge in the Colonial Philippines (Duke, 2025) by Kathleen Cruz Gutierez (History, University of California, Santa Cruz).

If there is anything we can do to make this event accessible to you, please contact us at valdezjo@umich.edu. Please be aware that advance notice is necessary as some accommodations may require more time for the university to arrange.