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.