-
Title
-
Storying Plant Communication
-
Description
-
Embedded in vibrant and richly textured high desert settings, this collage represents the profound cultural and emotional interconnections between people and plants. The research for which it was created explores the narrative accounts of southwestern herbalists, healers, teachers, farmers, and other plant enthusiasts who foster deep and reciprocal relationships with the local flora. Reflecting on plant relationships, place-making practices, and a breadth of other topics, the storytellers in this project describe their transformative perspectives that frame plants as intelligent, relational, and communicative. New Mexico—the Land of Enchantment—is steeped in stories, and narratives captured here show how attitudes and practices related to plants can trouble dominant, often harmful beliefs of human exceptionalism, and gesture toward more ecocentric pathways in an era of environmental uncertainty. Employing auto/ethnographic methods that put storytellers’ experiences in conversation with a range of interdisciplinary literature, the researchers highlight ways in which plant studies offer a rich and timely direction for communication research. Through this work, the authors argue that story-based methodologies offer a fertile starting point for scholars and students in the humanities and social sciences to venture into the realm of plant studies.
-
Date
-
2025-12-19
-
Creator
-
Parks, Melissa M.
