GPH_2_CFP

CALL FOR PAPERS
Date of Conference: 2–3 May 2025 (Friday-Saturday)

Mode: Hybrid
Host: Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu, Nepal
Partners: Nulungu Institute, University of Notre Dame, Australia
Sadhan Chandra Mahavidyalaya (affiliated with the University of Calcutta)
Gifts from the Sentient Forest (project supported by the Kone Foundation,
Finland)
Location: Kathmandu, Nepal
Concept Note:
Humankind is deeply interconnected with botanical life. As sources of sustenance,
agents of healing, and symbols of wonder, plants are vital to our lives. While offering
us materials essential for existence, flora also inspires community identity and
expresses cultural heritage. Nourishing, life-supporting, and ever-present, plants
represent about ninety percent of the Earth’s biomass. In the current era of
intensifying ecological crisis, however, the future of many plant species and
communities remains uncertain. If left unchecked, habitat loss, land use shifts, and
climatic disturbances will continue to accelerate botanical decline worldwide.
In response to this context, the Plant Humanities (PH) has gained traction
internationally over the last five years as an inter-/transdisciplinary area of research,
pedagogy, and activism concerning plants and their multidimensional transactions
with human beings. Entering the public domain in 2018, the term Plant Humanities
refers to ‘humanistic modes of interpretation’ in the study of flora, society, culture,
communities, history, art, literature, and other disciplines in the arts, humanities, and
social sciences (Batsaki 2021, 2). According to the Dumbarton Oaks Plant Humanities
Initiative (2023), plants offer ‘remarkable scope for research and interpretation due to
their global mobility and historical significance to human cultures’ (para. 1).
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The Plant Humanities highlights the material and affective linkages between plants,
people, and ecologies. Plant humanists investigate the narratives and ideas connected
to flora; the creative works inspired by various species; and the myriad values that
situate plants in socioeconomic contexts. The field examines a wide range of issues—
from climate change and food security to the loss of biodiversity and plant-based
cultural heritage. PH is exceptionally well-placed to articulate ethical concerns
including the social repercussions of genetically modified flora and the moral
implications of plant intelligence for practices of cultivation.
Accordingly, PH aims to promote dialogue and exchange between disciplines to

engender new approaches to plants. In North America and Europe, research to date
has emphasized cross-sector partnerships between universities, botanical gardens,
herbaria, and other institutions. Plant humanists have focused, in particular, on the
ways in which artworks, texts, archives, seeds, and preserved specimens narrate
complex human-plant relations.
The 2nd International Conference on Global Plant Humanities at Tribhuvan
University, Kathmandu, Nepal, 2–3 May 2025, will further the dialogue between the
arts, humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences towards novel perspectives on
the botanical world and human-flora relations. Highlighting cross-cultural
understandings of plant life, the conference will focus on developments in Plant
Humanities scholarship across the globe but with emphasis on the biocultural
diversity of South Asian countries (Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal,
Pakistan, and Sri Lanka).
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We invite paper and panel proposals including, but not limited to, the
following topic areas:
1. Art, literature, performance, music, and plant life
2. Gender, sexuality, and flora
3. Creative practices engaging plants as partners, collaborators, and agents
4. Botanical film, media, and popular culture
5. Phytopoetics, phytocriticism, and phytosemiotics
6. Plants, posthumanism, and the posthumanities
7. Plants, postcolonialism, and globalization
8. Spiritualities and religious traditions centralizing plants
9. Plants, nostalgia, solastalgia, mourning, and memorialization
10. Interactions between flora, fauna, and fungi in literature, film, and
performance
11. Traditional and folk botanical knowledge systems
12. Indigenous people’s relations to plants and ecosystems
13. Plant agency, sensing, behavior, learning, and cognition
14. Plant temporality, memory, and communication
15. Plant pedagogies including concerns of ‘plant blindness’ and ‘plant
awareness disparity’
16. Citizen science and botanical conservation
17. Social implications of scientific advances in plant cognition
18. Development of the Plant Humanities in the Global South
19. South and Southeast Asian interventions in the field
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SUBMISSION PROCESS
Deadline for Abstract Submission: Proposals for 20-minute papers and 1.5 hour
panels (with 3–4 presenters) will be assessed on a rolling basis. No proposals will be
considered after 1 April 2025.
Abstract Submissions: Email your abstract (max. 200 words) with five relevant
keywords along with a bio-note (max. 50 words).
Panel Proposals: Email your panel theme (max. 200 words) and 3–4 abstracts (max.
200 words each) along with bio-notes for each presenter including the chair. The
chair can also be one of the presenters. For panels with 3 speakers, each presenter will
have 20 minutes. For panels with 4 speakers, each presenter will have 15 minutes.
Email Contact: Please send all proposals to globalplanthumanities@gmail.com
CONFERENCE FEES:
Nepali Participants: 2,500 NPR
Indian Participants: 2,000 INR
International Participants: 35 USD
Only Attendees: Same fees
CONTACTS
Please direct all inquiries to the following members of the organizing committee:
For Nepali Participants: Dr Komal Phuyal, Lecturer (Senior Grade), Central Department of
English, Tribhuvan University, Kirtipur, Kathmandu, Nepal. By email
<ephuyal@gmail.com> or phone: +977-9851006250
For Indian Participants: Mr Goutam Majhi, Assistant Professor, Department of English,

Sadhan Chandra Mahavidyalaya (affiliated with the University of Calcutta), West Bengal,
India. By email <goutammajhi78@gmail.com> or phone: +91-9051534490
For International Participants: Dr John C. Ryan, Associate Professor and Adjunct Senior
Research Fellow, Nulungu Institute, University of Notre Dame, Australia. By email only:
<john.ryan1@nd.edu.au>
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SOCIAL MEDIA
Facebook: click here
Website: click here
Whatsapp Group: more information to follow
VENUE INFORMATION
Tribhuvan University is a public university located in Kirtipur, Kathmandu, Nepal.
Established in 1959, TU is the oldest and the largest university in the country. The
campus is only about 30 minutes by car from National Botanical Garden (NBG), the
oldest botanical garden of Nepal. NBG comprises an arboretum, biodiversity
education garden, fern garden, Nepali-historic plant garden, physic garden, and many
other areas. Some conference activities may take place at NBG.
ABOUT THE GLOBAL PLANT HUMANITIES NETWORK (GPHN)

GPHN was conceived during The 1st International Conference on Global Plant
Humanities, which took place at Sadhan Chandra Mahavidyalaya in West Bengal on
the 12th of December 2023, attracting participants from around the world.

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CALL FOR PAPERS

Date of Conference: 2–3 May 2025 (Friday-Saturday)

Accordingly, PH aims to promote dialogue and exchange between disciplines to

For Indian Participants: Mr Goutam Majhi, Assistant Professor, Department of English,

ABOUT THE GLOBAL PLANT HUMANITIES NETWORK (GPHN)

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