Botanical Histories of Tsarist Central Asia and the Caucasus

Session Submission Type: Panel

Brief Description

This panel explores the imperial and environmental histories of Central Asia and the Caucasus in the long nineteenth century by centering non-human ecological actors: plants and pollinators. Collectively, the papers examine how focusing on flora and fauna as subjects of study can open up broader histories of the imperial period, particularly in relation to colonial power, knowledge production, imaginaries, and social change. Two papers consider the construction and development of imperial botanical repositories: a botanical garden and an herbarium. The third paper shifts focus to the pollinators of plants, examining the rise of apiculture as a rural industry. Together, the speakers reveal unexpected connections between regions often considered separately, tracing the circulation of botanical and insect material, the transformation of Eurasian landscapes, and the potential of plant and animal collections as historical sources.

Sub Unit

• History: 1800-1900

Chair

• Marek Eby, New York U

Papers

• The Sukhum Botanical Garden and Imperial Russia’s Tropical Utopia - Oleksandr Polianichev, Södertörn U (Sweden)

• Native Plants, Foreign Names: Botanical Nomenclature and Memory of Landscape in Imperial Herbaria - Tatiana Saburova, Indiana U Bloomington

• Pollinators and Colonists in Eastern Central Asia - Jennifer Keating, U College Dublin (Ireland)

Discussant

• Catherine Evtuhov, Columbia U