Table of Contents
The Mind of Plants: Narratives of Vegetal Intelligence
Explorations of plant consciousness and human interactions with the natural world are fascinating.
From apples to ayahuasca and coffee to kurrajong, plants are conscious beings. Their interactions with each other, with humanity, and with the world have been studied by many. “The Mind of Plants: Narratives of Vegetal Intelligence” compiles works from various disciplines into a collection that explores our knowledge and intuitions about plant life.
“The Mind of Plants” includes a foreword by Dennis McKenna. It features short essays, narratives, and poetry about plants and their interactions with humans. Contributors include Robin Wall Kimmerer, author of “Braiding Sweetgrass,” Jeremy Narby, John Kinsella, Luis Eduardo Luna, Megan Kaminski, and many others. Editors John C. Ryan, Patrícia Vieira, and Monica Gagliano, who also contributed, have curated a mix of essays, reflections, and poems. The book is enriched with detailed illustrations by José María Pout.
About the Authors
Monica Gagliano
Monica Gagliano is a Research Associate Professor in evolutionary ecology. Previously a fellow of the Australian Research Council, she now serves as Research Associate Professor (adjunct) at the University of Western Australia. She is also a member of the Sydney Environment Institute (SEI) at the University of Sydney. She is currently at Southern Cross University, where she directs the BI Lab–Biological Intelligence Lab. This lab is part of the Diverse Intelligences Initiative of the Templeton World Charity Foundation. Her research has expanded the understanding of plant cognition, including perception, learning processes, and memory. Her latest book is “Thus Spoke the Plant” (North Atlantic Books, 2018).
John Charles Ryan
John Charles Ryan is an Adjunct Associate Professor at Southern Cross University, Australia, and an Adjunct Senior Research Fellow at the Nulungu Institute, University of Notre Dame, Australia. His areas of interest are Aboriginal Australian and Southeast Asian literature, ecocriticism, ecopoetics, critical plant studies, and environmental humanities. He is the co-editor of the upcoming “Postcolonial Literatures of Climate Change” (2022, Brill) and co-author of “Introduction to the Environmental Humanities” (2021, Routledge). He recently served as a Writer-in-Residence at the Oak Spring Garden Foundation in Virginia.
Patricia Vieira
Patrícia Vieira is a Senior Researcher at the Centre for Social Studies (CES) at the University of Coimbra and a Professor of Spanish and Portuguese at Georgetown University. Her expertise covers Latin American and Iberian Literatures and Cultures, Portuguese and Brazilian Cinema, Utopian Studies, and the Environmental Humanities. Her latest monograph is “States of Grace: Utopia in Brazilian Culture” (SUNY UP, 2018), and her most recent co-edited book is “Portuguese Literature and the Environment” (Lexington, 2019). She has published numerous articles in these areas and has written op-eds for The New York Times, the LA Review of Books, and The European, among others.