BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//wp-events-plugin.com//7.4.3//EN TZID:America/Los_Angeles X-WR-TIMEZONE:America/Los_Angeles BEGIN:VEVENT UID:561@1718.ucla.edu DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20261204T090000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20261204T173000 DTSTAMP:20261103T190000Z URL:https://1718.ucla.edu/events/human-plant/ SUMMARY:Human/Being\, 1400-1800\, Conference 1: Human/Plant DESCRIPTION:\n\nOrganized by Javier Patiño Loira (University of California \, Los Angeles) and David P. Bardeen (Los Angeles County Museum of Art)\n\ nThis conference is part of the 2026-27 Core Program\, a year-long series of three conferences – Human/Plant\, Human/Animal\, and Human/Machine – that invite participants from across the humanistic disciplines (inclu ding history\, art history\, history of science\, literature\, philosophy\ , religious history\, and ecocriticism) to explore how early moderns (1400 -1800) sought to define and understand themselves through their relationsh ips with non-human life forms\, entities and systems. The rise of generat ive models and autonomous systems has provoked intense anxieties about hum an exceptionalism\, posing the deceptively simple question: What does it m ean to be human? But “the human" has never been a stable category\, part icularly during the early modern period\, when artists\, writers and think ers grappled with the slippery boundaries between human and non-human agen cies.\n\nThe first conference\, Human/Plant\, considers the human relation ship to the vegetal world. During the early modern period\, trees and plan ts served as metaphors and models for thinking through human affairs\, whi le philosophers and theologians debated the nature of the vegetative soul and the limits of plant sentience and responsiveness to the surrounding wo rld. Furthermore\, new technologies (the microscope)\, practices (grafting )\, disciplines (comparative anatomy)\, modes of representation (botanical drawings) and ideas (the mechanization of plant life) yielded transformat ive insights and new questions about plant behavior and life cycles and ho w they should be understood. Contributors will consider how the shifting p erceptions of vegetal life challenged established hierarchies\, redefined the boundaries between species—including what is intrinsically human and what is not—and informed new understandings of ecological connectedness . For purposes of the session\, vegetal life is defined broadly to include agencies that have not always fit neatly within the plant/animal divide\, including fungi\, lichens and mosses\, corals\, parasites and plant-like growths\, and mineral-vegetal hybrids.\n\n\n\nSpeakers\n\nFabrizio Baldass arri\, University of Roma Tre\nNatasha Heller\, University of Virginia\nJo ela Jacobs\, University of Arizona\nNicole LaBouff\, Los Angeles County Mu seum of Art\nRong Lin\, University of Illinois\, Chicago\nAnthony J. Meyer \, NYU Institute of Fine Arts\nAnca-Delia Moldovan\, Howard and Roberta Ah manson Fellow in Art and Religion\, National Gallery\, London\nFabien Mont cher\, Saint Louis University\nElizabeth Petcu\, University of Edinburgh\n \nProgram Schedule\n\n9:00 a.m.\nCoffee and Registration\n\n9:30 a.m.\nDir ector’s Welcome\nBronwen Wilson\, University of California\, Los Angeles \n\n9:45 a.m.\nIntroductory Remarks\nDavid Bardeen\, Los Angeles County Mu seum of Art\, and Javier Patiño Loira\, University of California\, Los An geles\n\nPanel 1: Human/Plant Boundaries\nPanel Chair: David H. Colmenares \, University of California\, Irvine\n\n10:00 a.m.\nAnthony J. Meyer\, NYU Institute of Fine Arts\n“The Liminal Natures of Nahua Rushes”\n\n10:3 0 a.m\nRong Lin\, University of Illinois\, Chicago\n“Vegetal Bodies: Neg otiating Human and Plant Boundary in Late Postclassic and Early Colonial C entral Mexico”\n\n11:00 a.m.\nFabrizio Baldassarri\, University of Roma Tre\n"Seventeenth-Century Vegetation: Plant Machines\, Plastic Virtues\, a nd Nature"\n\n11:30 a.m.\nPanel Discussion\n\n12:00 p.m.\nLunch\nExhibitio n of Clark Library materials in the North Book Room\n\nPanel 2: Making wit h Plants \nPanel Chair: Abigail Berry\, University of California\, Los Ang eles\n\n1:00 p.m.\nElizabeth Petcu\, University of Edinburgh\n“The Large Piece of Turf: On Dürer’s More-than-Humanism”\n\n1:30 p.m. \nAnca-De lia Moldovan\, National Gallery\, London\n“Piero Vettori and the Noble A rt of Olive Growing: Botanical Knowledge as Environmental Strategy in Sixt eenth-Century Tuscany”\n\n2:00 p.m.\nNicole LaBouff\, Los Angeles County Museum of Art\n“Louisa Finch\, Countess of Aylesford (1760–1832): An Artist-Naturalist in the Reign of George III”\n\n2:30 p.m.\nPanel Discus sion\n\n3:00 p.m.\nCoffee Break\n\nPanel 3: Living with Plants\nPanel Chai r: Diva Zumaya\, The Huntington\n\n3:30 p.m.\nFabien Montcher\, Saint Loui s University\n“Gleaners of Empires: Plants\, Scarcity\, and Political Ne rvosity Across Iberian Worlds”\n\n4:00 p.m.\nNatasha Heller\, University of Virginia\n“Monks in Trees”\n\n4:30 p.m.\nJoela Jacobs\, University of Arizona\n“Phytopoetics: Thinking Human Sexuality with Plants”\n\n5 :00 p.m.\nPanel Discussion\n\n5:30 p.m.\nConclusion\n\n\n\nThis event is f ree to attend with advance registration and will be held in-person at the Clark Library. Seating is limited. Walk-in registrants are welcome as spac e permits.\n\nRegistration will close on Monday\, November 30\, 2026 at 5: 00 p.m.\n\n\n\nLoading…\n\n\n\nImage credit: Tacuinum sanitatis\, Öster reiche Nationalbibliothek\, call number Cod. Ser. n. 2644\, (fol. 40r). CATEGORIES:Conferences,Core Program LOCATION:UCLA William Andrews Clark Memorial Library\, 2520 Cimarron Street \, Los Angeles\, California\, 90018\, United States GEO:34.033012;-118.314487 X-APPLE-STRUCTURED-LOCATION;VALUE=URI;X-ADDRESS=2520 Cimarron Street\, Los Angeles\, California\, 90018\, United States;X-APPLE-RADIUS=100;X-TITLE=UC LA William Andrews Clark Memorial Library:geo:34.033012,-118.314487 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:America/Los_Angeles X-LIC-LOCATION:America/Los_Angeles BEGIN:STANDARD DTSTART:20261101T010000 TZOFFSETFROM:-0700 TZOFFSETTO:-0800 TZNAME:PST END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE END:VCALENDAR