#42 Dispersals: on plants, borders and belonging with Jessica Lee

In today's episode we’re speaking with Dr. Jessica Lee. Jessica is a British-Canadian-Taiwanese author and environmental historian, and winner of the 2019 RBC Taylor Emerging Writer Prize. She completed her doctorate at York University in environmental history and aesthetics, focusing on the history of Hampstead Heath, an urban park in London England. During her doctorate, she was a visiting scholar at the Royal College of Art in London. Jessica is the founding editor of The Willowherb Review and teaches creative writing at the University of Cambridge and the University of King’s College. We connected with Jessica to talk about her new book Dispersals - on plants, borders, and belonging. In Dispersals, Jessica brings together her personal story and her wealth of knowledge on how humans interact with plants around the world. We reflected on several sections of her book, examining how early exploration and global trade have reshaped local plant ecologies, critical perspectives on the conceptualization of nature, conservation and biological invasions, and how our daily interactions with plants, either in the environment or in our diets, provide opportunities for mindful reflection and critical examination. We recommend you pick up Jessica’s book, Dispersals, for an immersive summer read and one that will conjure some of your own memories of how you’ve interacted with plants in your own life, and greater insights on how we are all deeply connected to plants.