You can find up to date details on the event page for all the talks in this series.
Spring 2023; January 18 – May, Wednesdays from 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM EST.
Presented over Zoom. Registration is free!
You can register for any or all of the events from the same link here.
Hosting Organizations: MSE and the University of Maine Institute of Medicine.
The environment, microbes, and us
Anthropology Theme organized by Katherine Daiy and Kieran O’Doherty, and Environmental Theme organized by Mallory Choudoir, Mustafa Saifuddin, and Hannah Holland-Moritz.
“Soil health – towards a ‘microbial agriculture’?“
Dr. Anna Krzywoszynska, PhD. and Paula Palanco Lopez
April 19, 2023; Wednesday,11:00 AM – 12:00 PM EST. This event has passed, watch the recording here.
Abstract: Soils have long been considered primarily through a physico-chemical lens in agriculture and environmental management. Today, however, we are observing a shift towards ecological perspectives, and a growing interest from managing soil quality to managing soil health. What does it mean, however, to know and manage soils as living microbial ecosystems, and what are the consequences of a ‘soil health’ paradigm for the future of agriculture? In this presentation, Dr Krzywoszynska will reflect on the relevance of microbial knowledges and ethics in the emerging regenerative agriculture movement, and in biodiversity governance, while her PhD student Paula Palanco Lopez will reflect on the importance of understanding ‘soil health’ in its own terms, beyond anthropocentric and utilitarian framings.
Dr. Anna Krzywoszynska is an Associate Professor in Anthropology at the University of Oulu, and a research leader in the Biodiverse Anthropocenes programme (Anna Krzywoszynska | University of Oulu). She is an interdisciplinary environmental social scientist with expertise in agricultural and environmental knowledge, more-than-human research, and public participation in science. Her current research interests include human-soil relations and knowledge systems, the co-production of soil knowledge between science and society, and the role of local food systems in achieving socio-environmental justice.
Paula Palanco is a medical anthropologist with a background in Development Studies and Communication. She has completed an Advanced Masters in Cultural Anthropology and Development Studies in KULeuven (Belgium) and worked for the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), the University of Oxford, and Imperial College London. Paula has carried out research in different topics such as antimicrobial resistance (AMR), air monitoring and cholera epidemics. Currently, she is a PhD candidate in the University of Oulu (Finland), researching the connection between the loss of soil biodiversity and AMR.
Soils have long been considered primarily through a physico-chemical lens in agriculture and environmental management. Today, however, we are observing a shift towards ecological perspectives, and a growing interest from managing soil quality to managing soil health. What does it mean, however, to know and manage soils as living microbial ecosystems, and what are the consequences of a ‘soil health’ paradigm for the future of agriculture? In this presentation, Dr Krzywoszynska will reflect on the relevance of microbial knowledges and ethics in the emerging regenerative agriculture movement, and in biodiversity governance, while her PhD student Paula Palanco Lopez will reflect on the importance of understanding ‘soil health’ in its own terms, beyond anthropocentric and utilitarian framings.
Panel Discussions on the environment, microbes, and us
April 26, 2023; Wednesday,11:00 AM – 12:00 PM EST. Register for the Zoom link here.
May 3, 2023; Wednesday,11:00 AM – 1:00 PM EST. Register for the Zoom link here.
These two weeks, we’ll be bringing some of our Theme 3 speakers back to engage in a panel discussion together on the importance of environmental microbiomes and our place in ecosystems, and then will continue talking about soil health. Panel will be hosted by Katherine Daiy, Kieran O’Doherty, Mallory Choudoir, Mustafa Saifuddin, and Hannah Holland-Moritz.
Please note, this session will only be featured live in real-time and will not be recorded.
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