Colloquium on technology and science research (2024/25)

The colloquium takes place online, unless communicated otherwise.

The presentations are mainly offered by ourselves. If you would like to present part of your work, a publication in progress or a presentation in preparation, you are welcome to do so in the defence. MA/BA theses at almost any stage can also be discussed in this format. The presentation language is not necessarily English, but can also be German.

The event will take place on demand and will then be advertised accordingly on our website and on our social media channels. So if you feel you would like to discuss your work with the group, or if you know someone who would like to do so, please contact me: schwarza(at)b-tu.de

Link to Moodle Course

Cornelia Ertl 
Learning from Plants – on gardeners’ expertise

Gardeners are experts on plants, on how to care for them and to live together with them. Their expertise grows from seemingly mundane yet intimate encounters with plants and is highly specific and significant, yet often overlooked and underappreciated. By paying attention to gardeners’ everyday practices, I explore how expertise in plants and their care unfolds within more-than-human dynamics of interacting and relies on the abilities to attune to and respond to vegetal being(s) – to develop “a feeling for the plant”, as gardeners call it.

Cornelia Ertl is a social and cultural anthropologist with a focus on the perception and shaping of more-than-human environments, marginalized forms of knowledge and plant-human entanglements. In her PhD dissertation at Freie Universität Berlin, she sheds light on the significance of ambiguities in everyday practices of plant care at the Botanic Garden Berlin and on the complexity of gardeners’ expertise. Previously, Cornelia studied social and cultural anthropology and ethnology in Berlin and Munich, focusing primarily on the interrelationships between grown, built and social environments in the rural Amazon region. Other fields of interest are more-than-human care dynamics, critical plant studies, and sensory ethnography, as well as artistic and speculative approaches to exploring and imagining shared worlds. Contact: cornelia.ertl(at)web.de

See a video of the talk here.