Public Lecture: Plant health as a colonial conquest from the 1880s to the 1930s: a global history of knowledge; Speaker: Alina Marktanner (RWTH Aachen University)

Venue: MIASA Seminar Room

Abstract:

Around 1900, plant protection was a problem for science, business and administration. Biologically oriented subjects such as botany, zoology, entomology and mycology made plant health and its preservation as well as plant diseases and their prevention and cure the subject of investigation and fought trench warfare over disciplinary responsibilities. Lines of conflict also emerged between theory and practice: agricultural scientists and farmers usually had different ideas about plant health and remained uninterested in each other’s knowledge. In the colonial space, on the other hand, negotiations surrounding plant protection were embedded in dynamics of economic exploitation, cultural appropriation and racism. Using the example of the German Empire and colonial German East Africa as well as Great Britain and British India, the book traces how plant pathological knowledge circulated globally between the 1880s and 1930s, while always remaining locally bound and specific. Depending on the geographical and climatic context, the concept of pathogens, for example, encompassed more than insects, bacteria and fungi, as previously emphasized in research. In tropical agriculture, but also in Central Europe, bird species and rodents were also considered “pests” and required their own control methods. The importance of indigenous knowledge also varied depending on German or British colonial policy: In British India, Indian mycologists worked side by side with British colleagues and promoted traditional means of pest control in publications. In contrast, indigenous knowledge in German East Africa was included in scientific publications, but its authors remained invisible. Based on selected journal sources, the lecture presents central questions of an ongoing habilitation project and sheds light on the complexity of the discourse on plant protection around 1900.

Dr. Alina Marktanner is a postdoctoral researcher at the Chair for Modern History (C19-21) with Its Knowledge and Technology Cultures of RWTH Aachen University, Germany. She obtained her PhD at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies, Cologne, Germany, in the field of Modern History in 2020. Since 2023, she is a PI in the research project „Colonial history, historical culture and historical-political education in North-Rhine Westphalia“, developing a source edition on the local and regional colonial history of the Rhineland and Westphalia in West Germany. Her second book project centers on the history of science and empire, more specifically on pest control in colonial agricultural research stations around 1900. In her MIASA project entitled “Plant Health as a Colonial Conquest from the 1880s to the 1930s: A Global History of Knowledge”she is exploring the interrelations between the agricultural research stations Amani (German East Africa) and Pusa (British India), tracing how plant pathological knowledge circulated globally, while always remaining locally bound and specific. She has published in History of Intellectual Culture, Archiv für Sozialgeschichte, Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte and other journals and has been a visiting scholar at prestigious institutions including ETH Zurich, Deutsches Museum Munich and most recently MIASA.

This lecture is open to the public.

For virtual participation via Zoom, please use the following link:

https://uni-freiburg.zoom-x.de/j/66155032086?pwd=WDRhY2oyVzlGL0ltUWdLaVZHcEI5QT09

Meeting-ID: 661 5503 2086
Code: 33vUdBV3U