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Seeds of Diaspora traces the intertwined histories of humans and plants amid cultural and climatic change. Through literary, visual and research-based essays, the book explores how seeds bear witness to migration, resilience and transformation.
From post-war landscapes reclaimed by plant life to the travels of fruit trees across continents, from seeds embedded in glacial ice to those carried along routes of labour and exile, Seeds of Diaspora re-imagines the map of human settlement as a living “route of roots.” The contributors—writers, artists and researchers from architecture, ecology, anthropology and the humanities—invite readers to see the built and natural worlds as coevolving fields of meaning.
from the introduction: “This is a collection of works about plants and people in motion. It brings together writers, artists, and scholars across diverse disciplines to offer insights about the ethical dilemmas that arise in practices of cultivation, broadly defined. It considers the many ways that plants and people activate social and botanical systems. One objective is to inspire readers to think about how seeds and plants shape aspects of the broader human experience. Another objective is to offer a new approach to thinking about time. Seeds archive the past and serve as portals for future actions.”
Anelise Chen, associate professor of fiction at Columbia University, is a 2026 Pulitzer Prize finalist and the author of Clam Down: A Metamorphosis.
Lucas Mertehikian, author of Vidas en tránsito, teaches landscape studies at Pratt Institute and is a researcher at the New York Botanical Garden.
Naeem Mohaiemen, Chair of the Visual Arts Department, School of the Arts, Columbia University, explores forms of utopia–dystopia in South Asia after 1945.
Dorothy M. Peteet, paleoecologist at Columbia University, analyses fossil seeds to understand how vegetation has changed through time.
Thad Russell, fine art and editorial photographer, teaches photography at Rhode Island School of Design.
Darby Minow Smith, writer, educator and fifth-generation Montana rancher, received the North American Agricultural Journalists’ Story of the Year Award (2025) and was the longtime editor of the environmental magazine Grist.
Owen Taylor, seed keeper and farmer at Truelove Seeds, a seed company in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, co-founded the podcast Seeds and Their People.
Fern Thompsett, sociocultural anthropologist and teaching professor in environmental studies at the University of Montana, is the co-author of Transforming Universities in the Midst of Global Crisis and co-founder of the Brisbane Free University.
Sam Van Aken, a contemporary artist whose monumental work ‘The Open Orchard’ is located on Governors Island in New York City with an expansive orchard planted in partnership with local community gardens.
Wendy S. Walters, an associate professor of non-fiction in the Writing Program of the School of the Arts at Columbia University, is the author of A Dead White: An Argument Against White Paint
Lynnette Widder, professor of professional practice at Columbia University, is the author of many books and articles on architectural history.
An Introduction: Archives and Portals: Wendy S. Walters, Lynnette Widder, and Fern Thompsett
Treasure Reserves for Ecological and Climate History: The Importance of Seed Collections: Dorothy Peteet with Thad Russell
Home Is a Foreign Tree, or a Brief History of Eucalyptus in Argentina: Lucas Mertehikian
Plants and Their Societies: Affinities, Migrations, War and Peace in Germany: Lynnette Widder
Plant Life: Jagadish Chandra Bose’s “Silent Diary”: Naeem Mohaiemen
Ghost Traces: On an Imaginative Ethnography with Nonhuman Migrants: Anelise Chen
Seeds Carry Us Home: Growing Transcendental Portals in the Garden and the Kitchen: Owen Taylor
Harvesting Summer for the Long Winter Ahead: A Montana Rancher’s Reflections on Making Hay While the Sun Shines: Darby Minow Smith
“This Is Like a Culture Seed”: On the Ethical Complexities of Becoming Animist: Fern Thompsett
Before The Sheep Meadow: A Lost Neighborhood and the Roots of Belonging: Wendy S. Walters
The Open Orchard: Seeds of Diaspora
A History of New York City in Fruit: Sam Van Aken