Speaking

Invited Talks

2021    “Imperial Vernacular: Phytonymy, Philology and Disciplinarity in the Indo-Pacific, 1800-1900,” Global Epistemologies and Ontologies research project, Wageningen University

2020    (Cancelled due to COVID-19 pandemic) “The Making of an Imperial Onomastics: Botany and Territoriality in Nineteenth-Century Aotearoa New Zealand,” Indigenous Knowledge-Brokers, Natural History Collecting, and Environment seminar series, SouthHen project, European Research Council, University College Dublin

2019    “Empire on the Line: Botanical Ethnology and Social Distance in Late-Eighteenth-Century Tahiti,” Anthropology and Environmental Studies, Bard College

2019    “Fields of Empire: Science and Ethnoscience in Twentieth-Century Southeast Asia,” Department of History, University of Delaware

2018    “Jack of All Trades, Master of None? Ethnobotany and Interdisciplinarity in Historical Context,” Department of Plant and Soil Sciences, University of Delaware

2018    “Troubled Translations: Ethnoscience and Empire in Twentieth-Century Philippines,” LuEsther T. Mertz Library, New York Botanical Garden

2013    “Indexing the Indigenous: Plants and Peoples in Transcolonial Context,” Department of History seminar series, University of Sussex

2012    “‘As Clover Killed the Fern’: Ethnobotany and Enchantment in New Zealand Anthropology,” Anthropology department, Victoria University of Wellington

2012    “The Nature of Ethnology: Plants and Peoples from Colenso to Katherine Mansfield,” Stout Research Centre for New Zealand Studies seminar series, Victoria University of Wellington

Workshops and Symposia Organized

2021    “Plants in Translation: Global Diasporas and Local Entanglements” Zoom workshop (with Tamara Caulkins)

2021    “Interactions and Interchanges in the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine,” three-part symposium (with Hugh Slotten and Hamish Spencer), International Congress of History of Science and Technology, Prague CZ

Panels Organized

2020    (Cancelled due to COVID-19 pandemic) Roundtable discussion on Stanley’s Dream: The Medical Expedition to Easter Island, by Jacalyn Duffin, Canadian Society for the History and Philosophy of Science and Canadian Society for the History of Medicine

2019    “Pacific Science in Transnational and Translocal Perspective,” History of Science Society, Utrecht, NL, sponsored by the Pacific Circle

2018    “Indigenous and Environmental Knowledges in Translation,” History of Science Society, Seattle WA

2016    “Plants and Print,” Three Societies Meeting: BSHS-CSHPS-HSS, University of Alberta

Papers Presented

2021    “From Ethnoscience to Ethnology—and Back Again: Plant Nomenclature, Translation and Territoriality in Aotearoa New Zealand,” International Congress of History of Science and Technology, Prague, CZ

2021    “Opening Remarks,” with Tamara Caulkins, “Plants in Translation: Global Diasporas and Local Entanglements” Zoom workshop

2019    “From Ethnoscience to Ethnology—and Back Again: Mātauranga Māori and Settler Epistemology in Historical and Contemporary Perspective,” Encounters and Exchanges: Exploring the History of Science, Technology and Mātauranga, University of Otago and Tōtaranui 250 Trust, Blenheim, NZ

2019    “Cultivating Resistance: Ethnoecology, Anticolonialism and Indigenous Territoriality in Twentieth-Century Southeast Asia,” History of Science Society, Utrecht, NL, sponsored by the Pacific Circle

2019    “Troubled Translations: Science and Ethnoscience in Twentieth-Century Southeast Asia,” Canadian Society for the History and Philosophy of Science, University of British Columbia

2018    “Troubled Translations: Ethnoscience and Empire in Twentieth-Century Philippines,” History of Science Society, Seattle WA

2018    “‘As clover killed the fern’: The History and Memory of ‘Ecological’ Imperialism in Aotearoa New Zealand,” Canadian Society for the History and Philosophy of Science, University of Regina

2016    “Imperial Vernacular: Onomastics, Empire and Intellectual Property, 1800-Present,” American Anthropological Association, Minneapolis MN

2016    “Imperial Vernacular: Phytonyms and Philology in the Indo-Pacific, 1800-1900,” Science and Islands in the Indo-Pacific World, Cambridge University

2016    “Enchanted Ethnobotany: Plant Names and Print Culture in Romantic Natural History,” 3-Societies Meeting (BSHS-CSHPS-HSS), University of Alberta

2016    “Empire of Fear: Ethnobotany, Onomastics and Trust from India to Aotearoa New Zealand, 1848-1867,” Canadian Society for the History and Philosophy of Science, University of Calgary

2016    “Botany, Indigeneity, and Intellectual Property in New Zealand, 1800-present,” Native American and Indigenous Studies Association Annual Meeting, University of Hawai’i at Mānoa

2015    “Enlightenment Ethnobotany: Plants, Print and Practice in the Late-Eighteenth-Century Pacific,” History of Science Society Annual Meeting, San Francisco US; and British Society for the History of Science, Swansea University

2015    “‘Far beyond language!’: Colonial Botany, Indigenous Knowledge, and Romantic Print Culture,” British Association for Romantic Studies, Cardiff University

2015    “‘A sort of evil out there’: Twin Peaks and Indigenous Representation, 25 Years Later,” I’ll See You Again in 25 Years: The Return of Twin Peaks and Generations of Cult TV, University of Salford

2014    “From Ethnoscience to Ethnology: Indigenous Plant Names in Imperial Context,” British Society for the History of Science, University of St. Andrews

2013    “Between Māori and Modern? The Case of Mānuka Honey,” Appreciating Local Knowledge, University of Salzburg

2013    “What’s in a (Plant) Name? The Māori-Latin Index and Scientific Botany in New Zealand,” Canadian Society for the History and Philosophy of Science, University of Victoria

2012    “John Buchanan and Māori Plant Knowledge in Imperial Context,” A Celebration of John Buchanan FLS (1819-1898), University of Otago

2012    “‘Must the Karaka-trees be Hidden?’ Katherine Mansfield and the Indigenous,” Midwest Conference on British Studies, University of Toronto

2011    “Racial Ambivalence, Colonial Governance: Boers, British, and the Scientific Construction of Whiteness in Colonial South Africa,” Pacific Coast Conference on British Studies, University of Washington

2008    “Power or Pleasure? The Value of Science in Colonial New Zealand,” Imperialisms: New and Old, Wilfrid Laurier University

Panels Chaired

2019    “Natural History and Collections,” Canadian Society for the History and Philosophy of Science, University of British Columbia

2018    “Science, Technology and the State I,” Canadian Society for the History and Philosophy of Science, University of Regina

2012    “Method and Identity in 17th-century Scientiae,” Scientiae: Disciplines of Knowing in the Early-Modern World, Simon Fraser University

Discussant

2020    “Boas in the Age of BLM and Idle no More: Re-evaluating the Boasian Legacy,” History of Anthropology Working Group, Consortium for History of Science, Technology and Medicine

2019    “System and Sensibility: Indigenous Plant Names between Nature and Artifice,” History of the Biological Sciences Working Group, Consortium for History of Science, Technology and Medicine

2019    (with Genie Yoo) British Journal for the History of Science special issue: “Science and Islands in Indo-Pacific Worlds,” Earth and Environmental Sciences Working Group, Consortium for History of Science, Technology and Medicine

2015    “Religion, Science, and Sexual Dissidence,” by Joy Dixon, Department of History Seminar Series, University of British Columbia

Campus Talks

2021    “Research (mis-)Adventures in Science, Colonialism and Indigenous History,” presentation for the undergraduate History Club, University of Delaware

2021    “Western Constructions of Indigenous Knowledge: Plants, Peoples and Empire in Aotearoa New Zealand,” guest lecture for Vikramaditya Thakur’s “Introduction to Social and Cultural Anthropology” course and Carla Guerrón-Montero’s “History of Anthropological Theory” course, Department of Anthropology, University of Delaware

2021    “‘As clover killed the fern’: Darwinism and Its Critics in Aotearoa New Zealand,” International Darwin Day Symposium, University of Delaware

2020    On navigating challenges as a new academic faculty member, panel presentation for graduate students, University of Delaware

2020    “Critical Plant Studies and Plant Horror,” guest lecture for Mary Bowden’s “Plants, Animals, and Us” course, Department of English, University of Delaware

2015    “Tempest in a Tea-Tree? Colonial Plant Nomenclature in New Zealand, 1769-present,” keynote speaker, History Students Association, University of British Columbia