Ms Mingcan Rong

My PhD explores how different modes of 'plantiness'/interwoven human-plant relationships have emerged and been communicated in the botanic gardens, while foregrounding questions about the roles that plants themselves could play as more active agents in narrative construction, environmental politics, and decolonial practices.

This study aims to develop a vegetal geography of Chinese plants at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh and the University of Bristol Botanic Garden, attending to ex-situ plants’ affective power and wider political effects in environmental conservation, towards decolonising botanic gardens and their practices. Hoping to contribute to the construction of a vegetal geography more alive to 'planty' engagement in environmental politics, this project 1) examines how people and plants of the selected botanic gardens are co-producing different relational materialities; 2) will reimagine botanic gardens as institutions of environmental research, governance and education while communicating more complex and inclusive narratives.

My PhD is funded through a University of Bristol PhD scholarship.