Seeds of Diaspora

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 PaintLynnette 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 ThompsettTreasure Reserves for Ecological and Climate History: The Importance of Seed Collections: Dorothy Peteet with Thad RussellHome Is a Foreign Tree, or a Brief History of Eucalyptus in Argentina: Lucas MertehikianPlants and Their Societies: Affinities, Migrations, War and Peace in Germany: Lynnette WidderPlant Life: Jagadish Chandra Bose’s “Silent Diary”: Naeem MohaiemenGhost Traces: On an Imaginative Ethnography with Nonhuman Migrants: Anelise ChenSeeds Carry Us Home: Growing Transcendental Portals in the Garden and the Kitchen: Owen TaylorHarvesting 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 ThompsettBefore The Sheep Meadow: A Lost Neighborhood and the Roots of Belonging: Wendy S. WaltersThe Open Orchard: Seeds of DiasporaA History of New York City in Fruit: Sam Van Aken