To celebrate National Humanities Month (October), we're featuring all types of humanities research from undergraduates, graduates and faculty at UC Berkeley.
Lauren Bartone is an 2nd year PhD student in Italian Studies who focuses on the history of botanical gardens and botanical collections that are grounded in the process of colonization.
Bartone received a Summer Research Grant from the Center for Interdisciplinary Critical Inquiry within the Division of Arts & Humanities as part of the Mellon Foundation New Strategies for the Humanities grant. Bartone used the grant to participate as an artist-in-residence this summer at the Orto Botanico in Palermo.
Funded projects included interdisciplinary, interdivisional and/or collaborative projects focusing on urgent contemporary issues such as authoritarianism, climate change, religion and democracy, borders and migration, race, gender and sexuality. Bartone's project, Botanical Genealogies, was selected as one of the top five projects presented as part of the final presentations this year.
Learn more about her project below: