LECTURE – Super Carrots and Killer Vines: Plants between Science and Fiction

Joela Jacobs , Katharina Scheerer

Fall 2022

Wednesday |

7 PM - 8 PM (AZ Time)

16-Nov-22

Course Format: Hybrid

Location: Main Campus

Tuition: $10

Attend In Person OR Online

Plants create the atmosphere we need to breathe and vastly outnumber us. Science fiction films and literature imagine what would happen if they took advantage of that. What if trees went after us, or Venus Flytraps developed a taste for humans? Join us for a thought experiment about plants as intelligent beings rather than mere scenery, and explore how science and fiction can work together to change the way we live on this planet.

This event is taking place in conjunction with Eden? Plants Between Science and Fiction, a multimedia exhibit about the role of plants in science fiction literature and film, at the UA Poetry Center and Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research from October to December 2022.

Register Today

All proceeds from event registration will go to the School of International Languages, Literatures, & Cultures Global Award for study abroad to students majoring in Africana Studies, East Asian Studies, French & Italian, German Studies, Religious Studies & Classics, or Russian & Slavic Studies. Learn more about the SILLC Global Award and find past awardees here.

We will be serving light refreshments in the breezeway outside of the Rubel Room from 6 – 7 PM. During this time we will also be opening the Poetry Center for those who want to check out the Eden exhibit for themselves.

Hybrid Format

This lecture will be delivered in-person and online via live video streaming. Attendees will enroll in their preferred format during registration.
In-Person – This lecture will be held in the Rubel Room at the University of Arizona’s Poetry Center (1508 E Helen St, Tucson, AZ 85721). Enrollment for the in-person audience is limited and available on a first-come, first-served basis.
Online attendees may attend the lecture via live video streaming and will be able to participate in all course Q&A sessions with the presenters in real-time. A high-speed internet connection and a device capable of running Zoom are required to connect. Online access will be password protected and only available to registrants.

Meet Your Instructor

Katharina Scheerer

PhD Candidate and Visiting Scholar

Department of German Studies

Katharina Scheerer is a PhD candidate at the Graduate School Practices of Literature in Münster, Germany, and currently a Visiting Scholar at the University of Arizona in the Department of German Studies. In her dissertation research, she explores the connection between early German Science Fiction and literary expressionism. The Eden exhibit she conceptualized has made her look at plants differently.

Joela Jacobs

Assistant Professor

Department of German Studies

JOELA JACOBS is Assistant Professor of German Studies and the founder of the Literary and Cultural Plant Studies Network. Her research and publications focus on the intersection of 19th-21st century German literature and film with Plant and Animal Studies, Environmental Humanities, Jewish Studies, the History of Sexuality, and the History of Science. Her monograph Animal, Vegetal, Marginal about the literary grotesque from Panizza to Kafka is appearing with Indiana University Press in March 2025. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Chicago.