Jolie Kaytes from Landscape Architecture will present a Common Reading talk, “Citizens of the Cosmos,” at 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 3, in CUE 203 on the Pullman campus. Kaytes will explore the complicated relationship between native and invasive vegetation, and how those relationships play into larger issues of naturalization, border crossing, and climate resilience. While native and invasive species are often categorized as “good” or “bad,” Kaytes will explore the ways in which seeing plants as kin (as Robin Wall Kimmerer advocates) leads to a more complicated storyline that encompasses endurance, resilience, and abundance.
Kaytes’s talk is part of the year-long series of events sponsored by the WSU Common Reading Program, which is focusing campus attention on issues related to Robin Wall Kimmerer’s “Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants.” More on the program, as well as links to an extensive teaching guide, can be found at commonreading.wsu.edu.
