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The Diversity of Color: Safeguarding Natural Dye Sources and Practices in Michoacán and Oaxaca

The Diversity of Color: Safeguarding Natural Dye Sources and Practices in Michoacán and Oaxaca

Recent international interest in dyes extracted from plants and insects in Mexico is putting pressure on the local communities that manage these culturally significant natural resources. This project will facilitate local efforts to study the organisms and improve their cultivation, conservation, and ongoing use.

The use of dyes extracted from plants and insects has a complex history in multiple communities in Mexico. Organisms such as indigo plants, cochineal insects, and cempazuchitl are ingredients in artisanal practices, local cuisine, and traditional medicine that in many cases predate Spanish contact. Recent international interest in these natural resources is putting pressure on their management, but scientific and educational opportunities would allow local communities to study these culturally significant organisms and improve their cultivation, conservation, and ongoing use. We propose an interdisciplinary project to collect histories and taxonomies of the organisms used in natural dye production, addressing their identities, their ecologies, their cultural uses, and their manifold significance to colorant makers. Although the colorant uses have been previously documented, many of these studies rely on partial taxonomic classifications, where only the genus of the plant but not the species has been identified. We hypothesize that scientific documentation of the species used will provide new insights into the uses of these organisms and their dyes. A more precise description of the plants and organisms used for dye extraction will also facilitate the communities’ efforts to manage their own resources; their request for a collaboration is what gave rise to this proposal. In addition to a series of workshops, we will publish our findings in a bilingual general audience book and project website, as well as peer-reviewed journals. We will also organize six conferences in Mexico and twin exhibits in Chicago and Oaxaca.

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The Geological Foundation for Human Evolution

Ethiopian landscape courtesy Zeray Alemseged

The Geological Foundation for Human Evolution

Deeper understanding of Ethiopian geology and geotectonic history will inform the research team’s interpretation of the ways the changing landscape shaped the evolution of our ancestors.

The study of human evolution is one of the most exciting and intriguing scientific topics and is of great interest to scientists and the public at large. Research in paleoanthropology aims to unravel the tempo and mode of the main events in our evolutionary history that led to the emergence of Homo sapiens and how we became one of the most widespread and successful animals on earth. Knowing how and when this occurred is inherently relevant to our understanding of the human condition today. In order to address some of the fundamental questions in human evolution, this research project will undertake transdisciplinary fieldwork in Ethiopia aimed at garnering much-needed geological and paleontological data. Documenting the geological and geotectonic history of the sites, where the researchers collect fossils from, is one major research agenda. Our understanding of the geology of the region and the specific sites is the foundation for the interpretation of the history of the sedimentary basin and how the ancient landscape changed through time, shaping the evolution of our ancestors. Our collaborative endeavor with geologists is therefore crucial. This fellowship will enable a collaborator and senior geologist, Dr. Mulugeta Alene Araya, from Addis Ababa University in Ethiopia, who takes part in our field activities, to visit the University of Chicago in order to collaboratively produce manuscripts for publication. His stay here will provide him with a stimulating research environment and access to resources that are lacking in his institution in Ethiopia while enriching our collaborative research endeavor at the University of Chicago.

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Molecular Dynamics

Molecular Dynamics

Computing power has quietly revolutionized the study of molecular science. This project was among the first efforts to document the historical development of molecular simulation, in part by interviewing and gathering data from the field's pioneers.

Since the early 1950s, computing power has grown by some 18 orders of magnitude. This unprecedented technological development has caused a paradigm shift in physics and allied fields. For the first time, it has become possible to study the time evolution of systems consisting of thousands or even millions of molecules, thus enabling us to simulate macroscopic materials and predict their properties. Surprisingly, the available literature on the historical development of molecular simulation is extremely scarce. The time seems ripe to work toward such a goal; the field is old enough to provide the detached perspective required for historical investigation, but events remain recent enough to offer the possibility for historians to directly interact with some of the development’s protagonists.

The goal of our project is to arrive at a coherent epistemological understanding and historical reconstruction of this key emerging area of modern science from the early 1950s to the present day. The project aims at developing two complementary lines: locating, collecting and preserving relevant sources for the history of Molecular Dynamics (MD), in order to arrive at the creation of a meaningful archive, and producing scholarly pieces of historical research providing a careful analysis of the past development, of the contribution of the major actors, and of the disciplinary alliances needed for a more ordered and efficient progress.

The project is therefore located at the intersection between computational physics, on one hand, and intellectual history, on the other. That is why it can only be successfully achieved by a collaboration presenting the mix of skills required (computation, physics, biology, history and philosophy).

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NigerHeritage: Novel Solutions for Ancient and Historical Heritage

NigerHeritage: Novel Solutions for Ancient and Historical Heritage

An international group of scientists, social scientists, architects, and planners developed proposals for the design and function of three sites in Niger—a museum, a cultural center for nomadic peoples, and a fossil field site.

The NigerHeritage project involved rethinking the design and function of two cultural facilities and one paleontological site—a museum, a cultural center for nomadic peoples, and a fossil field site—for preservation of Niger’s paleontological, archaeological, and cultural heritage. Research, discussion, and forums held in the U.S. and Niger—involving scientists, social scientists, architects, planners, and the public—aimed to forge consensus plans for these cultural initiatives, the ultimate goals of which include long-term preservation and celebration of unique cultural heritage, engagement of surrounding communities, and novel architectural solutions that are sustainable and environmentally sensitive.

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NigerHeritage: Research, Development, and Planning for Novel Museum, Cultural Center, and Field Station

NigerHeritage: Research, Development, and Planning for Novel Museum, Cultural Center, and Field Station

This collaborative effort developed designs for a museum, a cultural center for nomadic peoples, and a fossil field site—each with a distinct role in the preservation of Niger’s paleontological, archaeological and cultural heritage.

This project involved rethinking the design and function of a museum, a cultural center for nomadic peoples, and local field stations—each with a distinct role in the preservation of Niger’s unique paleontological, archaeological and cultural heritage. Scientists, social scientists, architects, planners and the public in Niger collaborated to develop the mission and plans for these innovative, energy-efficient cultural initiatives, which will shepherd the repatriation and long-term stewardship of priceless artifacts originating from the region.

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Phytological Critique

Buzz Buttons (Acmella oleracea). Illustration by Silvia Neretti.

Phytological Critique

Research on plant intelligence has transformed not only how we understand plants but also how we understand memory, perception, sentience, movement, cognition, and intelligence. This interdisciplinary project will work with key texts, scientific models, and media paradigms that are operative within “plant studies” to reconsider some of the foundational concepts and frameworks for contemporary thinking about the environment and planetary formations.

Research on plant intelligence in recent years has transformed not only how we understand plants but also how we understand memory, perception, sentience, movement, cognition, and intelligence. The absence of familiar physical correlates for plant intelligence has opened a space for speculation on the part of scientists, popular writers, artists, and philosophers. Our research focuses on domains of inquiry that research into plant intelligence has drawn together in unexpected ways: neurosciences, environmental sciences, media studies, and computational sciences. Our research group proposes to build on the links being forged across these domains within plant studies to develop a new conceptual framework suited to the contemporary moment, frequently characterized in terms of environmental disaster, wide-scale species extinction, planetary domestication, climate change, and the Anthropocene. To this end, we are working with key texts, scientific models, and media paradigms that operative within “plant studies” in order to reconsider some of the foundational concepts and frameworks for contemporary thinking about the environment and planetary formations. We have chosen to call our intervention “Phytological Critique,” a rubric chosen for its echoes of “critical inquiry” and “ecological inquiry,” for our project centers on plants not simply as objects or entities to be known but as a kind of intelligence or formation of reason that allows us to grapple with the links arising between previously separated domains of knowledge, which in turn force us to reconsider what critique might do at the current juncture.

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