Banu Subramaniam Receives 2022-2023 Conti Faculty Fellowship Award

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The Office of Research and Engagement has announced the 2022-23 Samuel F. Conti Faculty Fellowship Awardees. Three faculty from across campus were selected, including Banu Subramaniam, professor in the women, gender, sexuality studies department.

The Conti Fellowship acknowledges the high quality and importance of a faculty member’s accomplishments in research and creative activity at UMass Amherst and their potential for continuing excellence, particularly with respect to the project that they propose to undertake during the fellowship. More information on the program and previous Conti Fellows is available here.

Banu Subramaniam’s research explores the philosophy, history, and culture of the natural sciences and medicine as they relate to gender, race, ethnicity, and caste. Her latest research rethinks the field and practice of botany in relation to histories of colonialism and xenophobia and explores the wide travels of scientific theories, ideas, and concepts as they relate to migration and invasive species.

This Conti Fellowship will enable Professor Subramaniam to complete a book, Decolonizing Botany: Empire and the Environmental Humanities. The monograph addresses growing calls to “decolonize” botanical science knowledge. References expressed that she “has a distinguished record of scholarly achievement and is recognized as a leading scholar of the history of science and feminist theory. Her work skillfully blends scientific and social science inquiry and analysis and her current project will surely make a significant and timely contribution to the field of environmental humanities.”