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It was a former student who inspired Assistant Professor of Religious Studies and History Elias G. Saba to think more deeply about plants. This new interest compelled him to make a presentation, “The Life of Plants: Islamic Law and Agriculture,” on March 25 as part of the �ֲ���ý��� Libraries’ Faculty/Staff Research series.

The former student, Ifetayo Olutosin ’18, went on to pursue a Ph.D. in comparative literature at the University of Southern California. “I was really curious to hear how things were going there for her,” Saba said. 

When they talked, she told him she was doing well, but that she was a bit overwhelmed by the seemingly infinite number of theory texts out there, each of which offering a new window through which to view the world.

“‘They even have plant theory now,’” she told Saba. 

“I could tell she was incredulous. I couldn’t believe it myself,” Saba said. “What will they think of next?” But he got the book, Plant Theory: Biopower and Vegetable Life by Jeffrey T. Nealon and filed it away to read later.

“I was very skeptical,” Saba said.

Plant Theory for a Humanities Scholar

About two years later, he finally read Plant Theory. “Once I opened the book, I couldn’t put it down,” Saba said. “I haven’t stopped thinking about the book for almost four years now. It is incredible.” 

What is so interesting about plants for a humanities scholar? Saba began by explaining that plants have long stood at the bottom of the hierarchy of living beings. When we think about plants, he explained, we are likely thinking either about fuel or aesthetics. 

“If you put some gas in your car recently, you surely know that fuel in our state is fortified with corn ethanol, right?” Saba asked. “But it’s not only our cars that plants can fuel, but also our bodies.” 

Plants also give us beauty. “A beautiful bouquet in a vase, adding joy to your dining room table, or maybe you think of your coneflowers or geraniums, which will soon enough be in bloom outside your kitchen window, or perhaps on the way to your car, or maybe you think about an orchid that you care for meticulously, too meticulously, on your desk,” Saba said.

Plants as Part of the Ecosystem

At �ֲ���ý��� and elsewhere, many people also think about plants more broadly as part of an ecosystem, a prairie, for instance. “Prairie restoration, that’s something that �ֲ���ý��� takes pretty seriously,” he said. The College’s focus on native landscaping and prairie restoration re-establishes the collaborative ecosystem between soil, water, plants, insects, animals, people, and fires. Saba quoted from the College website, which praises the prairie landscape’s “environmental sustainability to minimize flooding and reduce runoff, social sustainability through community engagement across generations, and economic sustainability by creating more job opportunities for the student body.” 

“Certainly, these are important goals, but I will note here how people-centered these all are,” Saba said. “Are humans really that central to how we ought to think about life?”

For humans at the top of this hierarchy of life, Saba says, it’s not simply a way to establish superiority or dominion over animals and plants. Rather, it’s about making contributions toward the building and maintaining of all life. 

“It is our responsibility as those on the top of at least the earthly chain of being to look after all the things lower on the chain of being,” Saba said.