Episode 4: Trans studies speaks back to invasion biology, with Drs. Anita Simha and Banu Subramaniam
“…the idea that there was some... kind of Edenic world before that we need to return to, and that, to me, is so caught up with immigration politics and the xenophobic politics. And so when you- and historians have shown this- when you are fighting xenophobia of humans, you also do that with animals and plants.”
“…queer and trans people, you know, very naturally, have a lot to say about cis and heteronormative ideas about reproduction. They have a lot to say about good and bad bodies, about biological control. And so I think that there's kind of a nice dovetailing, maybe, between wanting to counter that… scarcity mindset, that's sort of already conceding that… we're gonna lose basically everything so whatever we have left, we have to hoard amongst ourselves (us being, you know, white nationalist basically Americans)… and bringing a queer and or trans perspective.”
Mollie (she/her) sits down with Drs. Anita Simha (they/them) and Banu Subramaniam (any) to discuss why the concept of “invasive species” (and science more generally) is inherently political; how many of the same histories, discourses, technologies, and legal frameworks link human xenophobia with invasive species management; plants’ amazing biological plasticity over time and space; how queer and especially trans ecologies upend white nationalist, cisheteronormative categories and narratives at the core of mainstream ecology; how queer and trans ecologies radically expand the human and ecological futures we can envision as possible; why “invasiveness” isn’t a biological trait; interdisciplinary struggles working across feminist STS and biology; practical next steps (i.e., why joining your local union and removing data centers or military bases would probably do more for the environment than pulling weeds); and falling in love with the many gorgeous and incredible plants of the North American coastal plain.
Anita is a plant community ecologist and postdoc currently based in the Department of Biology at Louisiana State University. To find out more about their work (including their co-authored chapters and articles with Banu), you can visit Anita’s website at https://anita-simha.github.io/ [https://anita-simha.github.io/]. Banu is the Luella LaMer Professor of Women and Gender Studies at Wellesley College [https://www.wellesley.edu/people/banumathi-subramaniam], and their latest book is Botany of Empire: Plant Worlds and the Scientific Legacies of Colonialism [https://uwapress.uw.edu/book/9780295752464/botany-of-empire/] (University of Washington Press, 2024).
Links to other work referenced in the show:
* Banu’s award-winning book Ghost Stories for Darwin: The Science of Variation and the Politics of Diversity [https://www.press.uillinois.edu/books/?id=p080241] (University of Illinois Press, 2014)
* Anita and Banu’s recent piece in the journal Area [https://rgs-ibg.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/area.70046] on trans studies and invasion science
* Lenzner, B., et al. (2022). “Naturalized alien floras still carry the legacy of European colonialism.” Nature Ecology & Evolution, 6(11), 1723-1732. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-022-01865-1 [https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-022-01865-1].
* For more reading on/an intro to trans ecologies, see Trans Studies Quarterly’s 2024 special issue on trans ecologies [https://read.dukeupress.edu/tsq/issue/11/4] (also featuring a piece by Anita and Banu!)
* More context for the famous ecology texts we critiqued in the episode: Garrett Hardin’s "Tragedy of the Commons" [https://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/voices/the-tragedy-of-the-tragedy-of-the-commons/]; Paul Ehrlich’s Population Bomb [https://theconversation.com/the-long-shadow-of-paul-ehrlichs-population-bomb-is-evident-in-anti-immigration-efforts-today-279151]; Charles Elton’s The Ecology of Invasions by Animals and Plants [https://www.nature.com/articles/452034a]
* For further reading on the Elwha River dam removals, see this overview by the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe [https://www.elwha.org/departments/natural-resources/river-restoration/]
* More info about the incredible biodiversity of the North American Coastal Plain [https://www.cepf.net/our-work/biodiversity-hotspots/north-american-coastal-plain/species]
* Banu's second book, Holy Science: The Biopolitics of Hindu Nationalism (University of Washington Press, 2019) [https://uwapress.uw.edu/book/9780295745596/holy-science/]
* More information about the violence of Canada's recent anti-migrant Bill C-12 [https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/3/27/canadas-bill-c-12-an-attack-on-refugee-migrant-rights-advocates], condemned by human rights groups
If you have any comments or questions about the show, you can reach us at nomorelawnmowers@proton.me [nomorelawnmowers@proton.me]
Transcript [https://mcdn.podbean.com/mf/web/esren75dh6t7tw8e/Episode_4_transcript87bpn.pdf] by Mollie Holmberg.
Theme music for the show is roswell by Fog Lake off the Free Music Archive and licensed under CC BY 4.0.
