Presentation #1: “Writing the Wound: Collective Memory as Resistance — Preliminary Research in Lima, Peru” (Anhele Sanchez Delgado)
Presentation #2: “Between Benchwork and the Bay – A Report on Pre-Dissertation Research in Salvador, Brazil” (Logan Krishka)
In 2019, an oil tanker blackened hundreds of miles of Brazil’s northeastern coastline, causing the largest oil spill in the country’s history. In Salvador, Bahia, this toxic slick has threatened both ecological systems and the livelihoods of coastal communities. This spill has catalyzed distinct responses from two groups: university bioscientists employing microbial, fungal, and plant-based bioremediation techniques, and subsistence fishing communities. What futures are made (im)possible if lab coats and fishing nets meet? Why do bioremediation scientists and subsistence fishers operate in parallel rather than in collaboration when addressing the same environmental crisis? This presentation will briefly outline what Logan did in Brazil this summer to begin to address these questions.
Presentation #3: “Plant Knowledge Networks in Altered States and the Ecological Self” (Liz Birkhauser)
My current research examines the use of medicinal plants, with a focus on psychedelic tourism in the Northwest Amazonian lowlands, where traditional and modern medical epistemologies and ontologies intersect. To further this work, I was accepted to study Ecuadorian Kichwa and traditional Amazonian knowledge at the Andes and Amazon Field School as a FLAS Fellow. Immersive language study is critical to understanding the nuances of human-plant-environment relationships, place-based practices and conducting ethical, community-centered research. My work engages with the increasing presence of psychedelic tourism in biodiversity-rich but ecologically and socioeconomically vulnerable regions. I seek to understand how these dynamics influence conservation, mental health, and local bioeconomies.
Presenters:
Liz Birkhauser is a joint degree PhD student in Health Services Research in the School of Pharmacy and in the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies, minoring in Botany. She earned her MS in Pharmaceutical Sciences and a BS in Anthropology, both from the UW-Madison. Her research examines human-plant-environment relationships, particularly the use of psychoactive materials, their consumption contexts, and their role in addressing social and ecological challenges in a changing world. Currently, her research centers on health-seeking behavior, nature/culture and interspecies communication in locations experiencing psychedelic tourism in the northwest Amazon. She is a Holtz Center for Science & Technology Fellow 2024-2026 and a co-organizer for the Psychedelic Pasts, Presents and Futures Workshop. She also teaches on Psychoactive Botanicals and Environmental Impacts.
She brings over 20 years of experience working with plants, people, and ecosystems in a variety of capacities, including in horticulture, regenerative agriculture, and conservation, and has conducted fieldwork in the South Pacific, North America, and the Northwest Amazon.
Logan Krishka is a PhD candidate in the Department of Anthropology at UW-Madison. He earned a MA in anthropology from the same department. He also holds a BA from UW in Anthropology, Portuguese, and LACIS. His current research asks how different communities understand, value, and work to restore damaged environments by focusing on bioscientists and subsistence fishing communities.
Anhelé Sánchez Delgado is a Ph.D. student in Latin American Literature at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Hispanic American Language and Literature from the Universidad Autónoma de Baja California and a master’s degree in Literary Theory and Comparative Literature from the Universidad de Salamanca. Her research focuses on contemporary literature written by women that breaks patriarchal silence, representations of violence, and collective and post-traumatic memory. She has published in outlets such as Vice, Este País, and Animal Político.