Lesley Wylie
The Microcosms website is a fascinating, thought-provoking repository of knowledge about sacred plants. I’ve recently explored the website with students as part of an undergraduate module which includes a class on the globalization of ayahuasca. Steven F. White’s illuminating introductory essay grounded our discussions about vegetal life and Indigenous plant knowledge and the astounding microscopic images formed part of our broader examination of visionary art, raising questions about the convergence of science and aesthetics. This is an indispensable resource for thinking about human-plant relations at a moment of environmental crisis.
Lesley Wylie is Associate Professor of Latin American Studies at the University of Leicester, UK. Among other publications, she is author of The Poetics of Plants in Latin American Literature (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2020) and editor of Understories: Plants and Culture in the American Tropics (Liverpool University Press, 2023).
