The Invasion that Sustains Us: Himilayan Blackberries and Invasive and National Discourses...

...in Native Plant Conservation
Jenny Liou's talk on the interrelated associations of Himalayan blackberries and other Rubus species in the Pacific Northwest invites us to contemplate the intersections between the ways that we talk about botanical and human immigration, and the shifting conversation about what makes a plant invasive or exotic to begin with. Her talk explores questions including the ways in which human and plant immigration management strategies are linked (for example, do counties or cities with friendly human immigration policies reflect similar philosophies in their management of invasive plant species?), as well as questions about the ways that genus affiliations skew the rhetoric surrounding some native plants. In particular, Liou explores the ways in which popular Himalayan blackberry abatement efforts reflect and perhaps provide an outlet for anti-Asian sentiments, and the ways in which this inflects public perception of native Rubus species including Rubus ursinis and Rubus spectabilis.

Bio: Jenny Liou is a professor of English at Pierce College where her teaching center around the Green Humanities, and she is also completing a Masters of Marine Affairs at the University of Washington. Liou is a 2019-2020 Northwest Climate Adaptation Science Center Research Fellow and her book of essays about Immigrant Ecologies is forthcoming from Kaya Press in 2023. In addition to her scholarly work, Liou worked as a watershed restoration specialist for Nez Perce Tribal Fisheries and, during her graduate and undergraduate studies, as a restoration ecologist for the California Natural Reserve System. Her perspective on the rhetoric of invasive species draws from both her literary and scientific scholarship, and from her many years of on-the-ground interactions with ecological restorationists and native plant practitioners. You can find samples of her work on her website: https://www.jennyhwayuliou.com/