BUILDING CRITICAL TOOLKITS FALL 2026
A BOOK TALK
Botanical Imagination
Rethinking Plants in Modern Japan
Jon L. Pitt
Associate Professor of Japanese Environ mental Humanities University of California, Irvine
Botanical Imagination explores the complicated legacy and enduring lure of plant life in modern Japanese literature and media. Tracing a desire to "become botanical" in both content and form, Jon Pitt follows plants through the tangled histories of imperialism and state control, and asks us to rethink them as significant but ambivalent actors.
October 2, 2026
COFFEE CHAT @ 3:30-4:00PM
TALK @ 4:00-5:00PM
Location: Humanities Gateway (HG 1010)
Presented by the Building Critical Toolkits Reading Group and the Department of East Asian Studies
Sponsored by the Humanities Center