22nd Annual Kent-Kew Distinguished Ethnobotanical Lecture

Dr Ina Vandebroek in jungle foliage

Dr Ina Vandebroek, from The New York Botanical Garden, will give this year’s Annual Kent-Kew Distinguished Ethnobotanist Lecture on Tuesday, October 13th at 17:00 (BST). Normally held at Kew Gardens, this year’s lecture will be held online hosted on Zoom. Please register for attendance at Eventbrite (free).

Entitled Caribbean Ethnobotany: Herbs, Health and Heritage Across Borders, Dr Vandebroek’s lecture will explore the co-mobility of humans and plants in the Caribbean, which spans multiple continents (The Americas, Africa, Europe, Asia), cultural groups and periods of time. It encompasses forced and voluntary historic and contemporary human migrations and native Caribbean plants, as well as deliberate and unintentional plant introductions. These geographic trajectories and cultural relationships remain visible through the rich diversity of plants known and used today across the Caribbean islands and their diaspora communities in New York City. Her presentation will discuss lessons learned from ethnobotanical research in New York City, the Dominican Republic and Jamaica, and she will argue that, although Caribbean plant knowledge is dynamic and characterised by spatial, temporal and functional mobility, this knowledge system is firmly rooted in the Caribbean islands, instilled with innovation that has originated within this region. Therefore, Caribbean ethnobotanical heritage should be considered indigenous.

Dr Ina Vandebroek is the Matthew Calbraith Perry Associate Curator and Caribbean Program Director at The New York Botanical Garden. She has conducted ethnobotanical research and outreach for 20 years, studying the relationships between plant diversity, traditional knowledge and community livelihoods in collaboration with indigenous and farming communities in Bolivia, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica and Caribbean diaspora communities in New York City. Ina’s research underscores the importance of plant knowledge for the preservation of biocultural heritage. In New York City, results from research together with Caribbean and Latino communities are used to develop a training curriculum for medical students and healthcare providers, to promote culturally-sensitive healthcare. Ina is also an Assistant Professor (Adjunct) at the Yale School of the Environment in New Haven, Connecticut. She is fluent in Dutch (her mother tongue), English, Spanish and Jamaican Patois.

For more information about the lecture, please contact Dr Raj Puri, Convenor of the Ethnobotany MSc Programme and Director of the Centre for Biocultural Diversity at Kent.

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