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Name
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Katherine Arnold
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Biography
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Katherine Arnold is a historian of the German, British, and Dutch empires, the history of science and the environment, and global history, interested primarily in botanical collecting and collections in imperial contexts in the long nineteenth century. As part of the project, she will investigate how different African plant and landscape ecosystems - like the Cape Floristic Region, the Namib Desert, and the Serengeti - came to be understood as 'biodiverse' spaces and, ultimately, significant conservation priorities in the twentieth century. Likewise, she will explore how plants and deforestation factored into early understandings of human and animal diseases like African trypanosomiasis (sleeping sickness), as well as the role of plants like succulents, aloes, and grasses as important carbon sinks.
