Rooted Journeys: Maroon Ecologies and Cultural Keystone Species in Transatlantic Contexts

This project investigates the significance of Maroon ecologies for diasporic identity, health, and the environment. Jamaican Maroons are the descendants of enslaved Africans who freed themselves from slavery by escaping to remote, often mountainous, or densely wooded, environments. Their ecologies, rooted in local and

African botany, are understudied and endangered. Maroons are also transatlantic, with a substantial contemporary community in London, introducing distinct cultural, environmental, and health considerations. This PhD collaborates with Jamaican and UK Maroons skilled in plantbased practices to explore keystone plant species,

unearthing their changing roles in ecology, identity, and health. Qualitative and quantitative ethnographic and botanical methods will be applied to understand the intersections between ecological adaptations and cultural constructions, and to examine how plants, their meanings and uses, move, and are translated in a transatlantic space.

Drawing on neglected spaces and exchanges, it seeks to inform conversations on plant-people relations amidst a global biodiversity crisis.