Thinking with Plants and Fungi - A Conversation with Rachael Petersen

What is the nature of mind? What does it mean to be human? More-than-human? How do these questions relate to plants and fungi? Might the answers to these questions change the way we live?

Explore these and other questions with Rachael Petersen, Program Lead of Harvard University’s Thinking with Plants and Fungi Initiative, an interdisciplinary exploration into how cutting-edge science on plants is challenging our notions of mind and matter. The Initiative is housed at the Center for the Study of World Religions within Harvard Divinity School.

The event will be co-moderated by Plant Initiative board members Paul Moss and Giovanni Aloi.

We'll be talking about the Thinking with Plants and Fungi Initiative - why it was created, what it accomplished, what are its next steps, and what can people learn from the Initiative.

The conversation will also include takeaways from the Thinking with Plants and Fungi Initiative's major Thinking with Plants and Fungi Conference: An Interdisciplinary Exploration into the Mind of Nature that will be held on May 15-17, 2025 at Harvard University in Cambridge, MA. Learn more about the conference here (free registration for online or in-person participation, but spaces are limited).

Other topics for discussion will be future directions of the plant studies field, differences between plants and fungi, and the ethical implications of thinking of plants and fungi in different ways.

Join us for this free interactive program!

There will be time for questions from the audience following the discussion. This free program will be livestreamed with a link to be sent to participants before the event and will also be recorded and available for viewing online afterwards.

About Rachael Petersen

Rachael Petersen is program lead for the Thinking with Plants and Fungi Initiative, an interdisciplinary exploration into how cutting-edge science on plants is challenging our notions of mind and matter which is housed at the Center for the Study of World Religions within Harvard Divinity School. Her research explores pantheism, the intersection of science and religion, and how we relate to the minds of more-than-human beings, especially plants. Her master’s thesis translated the 1848 book by Gustav Fechner, Nanna or on the Soul-Life of Plants from German into English and provided a critical introduction to his thought. A creative writer and translator, her work has been published in Aeon, The Sun, Harvard Divinity Bulletin, Tricycle Magazine, Peripheries Poetry Journal, The Rumpus, The Outline, Psymposia and elsewhere.

Prior to graduate school, Rachael worked for a decade in environmental policy, with expertise in climate mitigation, forest protection, and indigenous rights, conducting fieldwork in the Amazon, Borneo, and Arctic Canada. She served as Senior Advisor to National Geographic Society and founding Deputy Director of Global Forest Watch at WRI. She also founded Earthrise Services, a consultancy serving organizations tackling our biggest ecological challenges. She was a Thomas J. Watson Foundation Fellow and a Mulago Foundation Henry Arnhold Conservation Fellow. She holds a BA in Anthropology and Environmental Policy from Rice University and an MDiv from Harvard Divinity School.

Rachael's personal web site is https://www.rachaelnpetersen.com/

About the Thinking with Plants and Fungi Initiative

Harvard University's Thinking with Plants and Fungi Initiative is housed at the Center for the Study of World Religions within Harvard Divinity School. It explores how inquiry into plant and fungal life illuminates the nature of mind and matter, and humans’ relationship to the more-than-human world. The Initiative engages fundamental questions from academic scholarship and traditional wisdom, including: what is intelligence, where does it extend, and how? What is matter, and what does it mean to label it animate or inanimate? How can we broaden practices of care to include other forms of life? How does the study of plants enrich or complicate our understanding of humans’ place relative to other beings?

The Thinking with Plants and Fungi Initiative seeks to enhance interdisciplinary cooperation between biology, ecology, and the humanities, nurturing current and future leaders in plant studies. Through scholarship and public outreach, the Initiative aims to demonstrate how nature's intelligence can inspire new models of cooperation, flourishing, and coexistence amid ongoing crises. ​

Learn more about the Thinking with Plants and Fungi Initiative on its website: https://cswr.hds.harvard.edu/research-programming/thinking-plants-fungi