My first monograph (under contract with Cambridge University Press) traces changes in agrarian life in The Gambia alongside the emergence and elaboration of seed markets, seed law, and seed science over the past 150 years. In following both historical and contemporary encounters concerning the seed, the book shows how attempts to regulate the circulation and reproduction of plants are rooted in a much longer history of plant reproductive governance that has entailed the discipline, assessment, and translation of diverse human and more-than-human worlds.
From 2021-2024, prior to joining UCC, I held an Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA) at The University of Queensland. There, I carried out research on changing practices of ownership and regulation in Australian agricultural supply chains and the rise of branded plant varieties. That work extended my longstanding interests in understanding the shifting remit of efforts to control the circulation and reproduction of plant life. A third, and related, research interest concerns the conceptualisation of crop diversity loss and its relationship to crop conservation. I am particularly interested in how ideas about loss mediate such divergent efforts as the implementation of large-scale gene banks, the rise of seed saving networks, and even calls for intellectual property law (as a source of future diversity).
AY2007 Conceptualising Humanity: Theory in Cultural Anthropology
AY3004 Economic Anthropology
AY 3005 Nature-Culture: Anthropologies of the More-than-Human
I also teach into first, second, and third year modules, including introduction to anthropology (AY1001), ethnographic theory and practice (AY2010), and the anthropology research seminar.
Biography
I am a sociocultural and environmental anthropologist (PhD, University of Georgia, United States) with an interest in human-plant relations, food systems, and environmental governance. These interests are rooted in my previous life as a farmer and my enduring love of gardening. I have conducted long term ethnographic research in The Gambia and Australia, where I explored everyday practices of keeping and tending plants alongside changes in plant regulation and ownership, particularly under the expansion and transformation of intellectual property law. At UCC, I teach courses on theory in cultural anthropology, anthropological approaches to the study of “economic” life, and human relations with the more-than-human world.Research Interests
My work explores the intersection of law, science, and society, with a particular focus on the commodification, propertization, and regulation of plant life since the late nineteenth century. Combining ethnographies of farmers fields, conservation initiatives, research institutes, and archives, I ask questions about the signification and care of plants but also the coloniality, biopolitics, and translational practices of efforts to regulate seeds and crop diversity. In this sense, my work explores both “grand schemes” to make plant life more uniform, stable, and traceable as well as everyday practices of keeping, tending, providing, and receiving seeds. I am keenly interested in what understanding these different practices might hold for more just, convivial, and decolonial futures.My first monograph (under contract with Cambridge University Press) traces changes in agrarian life in The Gambia alongside the emergence and elaboration of seed markets, seed law, and seed science over the past 150 years. In following both historical and contemporary encounters concerning the seed, the book shows how attempts to regulate the circulation and reproduction of plants are rooted in a much longer history of plant reproductive governance that has entailed the discipline, assessment, and translation of diverse human and more-than-human worlds.
From 2021-2024, prior to joining UCC, I held an Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA) at The University of Queensland. There, I carried out research on changing practices of ownership and regulation in Australian agricultural supply chains and the rise of branded plant varieties. That work extended my longstanding interests in understanding the shifting remit of efforts to control the circulation and reproduction of plant life. A third, and related, research interest concerns the conceptualisation of crop diversity loss and its relationship to crop conservation. I am particularly interested in how ideas about loss mediate such divergent efforts as the implementation of large-scale gene banks, the rise of seed saving networks, and even calls for intellectual property law (as a source of future diversity).
Publications
Book Chapters
| Year | Publication | |
|---|---|---|
| (2023) | 'Intellectual Property's Antecedent: Seed Law and the Regulation of Living Materials in British Colonial Gambia' Susannah Chapman (2023) 'Intellectual Property's Antecedent: Seed Law and the Regulation of Living Materials in British Colonial Gambia' In: Jose Bellido and Brad Sherman (eds). Intellectual Property and the Design of Nature. Oxford: Oxford University Press. [DOI] [Details] | |
| (2022) | 'The (In)visible Labour of Varietal Innovation' Susannah Chapman (2022) 'The (In)visible Labour of Varietal Innovation' In: Jenny Bangham, Xan Chacko, and Judith Kaplan (eds). Invisible Labour in Modern Science. Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield International. [Details] | |
| (2020) | 'Agrobiodiversity Loss and the Construction of Regulatory Frameworks for Crop Germplasm' Susannah Chapman and Paul Heald (2020) 'Agrobiodiversity Loss and the Construction of Regulatory Frameworks for Crop Germplasm' In: G. Steier and A. Cianci (eds). Environmental Resilience and Food Law: Agrobiodiversity and Agroecology. Boca Raton: CRC Press/Taylor and Francis. [DOI] [Details] | |
| (2020) | 'Rethinking Intellectual Property Law's Relationship with Agriculture' Brad Sherman and Susannah Chapman (2020) 'Rethinking Intellectual Property Law's Relationship with Agriculture' In: Intellectual Property and Agriculture. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar. [Details] | |
| (2013) | 'Apples of Their Eyes: Apple Trees and Memory Keepers of the American South' Susannah Chapman and Tom Brown (2013) 'Apples of Their Eyes: Apple Trees and Memory Keepers of the American South' In: Virginia Nazarea, Robert Rhoades, and Jenna Andrews-Swann (eds). Seeds of Resistance/Seeds of Hope: Place and Agency in the Conservation of Biodiversity. Tucson: University of Arizona Press. [Details] |
Edited Books
| Year | Publication | |
|---|---|---|
| (2020) | Intellectual Property and Agriculture Brad Sherman and Susannah Chapman (Ed.). (2020) Intellectual Property and Agriculture Cheltenham: Edward Elgar. [Details] |
Peer Reviewed Journals
| Year | Publication | |
|---|---|---|
| (2022) | 'Seed: Gendered Vernaculars and Relational Possibilities' Susannah Chapman and Xan Chacko (2022) 'Seed: Gendered Vernaculars and Relational Possibilities'. Feminist Anthropology, 3 (2):353-361 [DOI] [Details] | |
| (2021) | 'What should farmers rights look like? The possible substance of a right' Kamalesh Adhikari, Edwin Bikundo, Xan Chacko, Susannah Chapman, Fran Humphries, Hope Johnson, Evan Keast, Charles Lawson, Justin Malbon, Daniel Robinson, Michelle Rourke, Jay Sanderson, Kieran Tranter (2021) 'What should farmers rights look like? The possible substance of a right'. Agronomy, [DOI] [Details] | |
| (2020) | 'The cosmopolitics of food futures: imagining nature, law, and apocalypse' Jocelyn Bosse, Xan Chacko, Susannah Chapman (2020) 'The cosmopolitics of food futures: imagining nature, law, and apocalypse'. Continuum, :840-857 [DOI] [Details] | |
| (2020) | 'Ethnographic Explorations of Intellectual Property' Rosemary Coombe and Susannah Chapman (2020) 'Ethnographic Explorations of Intellectual Property'. [DOI] [Details] | |
| (2018) | 'To make one's name famous: Varietal innovation and intellectual property in The Gambia' Susannah Chapman (2018) 'To make one's name famous: Varietal innovation and intellectual property in The Gambia'. American Ethnologist, 45 (5):482-494 [DOI] [Details] | |
| (2018) | 'Finding a Place for Agriculture in Intellectual Property Law' Susannah Chapman and Brad Sherman (2018) 'Finding a Place for Agriculture in Intellectual Property Law'. International Review of Intellectual Property and Competition Law, [DOI] [Details] |
Other Journals
| Year | Publication | |
|---|---|---|
| (2012) | 'Veggie Tales: Pernicious Myths About Patents, Innovation and Crop Diversity in the Twentieth Century' Paul Heald and Susannah Chapman (2012) 'Veggie Tales: Pernicious Myths About Patents, Innovation and Crop Diversity in the Twentieth Century' University of Illinois Law Review, . [Details] |
Blog
| Year | Publication | |
|---|---|---|
| (2024) | (Farm)work as/of Participant Observation. Susannah Chapman (2024) (Farm)work as/of Participant Observation. Blog [DOI] [Details] |
Book Reviews
| Year | Publication | |
|---|---|---|
| (2017) | Review of The politics of distinction: African elites from colonialism to liberation in a Namibian frontier town. Susannah Chapman (2017) Review of The politics of distinction: African elites from colonialism to liberation in a Namibian frontier town. Book Reviews [DOI] [Details] |
Professional Activities
Honours and Awards
| Year | Title | Awarding Body | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | Junior Scholar Award | Anthropology and Environment Society |
Teaching Activities
Teaching Interests
I coordinate and teach the following modules within the Anthropology BA program (CK123):AY2007 Conceptualising Humanity: Theory in Cultural Anthropology
AY3004 Economic Anthropology
AY 3005 Nature-Culture: Anthropologies of the More-than-Human
I also teach into first, second, and third year modules, including introduction to anthropology (AY1001), ethnographic theory and practice (AY2010), and the anthropology research seminar.