Lecture Abstract:

Humans are a story telling species, and an essential part of any story is what things (animate and inanimate) are named. In this talk I explore the ways in which the naming and story telling that surround trees are part of narratives of belonging. Focusing on three different cases: the “Sacred Trees” of Qilan in Yilan County, the “Sycamore Gap” tree in Northumberland, UK, and the named sequoias (“General Grant”/ “General Sherman” in the Sequoia National Park in the United States, I explore both claims and contestation over the naming and narratives over trees, and what they reveal about elites and the state.

Speaker Bio:

Julia Strauss is a TSE Visiting Professor and had been a professor of Chinese politics in the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London. She received a BA in Chinese Language and European History from Connecticut College (1983) and both an MA and PhD from the Department of Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley (1984, 1991). She moved to the Department of Political and International Studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London in 1994. She served as Editor of The China Quarterly from 2002-2011 and was promoted to Professor in 2013. She offers courses in Chinese politics and comparative political sociology.