Vráblíková, Lenka; Mitchell, Elspeth and Zúñiga, Xalli. 2023. 'Voice, Language, Fungi: A Conversation with Guiliana Furci'. In: Southern Movements: Transnational Feminist Praxis & Philosophical Interventions, 16th Annual Conference of philoSOPHIA. UNC Charlotte, United States 1 - 3 June 2023. [Conference or Workshop Item]

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Abstract or Description

This conversation will explore Guiliana Furci’s practice of transnational coalition building within and beyond mycological research. Like the ecology and biology of fungi itself, the conversation will take up how emergent, decentralized and non-hierarchical relations are made possible (or not) through the scientific, cultural and artistic projects in which Furci is engaged. A focus will be on two projects. The first is creating mycologically inclusive language and bringing it into scientific, political, legal and cultural spheres. We will explore the ethical, political, legal, scientific and epistemological significance of this work for climate justice and ecology. The second is her work with and for Historias y Memorias Mazatecas, an archive including significant and intimate audi0-visual recordings of the life of the renowned indigenous Mazatec curandera, María Sabina Magdalena García, who knew how to use hallucinogenic mushrooms to heal. María Sabina is best known in Spanish and English speaking cultures for her interactions with an American ethnomycologist who wrote about his experiences of a mushroom ceremony for Life Magazine in 1977. This article introduced hallucinogenic mushrooms to North America, the resulting attention proving disastrous for the Mazatec community. With Mazatec being a spoken, not written, language, the conversation will explore how Furci’s work engages with feminist thought and practice in order to preserve the archive for the community, refigure the place of María Sabina’s voice in stories told of hallucinogenic fungi and practices guard against the loss of traditional mycological knowledge.

Item Type:	Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)
Departments, Centres and Research Units:	Visual Cultures
Dates:	Date Event June 2023 Completed
Event Location:	UNC Charlotte, United States
Date range:	1 - 3 June 2023
Item ID:	35767
Date Deposited:	26 Mar 2024 09:54
Last Modified:	27 Mar 2024 09:18
URI:	https://research.gold.ac.uk/id/eprint/35767

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