Student profiles
Scott Backrath
Twitter: @SBackrath
Email: scott.backrath@postgrad.manchester.ac.uk
Thesis Title
Institution
The University of Manchester
Supervisors
Dr. Stefan Hanß
Dr. Rachel Winchcombe
Dr. Alex Alberda
Research Summary
My project will demonstrate that biopiracy, the theft of botanical knowledge and materials, occurred in the early-modern period and before the current consensus of 1876 (Henry Wickham). It will be the first monograph-length study of early modern biopiracy and its entanglement with colonialism and the ‘scientific revolution’, including its consequences for Indigenous communities and museum collections. The project also aims to help recover Indigenous botanical knowledge obscured by the British Empire and decolonise botanical collections.
Research Interests
History of science,
indigenous perspectives,
colonialism
and imperialism.
Publications
coming soon