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Join us for the launch of "Unrooted" with author Erin Zimmerman: An exploration of science, motherhood, and academia, and a stirring account of a woman at a personal and professional crossroads . . .
“Erin Zimmerman has exposed a rooted gender failure in science. Her book is important not for this alone. Her work is essential for understanding the future resilience of all flora on this planet.” -Diana Beresford-Kroeger, author of To Speak for the Trees.
Zimmerman takes us back to her childhood in rural Ontario where she became fascinated with plants. She tells us how that obsession led to a life in academia working to become a professional botanist. It was a challenging career path because natural history – the collection, description, and classification of species – is in many ways a “dying science.” But to Zimmerman, it is one worth fighting for.
In her memoir Zimmerman traces her career path and argues that natural history research needs to continue, not only because there may be as many as 100,000 plant species yet to be discovered, but because an understanding of this science is crucial in the fight against biodiversity loss. Despite her passion for studying plants, Zimmerman’s career choices narrowed in the face of failing institutions and subtle, but ubiquitous, sexism, and she began to doubt herself.
Unrooted is a scientist’s memoir, a glimpse into the ordinary life of someone in a fascinating field. It is about plants, looking at the world with wonder, and what it means to be a woman in academia—an environment that elbows out mothers and those with responsibilities outside the lab. Zimmerman delves into her experiences as a new parent, her decision to leave her position in post-graduate research, and how she found a new way to stay in the field she loves. She ends with a call to action for anyone wishing to help in the fight to save species.
Erin Zimmerman is an evolutionary biologist turned science writer and essayist. She has a bachelor’s degree in plant biology and physics from the University of Guelph and postgraduate studies in fungal genetics and molecular systematics from the Université de Montréal’s biodiversity institute. For her doctoral research, she traveled to South America to collect plant specimens, and worked at the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew. Zimmerman has published nine academic papers, as well as numerous essays that have appeared in publications like New York Magazine, Huffpost, Smithsonian Magazine, Los Angeles Review of Books, Undark, and Narratively.
Reserve "Unrooted" here.
Author talk will begin at 2:30pm.
Light refreshments will be available and copies of "Unrooted" will be available for sale.
Seating is limited, but standing room will also be available. Please register to reserve a seat.