Aliaksandra Shrubok

I received my MA in anthropology (Belarusian State University) in 2013 and joined then The Department of Folklore and Culture of Slavic people of The Center for the Belarusian culture, language and literature research of National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, where I studied Belarusian verbal healing charms and folk veterinary.

For the last years, my research interests have revolved around human-plant relations and multispecies ethnography, with a particular focus on methodological and theoretical challenges of ethnobotanical research in post-Soviet countries.

My research examines plant-human relations through an ethnography of how Belarusian women in a rural community care for and talk about plants. I examine how the women’s care and love for different plants is both a cultural critique of the condition of life in a post-Soviet countryside, and an ontological proposition that encompasses affect, labor, care, and ethics.