Faculty Associate Adriana Craciun Authors Article on Svalbard Global Seed Vault for The Conversation

Adriana Craciun, Emma MacLachlan Metcalf Chair of Humanities and a Faculty Associate at the Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future, recently authored an article exploring controversies surrounding the Svalbard Global Seed Vault in Norway — “the world’s most famous backup site for seeds.”

In the article, Prof. Craciun explains that the Global Seed Vault is home to several hundred million seeds from 80 countries that are stored in metallic pouches at -18°C in what the United Nations calls “the ultimate insurance policy for the world’s food supply.” She argues that, while the vault has often served as a lightning rod for critics based on a number of misplaced assumptions about the politics of seed conservation, it is actually a unique “interweaving of scientific and cultural value, and of plants and people.” Read the article here.

Prof. Craciun is the co-convenor of The Arctic Environmental Humanities Workshop Series, a collaboration between the Pardee Center and the Scott Polar Research Institute at the University of Cambridge. The series brings together the diverse expertise of humanistic scholars, scientists, social scientists, and artists for a series of virtual presentations and conversations about Arctic issues. Learn more here.