Dr Molly Bond

I am an interdisciplinary social scientist. I research socio-ecological, bio-technological, and agri-cultural ideas, practices and policies that ‘promise’ sustainable futures.

Much of my research to date has focused ethnographically on future food politics, particularly the global implications of synthetic biology and lab-grown ingredients and their interconnection with established food cultures, agricultural livelihoods, biodiversity and 'traditional' knowers, growers and users of plants and natural products.

Part of this has involved observing UN Convention on Biological Diversity COP negotiations, researching the governance of genetic resources and synthetic biology, the issue of (digital) biopiracy and biocultural justice. Another part of this is a 'follow-the-thing' study of the Stevia rebaudiana plant, known as Ka´a he´ê in Guaraní. I am currently writing a book (Un)Earthing Stevia supported by a Postdoctoral Fellowship Award from the UK Economic & Social Research Council (ESRC).

I am interested in furthering research into plant humanities, agrobiocultural diversity and decline, as well as troubling the promissory nexus between hi-tech/low-tech pathways for 'net-zero' and 'living in harmony with nature'.