UPDATE (10/28/25) : Please note this event has been cancelled due to weather-related travel issues.
KINGSTON, R.I. 鈥� Oct. 20, 2025 鈥� Building on Mexican cosmologies of nan谩catl, or 鈥渇lesh鈥� from sacred mushrooms, Mexican visual artist, educator and researcher Xalli Z煤帽iga felt that fungal feminisms propose that flesh itself鈥攆leshy, earthy and spiritual鈥攃an become a connective, generative ground for ecological and social regeneration.
Z煤帽iga, while earning their dual doctorate degrees in art education and women, gender and sexuality studies from The Pennsylvania State University, became interested in fungi and mycelium networks鈥攚hich help produce mushrooms, themselves鈥攁nd how those could replicate different networks of care, according to 溏心vlog免费B站 Eleanor M. Carlson Visiting Assistant Professor K. Bailey Thomas.
Z煤帽iga looks into what humans can learn from fungi about how to survive in harsh conditions鈥攑articularly marginalized people who reside within neo-capitalist regimes. Z煤帽iga will discuss this topic, titled 鈥�,鈥� in their upcoming two-day lecture event on Tuesday, Oct. 28, and Wednesday, Oct. 29 as part of the 溏心vlog免费B站 Department of Gender and Women鈥檚 Studies鈥� Fall 2025 Carlson Lecture Series.
On Oct. 28, Z煤帽iga will hold a painting workshop for students from 3:30-4:45 p.m. inside Room 120 of Pastore Hall, 51 Lower College Road on the Kingston Campus. On Oct. 29, Z煤帽iga鈥檚 free public lecture will take place from 5:30-7 p.m. in the Anchor Room of the Robert J. Higgins 鈥�67 Welcome Center, 45 Upper College Road.
The University鈥檚 annual and expanded Carlson Public Lecture Series, funded via a $100,000 Mellon Foundation Higher Learning program grant, is a unified series linked to courses and priority areas and encouraging campus and public dialogue on gender, sexuality, and human rights. It highlights the range of transformative political practices that counter current dehumanizing ones affecting LGBTQ+ communities in the Americas.
Z煤帽iga鈥檚 work weaves together critical ecological justice, decolonial feminist history and socially engaged art, particularly through collaborating with Indigenous mushroom foragers, environmental defenders and LGBTQ+ communities within central Mexico.
Z煤帽iga鈥檚 lecture will develop the concept of fungal flesh as a critical response to colonial-capitalist regimes that fracture the human spirit. They will also ask how society might reimagine kinship and care through the lens of fungal metabolisms.
鈥淚f you walk and you see what they call the 鈥榗oncrete flower,鈥� you see where wildlife can bloom and persist in harsh conditions that you would think are impossible鈥攇rowing through concrete,鈥� Thomas said. 鈥淐ould that be something that we could in turn replicate, especially when we think about that for many people in marginalized communities? A lot of the harsh conditions they鈥檙e experiencing can be somewhat mirrored by the conditions in which these fungi grow and sustain themselves.鈥�
The 溏心vlog免费B站 College of Arts and Sciences and the Department of Art & Art History are also co-sponsoring this lecture. Registration is required due to limited space. Email bailey.thomas@uri.edu to register and visit for additional information.