renata.soukand@unive.it
Renata Sõuknad is Associate Professor of ethnobotany at Ca’ Foscari University in Italy and she has recently successfully concluded an ERC Starting Grant “DiGe”. She has received a PhD in Semiotics and Cultural Theory (2010) from the University of Tartu and has an educational background in pharmacy (BSc) and environmental sciences (MSc). Her main research interests include current and historical ethnobotany of the post-Soviet region, especially Eastern Europe, biocultural diversity, environmental history and ecosemiotics (with the focus on relations between humans and nature). Her ethnobotanical and anthropological field experience in all three Baltic States, Finland, Ukraine, Belarus, Romania, Caucasus, Balkans, Iraq, Tajikistan, Slovakia, Greece, Cyprus and Corsica have given her the possibility to observe, compare and reflect upon the inextricable link between sustainability and all aspects of bicultural diversity. She has co-authored of over 100 publications (current h-index=31, over 3000 citations) including both her field experience and historical research on representation of plant use within the folklore collections as well as various other sources influencing the evolution of the plant use.