Plant Hunters

Plant Hunters follows the expedition of British geographer and explorer Sir Clements Robert Markham into the tropical Andean forests of Peru in the mid-1800s to gather specimens of cinchona, a tree whose bark produces quinine, an antimalarial medication. His expedition was part of a larger imperial scheme to introduce cinchona to British India.

The nineteenth century was full of plant-collecting expeditions as European empires sought out economically important plants from across the world. By joining the Plant Hunters team, students will explore the connected histories of science, empire, and the environment through Markham’s cinchona mission, a pivotal episode in global medicine, imperial expansion, and colonial resource extraction. Working on the game provides a hands-on opportunity to examine how imperial expeditions influenced scientific knowledge, subsumed indigenous knowledge and peoples, and circulated natural resources worldwide. You will engage directly with historical research, digital storytelling, game design, and ethical questions about knowledge, power, and ecology. Through this collaborative project, you will learn how historical figures, technologies, and environments interacted to shape the course of European imperial expansion in the nineteenth century.

Cinchona-gathering expedition, 1878.jpg
Clements Markham, 1854.jpg
Packets of Quinine.jpg
A map of the area of Villcabamba, 18th c.jpg
Cinchona (Gathering and Drying Cinchona Bark in a Peruvian Forest), 19th c.jpg
Cinchona officinalis, c. 1839-42.jpg
Cinchona caribbaea, 1801.jpg
Cinchona officinalis, 1863.jpg

Apply by Friday 21st November, using this short survey

The application process is competitive. No prior experience is required, but an ideal team will include students with a combination of:

  • UI/UX design

  • Traditional and/or digital art

  • Computer Science / coding experience

  • Coding for video games (Godot, Unity, Unreal)

  • Latin American and British Empire literature, culture, history research and/or language skills

  • Experience in background music and/or sound design

  • Strong creative and/or analytical writing skills

Students with any of the above are encouraged to apply.

Digital Humanities Intern Responsibilities

  1. Familiarize yourself with the historical background

  2. Take the lead on your portion of the game, and assist on others

  3. Find historical artwork, develop original artwork, or a combination thereof

  4. Write text and integrate it into the game

  5. Design and code the game

  6. Create an engaging user interface.

  7. Participate in testing and refining the game created by the group.

  8. Attend weekly meetings on Wednesdays from 4:00-5:30.

Learning outcomes

  • Interdisciplinary research experience focused on Japanese history and culture

  • Gain familiarity working with and interpreting textual and visual sources for a public audience

  • Experience working as part of a team to complete a real, useable project

  • Coding experience

Course Credit

Successful applicants will work around 10 hours per week on the project, including group meetings. We will work with students to register for course credit through the internship courses available at their college (for COLA students, this is LA 320wb, 3 hours of credit). See the Internships page for more information.

I’m a Bridging Disciplines Programs student. What do I do?

Digital Arts & Media BDP students may count their JapanLab internship as their required BDP creative project. To do this, you must submit a Connecting Experience proposal through your MyBDP dashboard by the proposal deadline for the semester when you will be working with the JapanLab. Once your proposal is approved by the BDP office, you will be enrolled in BDP 320L credit for this experience to count as your creative project. See the BDP Advising Canvas site for more details or reach out to your BDP advisor with any questions. If you are a Digital Arts & Media BDP student and you prefer to propose this experience as an optional internship rather than as your required creative project, you have the option to propose the experience to be enrolled in BDP 325K internship credit, but please reach out to your BDP advisor to ensure that this will fit with your BDP requirements. If you are in a BDP certificate other than Digital Arts & Media and you would like to propose this as an internship experience, please reach out to your BDP advisor to ensure that the experience is an appropriate fit with your BDP topic.