Biography
I am reading for a DPhil in Science and Religion as a Laudato Si Ecotheology Scholar and a Harvey Fellow. At Oxford, I previously completed an MSc in Sociology as a Barry Scholar and an MSt in Theology as a Peter Harrison Fellow. Through my academic and creative projects, I integrate ecological, theological, and psychosocial insights to open up new ways of thinking about divine presence and healing.
Paper Abstract
This paper offers a constructive dialogue between Simone Weil’s The Need for Roots and contemporary mycology. Weil defines rootedness as the primary human need for participation in a living community that confers meaning, obligation, and continuity. I argue that mycelial networks provide a biological model for the forms of communal and spiritual life Weil describes. Empirical mycology (especially studies of mycorrhizal nutrient distribution, interspecies communication through chemical signaling, and soil regeneration through decompositional processes) demonstrates how fungal systems sustain ecological communities through non-proprietary exchange, mutual dependence, and the maintenance of a shared life-world. These scientific insights render Weil’s moral and spiritual claims intelligible within ecological frameworks.
The paper expands Weil’s analysis of “uprootedness” by integrating ecological research on soil degradation and fungal disruption. Weil contends that uprooted societies sever persons from place, history, and durable obligations. Ecologically, the destruction of mycelial networks leads to soil instability, impaired nutrient cycling, and systemic collapse. In parallel, both forms of uprooting dismantle the underlying relational conditions that support resilience, justice, and meaning. By examining specific mycelial stress responses (adaptive hyphal growth in toxic substrates, coordinated carbon redistribution during drought, and network-level reorganization under disturbance), the paper probes how fungal resilience might offer concrete models for the social, moral, and spiritual resilience Weil believed communities must cultivate.
Weil insisted that rootedness is the condition of stability in crisis. Mycelial ecologies provide living examples of how damaged environments can become sites of renewal through distributed cooperation and mutual care. By considering how mycelium restores damaged environments into sites of regeneration, the paper provides a scientifically grounded account of how communities might cultivate analogous forms of resilience. The paper proposes that fungal networks can metaphorically illustrate Weil’s insights as well as offer a scientifically grounded structure for clarifying how cultivating ecological, communal, and spiritual roots could sustain a regenerative future.