Intersecting plant studies, philology, philosophy, and the arts, “Mission O” was a collaborative project developed by Laurent Derobert and Laurent Dubreuil, offering a nomadic reflection on the vegetal world in Homer’s Odyssey. This artistic and scientific endeavor has been supported by the Art gallery Hus in Montmartre and by the Mondes nouveaux fund overseen by the French Ministry of Culture.

In relation with the Humanities Lab, Laurent Dubreuil wrote an essay entitled Botaniser l’Odyssée on the poetics and epistemology of the vegetal in the poem of Odysseus (Paris: Les Belles lettres, May 2024). A side art project is ongoing, and co-sponsored by the Rural Humanities initiative and French Studies.