About this Website

The purpose of this website is a place to share information, ideas, and thoughts about my dissertation project "The Flowers of El Dorado: Gender, Production, and the Cut Flower Industry in Colombia and the United States. "

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My dissertation explores the history of the flowers we love, how they capture our hearts, and why  so many travel from so far away. Most of the flowers you find in the supermarket or florist shop start their lives in Colombia or Ecuador before being shipped up to the U.S. via airplane. 

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I look at how this process came to be, the effects the rise of a hemispheric trade in cut flowers has had on both the Colombian and U.S. floriculture industries, and how gender stereotypes has shaped the growth and development of the cut flower industry in the 20th century.