Diana E. Popa, PhD

Late winter in Vermont always carries its own paradox. “ When the days begin to lengthen, the cold begins to strengthen ,” the old saying goes, and every year it proves itself correct. Just when you think winter should be loosening its grip, it tightens instead. Mornings feel sharper, the wind meaner, the snow harder underfoot. Yet it’s precisely in this deepening cold that something else starts to stir, almost shyly, beneath the bark of the maple trees. This is the moment V

In the quiet, damp realms beneath our feet, networks of thread-like mycelia stretch like hidden arteries through forest floors. These networks challenge our familiar ways of thinking about communication, intelligence, and meaning. By attending to fungi, we open ourselves to an aesthetics of relation, emergence, and ecological semiosis. Fungi occupy a fascinating position, neither plant nor animal but something else entirely. Their bodies digest the world externally, and thei

Humor opened the door. Biosemiotics widened the frame. Heritage transformed everything. This is my path through the meanings that connect us across species and worlds.