Dr Stefanie Affeldt

Critical WoMangroves

Linnæus has done me the favour of naming the mangroves from the family of Acanthaceae after Avicenna. I cannot let this opportunity slip to grow a critical mangrove forest of my own – more precisely, and to stay within the metaphor, rather a few groves – perfectly precisely, for the sake of me and paranomasia, Critical Womangroves
Martin Opitz has slashed his way through poetical groves, Johann Gottfried Herder has planted philosophical groves.
I take an interest in their elements of growth and change (›history‹), as well as their combination of rootage and quest for light (›philosophy‹). The mangrove forest adds the amphibiousness (›sociology‹). This fits in seamlessly with my investigations into the intersectionality of gender, class, nation, and race in the depths of social inequality.
Besides, the metaphor illustrates the radical nature inherent in science and knowledge in the most beautiful sense (›aesthetics‹).

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