Fwd: WOMNH Online Seminar Series - C. Horn - Rosa Luxemburg's Herbarium - Wed. 10 June 2026 6.00-7.00 pm (CET)
Claudia Horn
WOMNH Spring 2026 Online Seminar Series
Wednesday 10 June 2026 – 6.00–7.00 pm (CET)
Rosa Luxemburg’s Herbarium: Radical Ecology and the Global Plantation
Claudia Horn
(King’s College London)
Abstract: Between 1913 and 1918, Rosa Luxemburg compiled and annotated the taxonomy of nearly 400 pressed leaves and flowers, even while imprisoned for political dissidence. Rediscovered in 2009, this little-known herbarium reveals the historical surge of botany and Luxemburg’s connection to the natural world. This talk presents the book’s main arguments, offering a discussion of Luxemburg’s political ecology and the first English translation of her herbarium and selected letters (OR Books, 2026). Luxemburg’s lesser-known economic writings trace how imperial capital accumulation reshapes global environments through plantation economies, violence, and slave labor, thereby destroying biodiversity and indigenous communal cultures. Despite her early shift in focus from industrial centers to plantation economies in the Global South, ecosocialist, eco-Marxist, and Plantationocene literatures have overlooked her contributions. The book examines the central role of naturalists, herbariums, and botanic gardens in establishing colonial plantations. It also addresses ongoing issues of race, gender, slavery, and ecocide in monoculture conservation and agriculture today. Finally, the book explores Luxemburg’s contributions to contemporary feminist, decolonial, and eco-Marxist critiques of false climate solutions, as well as to struggles for socioenvironmental justice.
Bio: Claudia Horn is a lecturer in political economy at the Department of European and International Studies at King’s College London. Her research critically examines the global politics of uneven development, ecological transition, and global inequalities, with a particular focus on market-based conservation and agroforestry. Her book manuscript, Where Money Grows on Trees: European Carbon Politics in the Brazilian Amazon, currently under review, examines the impact of environmental aid on land conflicts. Her book The Herbarium of Rosa Luxemburg: Radical Ecology and the Global Plantation, published by OR Books in spring 2026, combines the first transcription and translation of Luxemburg’s original annotated botanical notebooks with a discussion of her critical ecology.
Linda Andersson-Burnett, Uppsala University: linda.ander...@idehist.uu.se
Anita Hermannstädter, Museum für Naturkunde Berlin: a.herman...@mfn.berlin
Stefanie Jovanovic-Kruspel, Naturhistorisches Museum Wien: stefanie....@nhm.at
Zoë M. Simmons, Oxford University Museum of Natural History: zoe.s...@oum.ox.ac.uk
Laurence Talairach, Alexandre-Koyré Center/Institut Universitaire de France/University of Toulouse Jean Jaurès:
Sabine von Mering, Museum für Naturkunde Berlin: sabine.v...@mfn.berlin