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Vera Straetmanns is a PhD student at Ruhr-University Bochum in the DFG Emmy Noether Research Group The Return of the Organism in the Biosciences: Theoretical, Historical, and Social Dimensions. She studied biology in Bochum with a focus on molecular plant physiology. Afterwards, she successfully obtained a M.A. degree in History, Philosophy and Culture of Science (HPS+) in Bochum with a master thesis on plant morphologist Agnes Arber (1879-1960).

In her dissertation project, Vera works on the reasoning about agency and individuality in plants between 1900 and today with a special focus on organicist theories in the early 20th century.

Besides this, Vera is interested in the role and impact of women in (early) botany as well as romantic conceptions of nature and science.


Vita
  • 2020–: PhD student in Philosophy, Institut für Philosophie I, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Germany
  • 2022-2023: research assistant, Institute for Philosophy I, Ruhr-University Bochum
  • 2020-2023: M.A. in History, Philosophy and Culture of Science (HPS+), Ruhr-University Bochum
  • 2017–2020: M.Sc. in Biology, Ruhr-University Bochum
  • 2013–2017: B.A. in Linguistics and Biology, Ruhr-University Bochum

Publications

Journal Articles

  • The Lady and the plants: Two notions of teleology in Agnes Arber’s philosophy of plants. In: Journal of the History of Biology. 2025. [download pdf]
  • Retrograde signals from mitochondria reprogramme skoto-morphogenesis in Arabidopsis thaliana via alternative oxidase 1a. In: Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 375(1801), 20190567 (Co-authors: L. Merendino, F. Courtois, B. Grübler, O. Bastien, F. Chevalier, S. Lerbs-Mache, C. Lurin, & T. Pfannschmidt; 2020) [download pdf]

Book chapters

  • A synthesis without Darwin: Unification attempts in early theoretical biology. In: Deconstructing Darwinism: Towards a New Historiography. R.G. Delisle, M. Esposito, D. Ceccarelli (eds.). Springer. (Co-authors: J. Baedke, A. Böhm, S. Reiners-Selbach; 2024)

Talks
  • Witty weeds: How early theoretical biologists conceptualized plant agency and intelligence. November 28th, 2024, 11th RUB-Workshop on the History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences, Ruhr University, Bochum
  • "No Work for a Softy": Margery Carlson and her botanical expeditions in Mexico and Central America. November 7th, 2024, Meeting of the History of Science Society (HSS), Fiesta Americana Hotel, Mérida
  • Formal Teleology in Agnes Arber‘s Philosophy of Plants. July 30th, 2024, Conference "The Organic and the Normative", University of Ljubljana, Slovenia
  • The Lady and the Plants: Two Notions of Teleology in Agnes Arber’s Philosophy of Plants. July 9th, 2024, Meeting of the International Society for the History of Philosophy of Science (HOPOS), University of Vienna, Austria

Vera Straetmanns, M.A., M.Sc.


Fakultät III,
Institut für Philosophie I
GA 1 / 156
Ruhr Universität Bochum
Universitätsstr. 150
44801 Bochum
Tel. +49 (0) 234 / 32-24816
E-Mail: Vera.Straetmanns@rub.de