In this presentation, Professor Dorthe Staunæs will workshop her idea of affirmative critique.
She draws on an analysis of a major Danish controversy on alleged “excessive academic activism” and “pseudo-research”. The notion of critique was co-opted in this controversy by the fare-out right-wing anti-gender movements and used to attack proponents of gender studies among others. Simultaneously, these movements invoked freedom of speech at the expense of academic freedom. Subsequently, Staunæs and others developed an alternative notion and practice of critique by formulating ten dogmas of affirmative critique to pave the way for an affirmative critique and academic freedom.
Pre-reading
Staunæs, D., Raffnsøe, S., & Brøgger, K. (2025). Affirmative critique as counter-archiving and an-archiving: For another academic freedom to come. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1080/00131857.2025.2500373
