/news/philomena-essed-receives-academy-medal
The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences has awarded Philomena Essed its Academy Medal for her important contribution to scholarly research into racism in the Netherlands and elsewhere. Her contribution to defining and understanding institutional and other forms of racism has been indispensable for current insights into racism, both in scholarly discourse and in society as a whole.
The Academy Medal is awarded every other year to an individual who has made an outstanding contribution to the advancement of science and scholarship in the Netherlands.
Everyday racism
Philomena Essed has explained from a scholarly perspective how racism works, thus contributing to a broader understanding of it. Her book Everyday Racism (1984) caused considerable controversy, both within and beyond academia, about the presence of racism in the Netherlands – particularly of a more implicit, everyday form. Precisely because of the sometimes heated discussion at the time, her contribution to the further development of this field is regarded as an example of intellectual courage. She designed a theoretical framework for examining everyday racism, thereby putting racism research in the Netherlands on the international map.
Participatory research
Jury chair Eveline Crone explains: ‘With her research method, Philomena Essed was ahead of the scholarly mainstream. Her participatory research methods have since gained recognition and are now widely applied in a variety of disciplines. She has played an important role in educating and training other distinguished researchers who have followed in her footsteps.’
Social commitment
Philomena Essed has had a major impact on society, not just in the Netherlands. Her books are accessible to a wide readership and have been published in numerous languages. She offers a new generation the intellectual framework for interpreting their experience. She is socially committed and an informal mentor to a select group of exceptional young people who are courageously embarking on a university education, often as the first in their family to do so. She enjoys providing a platform for new critical voices and learning from them.
Philomena Essed
Philomena Essed is a professor of Critical Race, Gender and Leadership Studies at Antioch University’s Graduate School of Leadership and Change (USA) and an affiliated researcher for Utrecht University’s Graduate Gender programme. She studied Cultural Anthropology and obtained her doctorate in Social Sciences cum laude at the University of Amsterdam in 1990. She has received honorary doctorates from the University of Pretoria (South Africa) and Umeå University (Sweden). In 2011, she was made a knight in the Order of Orange-Nassau and in 2017 she received the Black Achievement Award.
About the Academy Medal
The Academy Medal has been awarded every other year since 1983 to a person who has made an outstanding contribution to the advancement of science and scholarship in the Netherlands in the broadest sense. Previous laureates include Carla Hollak, Paul Schnabel, Robert-Jan Smits, Trudy Dehue, Alexander Rinnooy Kan and Jaap van Dissel. Philomena Essed will be presented with the Academy Medal on June 5, 2025.
