Cultural cloning of more of the same normative identities thrives in a neoliberal climate of high individualism, extreme competition, an overemphasis on cognitive development, and other dehumanizing expectations. Crisis interventions to fix burnout, depression, or suicide (attempts) among students are not working. The unprecedented challenges of our time are an opportunity to revisit what a university education can be about. Essed opts for durable, deep cultural transformations:  A Social Justice Route of Difference, Daring, and Deep Diving.

Location: Aula, Singel 411, Amsterdam

Philomena Essed

Philomena Essed is professor of Critical Race, Gender, and Leadership Studies at Antioch University’s Graduate School of Leadership and Change and affiliated scholar at the Utrecht University’s Graduate Gender program. She holds a PhD from the University of Amsterdam and Honorary Doctorate degrees from the University of Pretoria (2011) and Umeå University (2015).  In 2011 The Queen of the Netherlands honored her with a Knighthood.

Her research and teaching transcend national, cultural, and disciplinary boundaries. Well known for introducing the concepts of everyday racism and gendered racism in the Netherlands and internationally, she also pioneered in developing theory on social and cultural cloning in the early 2000s. More recently she introduced the concepts of entitlement racism and racism knowledge.

About the Spinoza Lectures

Since 1995, the Philosophy Department of the University of Amsterdam has annually appointed a foreign philosopher to the Spinoza chair. As part of the appointment, the Spinoza professor gives a number of lectures intended for a broad audience that wants to stay informed about contemporary developments in philosophy. his year’s Spinoza lectures will pay tribute to Charles W. Mills, author of The Racial Contract (1999); Black Rights/White Wrongs; A Critique of Racial Liberalism (2017) and many other influential contibutions to political philosophy. His work has been foundational to the field of Critical Race Theory. Last autumn, Charles Mills died at the age of 70. He was to hold the Spinoza Chair in 2022. Professors Lewis R. Gordon and Philomena Essed have kindly accepted to speak in his place.