Dr. Philomena Essed

Dr. Philomena Essed joined the Antioch University (USA) PhD Program as Professor of Critical Race, Gender & Leadership Studies beginning Summer 2005. Philomena is an international and interdisciplinary scholar with a deep interest in the combination of theory-practice.

She is the author of Everyday Racism: Reports from Women of Two Cultures (Hunter House, 1990); Understanding Everyday Racism: An Interdisciplinary Theory (Sage, 1991) and Diversity: Gender, Color, and Culture (University of Massachusetts Press, 1996). Other books include the co-edited volumes Race Critical Theories: Text and Context (Blackwell, 2002); Refugees & Transformation Of Societies: Agency, Policies, Ethics and Politics (Studies in Forced Migration) (Berghahn 2004) and A Companion to Gender Studies (Blackwell Companions in Cultural Studies) (Blackwell 2005; CHOICE outstanding academic title, 2005).

In progress are, Cloning Cultures, which examines the privileging of certain homogeneities and cultures, and Humanizing Leadership, a long-term study based on life narratives of (women???s) alternative practices of power and social change. Philomena is affiliated researcher of Utrecht University’s, Research Institute Culture and History, Graduate Gender Program. She has been involved in disability and diversity research and in gender policy development in the Netherlands.

She advises on the implementation of European nondiscrimination law as (deputy) member of the Dutch Equal Treatment Commission. Philomena participates in studies of identity and equity interventions in South Africa and she continues to support scholarship and policy efforts on behalf of women, immigrants and minorities in Europe and the United Sates.

Before coming to Antioch, she held a tenured position as Senior Researcher at the University of Amsterdam and Visiting Professor at the University of California, Irvine. She earned her PhD in Social Science from the University of Amsterdam (1990, cum laude).