Professional Bio

Michael S. Merry is professor of philosophy in the department of Child Development and Education. He received a broad education in the humanities in Chicago, Leuven and New York before earning his doctorate by combining philosophy and educational policy studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He has been visiting fellow at several universities, including Bristol University, New York University and Brown University.

Though he writes on a wide variety of topics, and often through a comparative-international frame, he specializes in any of the following: the various features of educational injustice, both institutional and non-institutional; state paternalism and the ethics of intervention; the politics and epistemology of academic research; the ethics of school choice and school segregation, citizenship and civic education, religion and religious schools, and alternative education in its manifold forms.

In addition to scholarship, he frequently contributes to societal debates in Dutch, Belgian and other international media. Recent examples include:

Internationale vergelijkingen kunnen op verschillende manieren ook problematisch zijn. Knack  https://www.knack.be/opinie/internationale-vergelijkingen-kunnen-op-verschillende-manieren-ook-problematisch-zijn/

Waarom doen we zo weinig tegen discriminatie aan de universiteit? NRC Handelsblad  https://www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2024/08/04/waarom-doen-we-zo-weinig-tegen-discriminatie-aan-de-universiteit-a4861710

Nee, 20 miljard euro heeft ongelijkheid in onderwijs niet opgelost – en meer geld zal dat ook niet doen. De Volkskrant https://www.volkskrant.nl/columns-opinie/opinie-nee-20-miljard-euro-heeft-ongelijkheid-in-onderwijs-niet-opgelost-en-meer-geld-zal-dat-ook-niet-doen~b75842a49/

Is burgerschapsvorming een legitieme taak van de school? Knack  https://www.knack.be/nieuws/is-burgerschapsvorming-een-legitieme-taak-van-de-school/

Books authored

(2020)  Educational Justice: Liberal ideals, persistent inequality and the constructive uses of critique. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

(2013)  Equality, Citizenship and Segregation: A defense of separation. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

(2007)  Culture, Identity and Islamic Schooling: A philosophical approach. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Books edited

(2016) Maussen, M., Vermeulen, F., Bader, V., & Merry, M.  Religious Schools in Europe: institutional opportunitities and contemporary challenges (London: Routledge)

(2010) Merry, M. & Milligan, J.  Citizenship, Identity and Education in Muslim Communities: essays on attachment and obligation (New York: Palgrave Macmillan)

Selected Recent Publications

(2024) Can schools and libraries curb the functional illiteracy crisis? Insights from the Netherlands. Critical Studies in Education. Online Early. (with Rianne van Melik) https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17508487.2024.2418105?src=exp-la

(2023) The Public Library as Social Infrastructure: A Dutch illustration. Social and Cultural Geography 24 (5): 758-777 (with Rianne van Melik) https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14649365.2021.1965195

(2023) Caught in a choice quandary: What should an equity-minded parent do? Theory and Research in Education 21 (2): 155-175 https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/14778785231180469

(2023) Majority-minority Educational Success sans Integration: A comparative-international view. The Review of Black Political Economy 50 (2): 194-221 (with Orhan Agirdag) https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/00346446221120825

(2023) Democratic deliberation in the absence of integration. In The Cambridge Handbook of Democratic Education (pp. 230-249), J.Culp, D. Yacek & J. Drerup, eds. Cambridge University Press. https://philarchive.org/rec/MERDDI

(2021) What is an Appropriate Educational Response to Controversial Historical Monuments? Journal of Philosophy of Education 55 (3): 484-497 (with Anders Schinkel) https://academic.oup.com/jope/article/55/3/484/6821509

(2020) Educational Inequality and State-Sponsored Elite Schools: the case of the Dutch gymnasium. Comparative Education 56 (4): 522-546 (with Willem Boterman) https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03050068.2020.1771872

(2019) Should the Homeless be Forcibly Helped? Public Health Ethics 12 (1): 30-43 (with Bart Leeuwen) https://academic.oup.com/phe/article/12/1/30/4944889

Access to all of my publications can be found here:

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Michael-Merry-3

Inaugural lecture