Gloria Daisy Wekker (born June 13, 1950) is an

Afro-Surinamese Afro-Surinamese are the inhabitants of Suriname of Sub-Saharan African ancestry. They are descended from enslaved Africans brought to work on sugar plantations. Many of them escaped the plantations and formed independent settlements together, bec ...

Dutch emeritus professor (

Utrecht University Utrecht University (UU; nl, Universiteit Utrecht, formerly ''Rijksuniversiteit Utrecht'') is a public research university in Utrecht, Netherlands. Established , it is one of the oldest universities in the Netherlands. In 2018, it had an enrollm ...

) and writer who has focused on gender studies and sexuality in the Afro-Caribbean region and diaspora. She was the winner of the Ruth Benedict Prize from the

American Anthropological Association The American Anthropological Association (AAA) is an organization of scholars and practitioners in the field of anthropology. With 10,000 members, the association, based in Arlington, Virginia, includes archaeologists, cultural anthropologists, ...

in 2007.

Biography

Gloria Wekker was born in 1950 in

Paramaribo Paramaribo (; ; nicknamed Par'bo) is the capital and largest city of Suriname, located on the banks of the Suriname River in the Paramaribo District. Paramaribo has a population of roughly 241,000 people (2012 census), almost half of Suriname's po ...

, Suriname. Her family migrated to the Netherlands when she was a one year old infant and lived in a neighborhood in Amsterdam that had formerly been predominantly Jewish prior to WWI. She returned to Amsterdam in the 1970s and became active in the Afro-European Women’s Movement. Wekker earned a master's degree in cultural anthropology from the

University of Amsterdam The University of Amsterdam (abbreviated as UvA, nl, Universiteit van Amsterdam) is a public research university located in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The UvA is one of two large, publicly funded research universities in the city, the other bein ...

in 1981 and began her career working in various governmental agencies in Amsterdam, such as the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Culture on Ethnic Minorities' Affairs and the Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment. In 1984, she became a founding member of "Sister Outsider", an Amsterdam-based, literary circle for lesbian black women named after the work by

Audre Lorde Audre Lorde (; born Audrey Geraldine Lorde; February 18, 1934 – November 17, 1992) was an American writer, womanist, radical feminist, professor, and civil rights activist. She was a self-described "black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet," who ...

. In 1987, she served as a Policy Associate in the Office for the Coordination of Ethnic Minorities' Affairs. In 1992, Wekker earned her doctorate at the

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California ...

with a thesis on the sexuality and subjectivity of Afro-Surinamese women. In 2001, she was appointed to the Aletta-chair of the Department of Women's Studies at the

. Her work focuses on the intersections of colonialism, racism,

white privilege White privilege, or white skin privilege, is the Social privilege, societal privilege that benefits white people over Person of color, non-white people in some societies, particularly if they are otherwise under the same social, political, or ...

, feminist theory, lesbian theory and women in the Caribbean. Her work has earned her the title of "Holland’s

Angela Davis Angela Yvonne Davis (born January 26, 1944) is an American political activist, philosopher, academic, scholar, and author. She is a professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz. A feminist and a Marxist, Davis was a longtime member of ...

" as she has forced the Dutch to examine their alleged ingrained stereotypes and attitudes towards racism and patriarchy. She has led debate which questioned the racist nature of such iconic images in Dutch tradition as

Sinterklaas Sinterklaas () or Sint-Nicolaas () is a legendary figure based on Saint Nicholas, patron saint of children. Other Dutch names for the figure include ''De Sint'' ("The Saint"), ''De Goede Sint'' ("The Good Saint") and ''De Goedheiligman'' ("The ...

(

Santa Claus Santa Claus, also known as Father Christmas, Saint Nicholas, Saint Nick, Kris Kringle, or simply Santa, is a legendary figure originating in Western Christian culture who is said to bring children gifts during the late evening and overnigh ...

)'s helpers as

blackface Blackface is a form of theatrical makeup used predominantly by non-Black people to portray a caricature of a Black person. In the United States, the practice became common during the 19th century and contributed to the spread of racial stereo ...

golliwogs The golliwog, also spelled golliwogg or shortened to golly, is a doll-like character – created by cartoonist and author Florence Kate Upton – that appeared in children's books in the late 19th century, usually depicted as a type of rag ...

known as ''

Zwarte Piet Zwarte Piet (; lb, Schwaarze Péiter, fy, Swarte Pyt), also known in English by the translated name Black Pete, is the companion of Saint Nicholas ( nl, Sinterklaas, fy, Sinteklaas, lb, Kleeschen) in the folklore of the Low Countries. The ...

'' (Black Pete), as well as the imagery of what constitutes beauty. Wekker was nominated in 2004 for the Dutch Scientific Research Council's "Triomfprijs" (Triumph prize). In 2006, her book ''The Politics of Passion: Women's Sexual Culture in the Afro-Surinamese Diaspora'' won critical praise and was awarded with the 2007 Ruth Benedict Prize from the American Anthropological Association. Wekker gave the 2009 Mosse Lecture, titled ''Van Homo Nostalgie en betere tijden. Multiculturaliteit en postkolonialiteit'' (''On Gay Nostalgia and better times. Multiculturalism and postcolonialism''). In 2011, she began a sabbatical to work at the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Studies on a research project, which resulted in the publication in 2016 of ''White Innocence: Paradoxes of Colonialism and Race''. In this book, Wekker utilizes a scavenger methodology by "work ngwith interviews, watching TV and reading novels, analyzing email correspondence..." in order to develop a clear understanding of the

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People ...

cultural archive. Because of her work with both sociology and policy, Wekker led an international committee which was appointed at the University of Amsterdam in 2015 to increase diversity at the university. The committee published their findings in the report ''Let's do diversity'' in 2016.

Selected works

* * * * * * * * * * * *

References

Sources

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Catalogus Professorum Academiae Rheno-Traiectinae
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wekker, Gloria 1950 births Black feminism Dutch anti-racism activists Dutch feminists Living people People from Paramaribo Gender studies academics White culture scholars Women educators 20th-century Dutch women writers 21st-century Dutch women writers University of Amsterdam alumni University of California, Davis alumni Utrecht University faculty Feminist writers Surinamese emigrants to the Netherlands Surinamese women writers Women human rights activists