Professional Bio

Michael S. Merry is professor of philosophy in the faculty of social and behavioral sciences. Before entering the strange world of academia, he spent years as a laborer in a warehouse, a brickyard, a concrete plant, a waste management company, and also worked as a landscaper, a dishwasher, a roofer, a truck driver and a nighttime security officer. In the 1990s, he received a formal education in the humanities in Atlanta, Chicago, Leuven and New York, and also studied informally for brief periods in England, France and Switzerland. Then, after some years of teaching, he earned his doctorate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Over the years he has been visiting fellow at several universities, including Bristol University, New York University and Brown University.

He is a frequent contributor to societal debates in Dutch, Belgian and other international media on a wide range of subjects. His social criticism has appeared in the pages of De Volkskrant, Trouw, De Morgen, NRC Handelsblad, De Groene Amsterdammer, The Progressive, Knack, Bij Nader Inzien, Philosophie, Het Parool, Folia, Quillette, Sociale Vraagstukken, Joop, Scienceguide, Didactief, Phronesis, DRS-Magazine, as well as other digital media such as AT5 and Verus. 

Though he writes on a wide variety of issues, and often through a comparative-international frame, he specializes in any of the following:

• educational injustice, both institutional and non-institutional;
• the historical and philosophical foundations of education;
• the cultural and economic features of social exclusion;
• state paternalism and the class-based biases of family intervention;
• the politics and epistemology of academic research;
• ethical misconduct in the university;
• the geography of neighborhood and school segregation;
• the legitimacy problems of citizenship and civic education;
• both religious and secular forms of indoctrination;
• the ethics of teaching and school quality monitoring;
• ethical questions related to parenting and childrearing; 
• alternative education in its manifold forms, particularly of a communitarian sort.

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)

(2012) Merry, M, Oulali, I, Steutel, J. & Levering, B. Segregatie in onderwijs en samenleving (Amsterdam: SWP).

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

Recent Publications

Self-determination on indigenous terms: Tribal colleges as institutional site of healing and resilience. Tribal College and University Research Journal 8: 41-63 (with Cynthia Lindquist).  https://collegefund.org/research/tcurj/

When should the patriot abandon their country? Public Affairs Quarterly 39 (3): 260-282. (with Alfred Archer).  https://www.press.uillinois.edu/journals/?id=paq

Can schools and libraries curb the functional illiteracy crisis? Insights from the Netherlands. Critical Studies in Education 67 (1): 1-20 (with Rianne van Melik). https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17508487.2024.2418105?src=exp-la

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

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

Should the homeless be forcibly helped? Public Health Ethics 12 (1): 30-43 (with Bart van Leeuwen). https://academic.oup.com/phe/article/12/1/30/4944889

Community, virtue and the white British poor. Dialogues in Human Geography 6 (1): 50-68 (with David Manley & Richard Harris).  https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2043820615624603

Do inclusion policies deliver educational justice for children with autism? An ethical analysis. Journal of School Choice 14 (1): 9-25. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15582159.2019.1644126

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

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

Caught in a school 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?_gl=1*1lbrec6*_up*MQ..*_ga*MTE1MDI0MjMzNy4xNzgyODk5NDAx*_ga_60R758KFDG*czE3ODI4OTk0MDEkbzEkZzEkdDE3ODI5MDA1ODIkajYwJGwxJGgyMDE4NzM0Mjg4

Access to all of my publications can be found here:

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

Inaugural lecture