Prof. J. (Judi) Mesman - Council member, professor of Social Responsibility and Impact at Leiden University

Judi Mesman studied Psychology in Leiden. In 2000, she obtained a doctorate in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry from Erasmus University Rotterdam. She then returned to Leiden to continue her academic career at the Institute of Education and Child Studies where she became a full professor in 2009 and also served as scientific director. After this, she moved to Leiden University College in The Hague, of which she was dean for a period of six years.

Mesman has conducted research into the role of gender and culture in parenting. In recent years, her research has focused on social justice and injustice from an intergenerational perspective. In addition, she teaches a course in Intercultural Pedagogy. As a scientist, she believes that it is important to share her research outcomes with policymakers and the general public. Accordingly, she regularly seeks a platform through public speaking, podcasts, blogs and appearances in the media. This approach was part of the reason why she was awarded the Dutch Research Council (NWO)’s Stevin Prize in 2021. Mesman has been a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) since 2018. She engages in various ancillary activities in the youth and culture sectors.

Request for an interview or speech?

Would you like to invite Mesman for an interview or as a speaker? Email your request to secretariaat@wrr.nl.

Additional positions/roles

Unpaid:

• Chair of the Advisory Committee on Appointments of the Council for Culture
• Chair of the Supervisory Board of Edukans
• Chair of the Advisory Committee on Grants of the Culture Fund
• Vice-chair of the Praemium Erasmianum foundation
• Member of the Supervisory Board of the Netherlands Youth Institute
• Member of the National Advisory Council for Diverse and Inclusive Higher Education and Research

Other recent scientific non-WRR publications

• Mesman, J. (2025). Ethnic-racial identities and leadership strategies in the Dutch (semi-)public sector: Conforming and resisting, resilience and vulnerability. Social Identities. Doi: 10.1080/13504630.2025.2587019. Advance online publication.
• Mesman, J. (2025). An Intergenerational Justice Approach to the Sustainable Support of Migrant Children. The Oxford Handbook of Child-centred Approaches to Migrant Children, pages 149–166.
• Mesman, J., de Bruijn, Y., van Veen, D., Pektas, F. & Emmen, R. A. (2022). Maternal color-consciousness is related to more positive and less negative attitudes toward ethnic‐racial outgroups in children in White Dutch families. Child Development, 93(3), 668–680.
• Mesman, J. & Emmen, R.A.G. (2021). Cultural perspectives on parenting. V.A. Weekes-Shackelford & T.K. Shackelford (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Evolutionary Psychology and Parenting, pages 97–114. New York: Oxford University Press.
• Mesman, J., Minter, T., Angnged, A., Cissé, I. A. H., Salali, G. D. & Migliano, A. B. (2017). Universality without uniformity: A culturally inclusive approach to sensitive responsiveness in infant caregiving. Child Development, 89(3), 837–850. Doi: 10.1111/cdev.12795
• Mesman, J. & Groeneveld, M. G. (2018). Gendered parenting in early childhood: Subtle but unmistakable when you know where to look. Child Development Perspectives, 12(1), 22–27.