Interview with Prof. Dr. Wendy Harcourt, the winner of the FAME Athena Award 2025

The FAME Athena Award was presented to Prof. Dr. Wendy Harcourt during the Dies Natalis by Chief Diversity Officer, prof. dr. Jane Murray Cramm, and Vice-President of the Executive Board of EUR, dr. Ellen van Schoten RA. We interviewed Wendy about her work, about winning the award and about challenges women face.

What does winning this award mean to you?

'I am delighted at winning the award because it recognises the important work women do in creating and holding space for other women in our university, particularly students, PhD candidates and early career researchers. I think the role of mentoring and providing caring leadership - which this award recognises - is very important. I would emphasise the need for care in higher education as this is a vital ingredient to create a community of learning where everyone is listened to and respected. I am very glad that this, I would dare to say feminine, aspect of leadership is valued through the award.'

In your work, what are you most proud of?

'That I coordinated an innovative training project Wellbeing Ecology Gender cOmmunity (WEGO) with 15 PhDs funded by the EU Horizon 2020. Despite it being held during Covid we managed to complete many activities, including two collectively edited books on feminist methodologies and feminist political ecology. These two books were Open Access and have had respectively 150,000 and 130,000 downloads. I have put what I learnt from that experience about caring teaching and research and ethics in my next book Conundrums of Care, to be published by Routledge this December.'

What do you see as a challenge for women at our university?

'A major challenge is the current gender back lash in funding for projects that are looking at critical issues for gender equality such as women’s knowledge production, gender power relations, reproductive health and sexuality, and recognising that a gender lens is important for all aspects of study. It is important that we do not give into popularism that is undermining the important research, done mostly by women, in this area. I consider that at our university we have done important work through amongst others FAME to keep the focus on gender and intersectionality and we cannot afford to lose that perspective.'

Is there something you would like to say to inspire other women at our university?

'Don’t fall into the trap of the academic imposter syndrome. Your views and knowledge deserve to be heard and will make a difference.'