Michele Lamont, the Robert I. Goldman Professor of European Studies at Harvard University, has been awarded the 2017 Erasmus Prize from the Erasmus Foundation. The award is given to an individual for contributions to European culture, society, or social science. It is named after Desiderius Erasmus, a humanist of the Dutch Renaissance.
Professor Lamont was honored for her “devoted contribution to social science research in the relationship between knowledge, power, and diversity. She was honored at a ceremony in Amsterdam presided over by King Willem-Alexander of The Netherlands.
Professor Lamont joined the faculty at Harvard in 2003. Previously, she taught at Stanford University, the University of Texas at Austin and Princeton University. At Harvard, she also serves as a professor of sociology, a professor of African and African American studies, and as director of the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs.
Dr. Lamont is the co-author of Getting Respect: Responding to Stigma and Discrimination in the United States, Brazil, and Israel (Princeton University Press, 2016) and the author of How Professors Think: Inside the Curious World of Academic Judgment (Harvard University Press, 2009). She is past president of the American Sociological Association.
Professor Lamont holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in political science from the University of Ottawa in Canada. She earned a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Paris.