Professor Maartje van der Woude wins Theoretical Criminology Best Article Prize
Maartje van der Woude, together with Dr Irene Vega, has won the 2024 Theoretical Criminology Best Article Prize for the article ‘Colourblindness across borders: The de-racialised logics of Dutch and American border agents’ in the journal Theoretical Criminology.
The article was published in Theoretical Criminology, an internationally recognized leading journal that is renowned for advancing theoretical debates and conceptual research within criminology. Dr Vega and Professor van der Woude have been collaborating for quite some time on the topic of borders, and border enforcement in particular. They focus mainly on how border enforcement is carried out and the implications this has for citizens and society at large.
The complicated relationship between race and border control
The award-winning article sheds a critical light on the de-racialized yet simultaneously racially charged logic underlying the practices of border guards in the Netherlands and the United States. The research behind the article demonstrates how the systems within which border guards operate maintain structural inequalities under the guise of neutrality. The article exemplifies the Van Vollenhoven Institute’s dedication to interdisciplinary research and makes an important contribution to both national and global debates on race, justice, and social regulation.
Award
The article was selected by the editorial team of this prestigious journal, including editors, associate editors, and book reviewers, after a thorough evaluation of all publications from 2024. This prestigious prize celebrates contributions that advance critical debate within theoretical criminology, with an emphasis on originality, clarity, and ambition.
The prize will be officially announced in the editorial introduction to the first issue of Theoretical Criminology in February 2025, along with a summary of the article. Additionally, the article will be featured in the journal’s special section for prize-winning articles on its website.
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