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Professor of Comparative Social Policy in relation to Social Inequalities, Utrecht University

Mara A. Yerkes is Full Professor of Comparative Social Policy in relation to Social Inequalities at the Department of Interdisciplinary Social Science, Utrecht University, the Netherlands and Research Associate at the Center for Social Development in Africa at the University of Johannesburg, South Africa. She obtained her PhD at the University of Amsterdam in 2006. Her research centres on the two broad themes of comparative social policy, social inequalities and their interplays. In relation to social policy, Yerkes comparatively researches welfare states at national and local levels and industrial relations as well. In relation to social inequalities, Yerkes’ research interests include inequalities related to work, care, communities and families, in particular in relation to gender, generations, and sexual orientation. Yerkes is the principal investigator of the European Research Council (ERC) project CAPABLE, a comparative study on gender inequalities in work-life balance in eight European countries, and of CoGIS-NL (COVID19 Gender (In)equality Survey Netherlands), a longitudinal research project involving researchers from Utrecht University and Radboud University Nijmegen. She is currently co-chair of the European Social Policy Analysis Network (ESPAnet) and joint editor of the journal Community, Work and Family.

Yerkes is the author of five books, including Transforming the Dutch Welfare State: Social Risks and Corporatist Reform (2011; Policy Press), and co-editor of The Transformation of Solidarity. Changing Risks and the Future of the Welfare State (2011; Amsterdam University Press), Social Policy and the Capability Approach (2019; Policy Press), Solidarity and Social Justice in Contemporary Societies: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Understanding Social Inequalities (Palgrave, 2022), and Social Policy in Changing European Societies: Research Agendas for the 21st Century (Edward Elgar, 2022). She has published a wide range of book chapters and articles, in journals such as Community, Work and Family; European Journal of Industrial Relations; Gender, Work and Organization; Journal of Comparative Welfare Studies; Journal of European Social Policy; Journal of Social Policy; Journal of Sociology; PlosOne; Policy and Politics; Social Policy and Administration, and is the author of the Social Policy entry for Oxford University Press’s Online Bibliographies in Sociology.

Experience

  • –present
    Associate Professor, Utrecht University

Education

  • 2006 
    University of Amsterdam, PhD