Frank Gerits

Dr. Frank Gerits is Assistant Professor of International History at Utrecht University and Research Fellow at the International Studies Group, University of the Free State, South Africa. He specializes in the international history of Global North-South relations, focusing on climate justice, existential risks (climate change, pandemics, extinction), and ideological dimensions of decolonization. A graduate of the European University Institute (PhD, 2014), he has held academic positions at NYU, the University of Amsterdam, and Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, and serves as Senior Editor for History and International Relations at the European Journal of American Studies.

Research Interests: Gerits' work interrogates how ideological frameworks shape global responses to existential risks. His first book, The Ideological Scramble for Africa (Cornell, 2023), examines Cold War-era ideological competition over postcolonial Africa. He co-founded UU Decolonisation Group (now part of UU Centre for Global Challenges) and leads two research collectives: The Political Environment (environmental politics) and Network on Anticolonial Thought (Netherlands-wide collaboration).

Prominent Research Themes:

• Climate Justice as ideological construct
• Historiography of decolonization
• Postcolonial security frameworks
• Belgian/Netherlands colonial legacies
• Cultural Cold War diplomacy
• Non-Aligned Movement and African unity

Scientific Awards:

• National Research Foundation of South Africa Scarce Skills-Innovation Postdoctoral Fellowship (2016-2018)
• Agnese N. Haury Postdoctoral Scholarship (2015, NYU)

Grants:

• NWO Open Competition Project (2023-2024): 'Moral Empire: Belgium and the Global South, 1830-2020'
• AHRC Development Grant (2020-2023): 'Regionalism in East Africa'
• University of Padova Project (2024-2026): 'African Non-Alignment and Environmental Justice'

Public Engagement: Gerits contributes to public debates through op-eds in NRC Handelsblad, The Washington Post, and Belgian outlets, appearing on VPRO Radio and AlJazeera. His work has been featured in Aeon, The Conversation, and Africa is a Country.