Alicja Gescinska

Alicja Gescinska is a Polish-Belgian writer and philosopher. She made her debut in 2011 with the award-winning book The Conquest of Freedom, an autobiographical and philosophical reflection on the meaning of freedom. She obtained her PhD in 2012 from Ghent University with a dissertation on Max Scheler and Karol Wojtyla. In 2016, her novel  A Kind of Love was published, which was awarded the Flemish Debut Prize. In the years that followed, she wrote several philosophical books on music and morality, and moral and political responsibility. She is also the author of the poetry collection Trojan Thoughts and the theatre monologue Apate Speaks. As an academic, Gescinska has worked in recent years at Princeton University, Amherst College and The University of Buckingham, among others. With her columns and op-ed contributions, she is a present voice in the public debate in Flanders and the Netherlands. Since 2022, she has been president of the writers' organization PEN Flanders. In the same year, she was appointed Commander in the Order of Leopold. In 2025, her novella 'De Gezichtlozen' was published.