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Ernesto
Verdeja joined the Department of Government and College of Social Studies as
an assistant professor of government in August 2004.
”I was
attracted to Wesleyan because of its reputation for promoting research and
teaching among its faculty,” he says. "And the students are fantastic.”
Verdeja
earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of Texas at Austin and his
master’s and Ph.D in political science/political theory from the New School for Social Research in New York
City. His dissertation, which Verdeja is
turning into a book manuscript, focuses on reconciliation after mass
political atrocity.
“In it,
I try to conceptualize the requirements for a theoretically satisfactory
model of societal reconciliation that is also empirically possible,” he
says. “I do this by looking at the role of truth commissions and trials, as
well as the role of political and civil society actors.”
Verdeja’s main areas of interest are in modern and contemporary political
theory, with a strong focus on issues of justice in transitional societies,
meaning societies that are emerging from a recent history of political
violence. He is currently writing two articles, one on public apologies for
mass violence, and a second on reparations for victims of violence.
Verdeja
anticipates teaching courses in political theory as well as more specialized
classes on transitional justice, mass violence and justice and
reconciliation.
Verdeja lives in New
Haven, and enjoys listening to music and playing guitar in his free time |
