Verdeja joins Department of Government and College of Social Studies

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