Dr W.W.H. Cornelissen (Wout)

Wout Cornelissen is appointed as Assistant Professor (tenured) of Philosophy of Law.

My research is devoted to the critical-philosophical reflection on:
(i) the meaning, origins, and adequacy of concepts we use in order to understand political, legal, and social phenomena and experiences, and respond to political, legal, and social questions;
(ii) the nature, foundations, and histories of this form of reflection.

I focus on the work of Hannah Arendt (1906-1975) specifically. I am co-editor of the new, critical edition of Arendt's The Life of the Mind, on thinking, willing, and judging, which was published in 2024 (see ‘Projects’).

I currently teach a course on the philosophical question of (dis)obedience to the law. Previously, I offered courses in philosophy of law, political philosophy, and their histories; philosophies of migration; philosophies of labor and work; phenomenology; existential philosophy; Critical Theory.

In the summer semester of 2022 I served as a visiting professor in the history of philosophy in the Institute for Philosophy of the FU Berlin, where I was previously appointed as a wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter (DFG). Earlier, I was Research Assistant Professor of German and Lecturer in Philosophy and Political Science at Vanderbilt University, postdoctoral researcher (NWO) in the Department of Philosophy of Utrecht University, Hannah Arendt Center Postdoctoral Fellow and Visiting Assistant Professor of Humanities at Bard College, and Visiting Assistant Professor of Philosophy of Law at VU Amsterdam.

I hold a doctorate from the Institute for Philosophy of the Faculty of Humanities of Leiden University. My dissertation was devoted to a critical examination of the relation between philosophy and politics. For the purpose of this research, I spent one term as a visiting scholar at the University of Chicago. I studied philosophy at Radboud University, specializing in philosophy of law, political philosophy, and ancient philosophy.