I am associate professor of political theory in the Dept. of Political Science, Univ. of Amsterdam, and an affiliated researcher in the Justice and Migration project at KU Leuven. Between 2009-2014 and 2015-2021, I worked at KU Leuven, Institute of Philosophy - funded by PhD and postdoctoral fellowships of the Research Foundation (FWO)-Flanders. In between, I taught at the LSE, Dept. of Government. In 2014, KU Leuven awarded me a PhD in philosophy (summa cum laude); I also hold degrees in philosophy (BA, MA), history (BA, MA), and political science (BA) from Leiden University.

A trained political theorist, analytic philosopher, and intellectual historian, my research specialisms are in early modern moral, legal, and political philosophy; contemporary theories of justice, rights, and property; and international legal and political theory (incl. the ethics of migration, war, and human rights). I have lately been working on the place of slavery in early modern philosophy and on the ethics of compulsory prison labour. Much of my research has a conceptual focus. My first monograph, entitled Hobbes on Justice, was published with OUP. Together with Robin Douglass (KCL), I have edited the Cambridge Critical Guide to Hobbes’s On the Citizen. A founding member of the European Hobbes Society, I have convened its first two biennial conferences (in 2016 and 2018).

My research has been supported by grants and fellowships from, among others, the NWO, FWO, NIAS, and Humboldt Stiftung. Over the years, I have presented 40 different research papers at over 80 academic events across 25 countries. I have been a visiting student/researcher at the Universities of Yale, Oxford, Boston, Berkeley, Paris-1-Sorbonne/Panthéon, British Columbia, Pompeu Fabra, Stellenbosch, and London (Queen Mary and KCL). In addition to several introductions to political theory and the history of political thought, I have taught courses on historical injustice; political legitimacy; migration; human rights; private property; norms of armed conflict; and self-determination in a postcolonial world.