CV

Below is my Curriculum Vitae. A pdf can be downloaded by clicking the icon in the top right.

General Information

Full Name Sjors Verhaak
Last Updated February 2026

Education

  • July 2026
    Ph.D., Cornell University, Department of Government
    • Dissertation: Imaginaries of Earth
    • Committee: Patchen Markell (Chair), Jill Frank, Alex Livingston
    • Fields: Political Theory (Major), Comparative Politics (Minor)
  • August 2022
    M.A., Cornell University, Department of Government
    • GPA: 3.90
  • May 2019
    B.A., The Ohio State University, Department of Political Science
    • Honors Research Thesis: "Normative Demonstration in Constitutional Democracy: An Expression of Political Love-Recognition"
    • GPA: 3.852

Teaching Experience

  • FA25
    Graduate Student Instructor
    First-Year Writing Seminar: Thinking Earth
  • SP23
    Graduate Student Instructor
    FWS: Politics and Nature
  • WI23
    Graduate Lecturer
    What Makes Us Human?
  • FA22
    Teaching Assistant
    American Political Thought
  • SU22-25, WI25-26
    Teaching Assistant
    What Makes Us Human?
  • SP22
    Teaching Assistant
    The U.S. Constitution
  • FA21
    Teaching Assistant
    Civil Disobedience
  • SP21
    Teaching Assistant
    Introduction to Political Theory
  • FA20
    Teaching Assistant
    Introduction to American Government and Politics

Awards, Grants, and Fellowships

  • AY24-25
    • Sage Dissertation Completion Fellowship (Cornell)
  • AY19-20
    • Sage Fellowship (Cornell)
  • 2019
    • Pi Sigma Alpha Member (Political Science Honor Society)
  • 2017-2019
    • Dean's List (OSU)

Conferences and Workshops

  • 2026 (Scheduled)
    Western Political Science Association Annual Meeting
    • Paper Presenter: "Towards a Democratic Theory of Confluential Earth Politics" (April 2026)
  • 2025
    Association for Political Theory Conference
    • Paper Presenter: "Figures of Gaia: Planetary Thinking Beyond Systems Theory" (Chicago, 2025)
  • 2025
    Cornell Faith & Environment Collective
    • Invited Presenter: "What makes a good environmentalist from a political perspective?" (Ithaca, 2025)
  • 2024
    American Political Science Association Annual Meeting
    • Paper Presenter: "Contestable Earth: On the Earth Community and the Rights of Nature Movement" (Philadelphia, 2024)
  • 2020, 2022, 2024
    Political Theory Workshop, Cornell University
    • Discussant: "Cis Goes Mainstream" (Perry Zurn, 2024)
    • Discussant: "Radical Democratic Theory of Expertise in the Context of the Anthropocene" (Ari-Elmeri Hyvönen, 2022)
    • Discussant: "With or against the State? Feminism, Prison Abolition, and the Pursuit of Justice" (Anna Terwiel, 2022)
    • Discussant: "The Nomos of the Eaarth [Sic]: Schmitt, Latour, and the Politics of Planetary Habitability" (Dan Zimmer, 2020)

Service

  • AY23-24
    International Relations Minor and Migration Studies Minor Coordinator
    • Coordinated advising and administrative support for undergraduate minors in International Relations and Migration Studies
    • Assisted with curriculum planning, course scheduling, and student outreach
    • Organized minor-related events and facilitated communication between faculty and administrative staff

Languages

  • English (native)
  • German, Dutch, and Latin (academic reading proficiency)