Verena Erlenbusch-Anderson

I am a critical theorist whose work is situated at the intersection of political theory, philosophy, history, and conflict/terrorism studies.

My primary research focus is the development of an empirically grounded and philosophically rigorous account of terrorism useful for contemporary analysis. My current book project combines the tools of Critical Race scholarship and philosophical genealogy to trace changing formations of terrorism in the context of the historical mutations of U.S. white supremacy from the founding to the present.

In my first book, Genealogies of Terrorism: Revolution, State Terror, Empire (Columbia University Press, 2018), I draw on a wide range of archives from the French Revolution to late-imperial Russia, colonized Algeria, and post-9/11 United States, to show that terrorism is a historically constituted composite concept that is overlaid by a multiplicity of meanings and uses. Its main function is to articulate contextually specific and variable forms of enmity that allow for the establishment of pervasive networks of power aimed at the protection and defense of the social body.

In addition to my work on terrorism, I'm interested in questions of method in political theory, with a special emphasis on archival and interpretive methods. I've also written about various aspects of Michel Foucault's work and about diversity and inclusion in the academy.

With Colin Koopman, I run the Critical Genealogies Workshop, a support group, so to speak, for practicing genealogists. With Alex Livingston, I direct a CNY Humanities Corridor working group on Genealogy in the Humanities. With Yannik Thiem, I co-direct the Book Selection Advisory Committee for the Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy (SPEP). With Amy Allen, Eduardo Mendieta, Kevin Olson, and Max Pensky, I serve on the steering committee for the Critical Theory Roundtable.

I'm the Review Editor for Political Theory, a co-editor for Foucault Studies, and serve as a member of the Editorial Boards for Contemporary Political Theory, GENEALOGY+CRITIQUE (formerly Le foucaldien), and the Bloomsbury book series Critical Theory and the Critique of Society.