Benjamin Mueser

Benjamin Mueser is a Core Lecturer in Contemporary Civilization. Previously a Max Weber Fellow at the European University Institute in Florence, Italy (2020-2022), Dr. Mueser obtained a Ph.D. in political science from Columbia in 2021, specializing in political theory and international relations.

Dr. Mueser's research interests concern the relationship between land, sovereignty, and peoplehood in political theory and the history of ideas. His current research project focuses on the normative foundations of territorial states and intersects with the history of international political thought, state formation, and territorial rights. His book project, The Territorial Revolution in Political Thought: Building Bordered States in Early International Law, examines the transformation of European theories of territory from patrimonial lands to national collective property.

His work has been published in Global Intellectual History and History of Political Thought, and he has contributed to forums in the Cambridge Review of International Affairs and H-Diplo. 

Dr. Mueser is experienced in teaching political theory and the history of political thought in Columbia's flagship undergraduate course, Contemporary Western Civilization. The first semester of the course covers ancient Hellenistic thought through the Enlightenment, and the second semester covers the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. He has also taught introductory courses in justice, political theory, and international relations.