Nicole Peisajovich

Focus Areas: Democracy, Leadership, History of Political Thought

Nicole Peisajovich is a Lecturer in the Discipline of International and Public Affairs and serves as Faculty Director of Ethics for the core curriculum at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA). She specializes in democratic theory and the history of political thought, with a particular focus on leadership and twentieth-century theories of democracy.

In her current book project, The Puzzle of Leadership in Democratic Theory, she argues that post-war democratic theory has failed to provide a principled defense of leadership and offers a normative account of leadership as a constitutive element of a democratic regime.

Peisajovich received her Ph.D. in Political Science from Columbia University in 2025. Before moving to the United States, she worked in the public and nonprofit sectors in her home country of Argentina.

Education

• Ph.D. in Political Science, Columbia University
• M.A. in Global Thought, Columbia University
• B.A. in Political Science, Universidad Torcuato Di Tella