Willem Verhoeven specializes in (early)-modern intellectual history, and is particularly at home in the history and philosophy of the Enlightenment, as well as in the role of Enlightenment ideas in modern political and intellectual debates. In addition, he is currently pursuing an interest in American Pragmatism, particularly into theories of truth and accounts of democratic politics proposed by thinkers like John Dewey, Henry James, Richard Rorty and Hilary Putnam.

Originally trained as a historian at Utrecht University, Willem obtained a PhD at the Faculty of Philosophy, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen in 2020. After briefly lecturing at the RUG, Willem initially chose to pursue a career outside academia. However, in 2024 Willem decided to resume his academic career by joining the Political History section of the UU as a lecturer. Currently he is reworking his PhD thesis entitled Reasoning about Morality: the Empirical Turn in Early-Modern Philosophy into a book publication.