Elisabeth Widmer works in the history of philosophy and political theory, with a focus on the neo-Kantian tradition of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Drawing on Kant, the thinkers she studies took up questions of social justice and argued for democratic republican government as the answer to the deepening economic inequality of their era.

Before joining Rice University in 2026, Widmer earned her Ph.D. from the University of Vienna in 2022 and held postdoctoral positions at the University of Oslo and the London School of Economics and Political Science.