Aemann McCornack is a fourth-year PhD candidate in the Department of Politics with an interest in political theory, comparative politics, and comparative political thought. Their dissertation studies the intellectual history of ancient autocracies, which examines the ways in which political actors — advisors close to tyrants, citizens subjugated by tyrannical rules, and tyrants' self-confessions regarding the flaws of their institutions — recounted, constituted, justified, criticized, and so textualized the lived reality of one-person rule, that is, "sole rulership," in the late Warring States period in Early China (453–221 BCE) and in Classical Greece (480–323 BCE). Their work is published (forthcoming) under the journal Polis: The Journal for Ancient Greek and Roman Political Thought, titled "Inegalitarian Institutional Design in Late Plato: Synousiai as ‘Festive Gathering’ and ‘Epistemic Colloquium’ in the Minos and the Laws."

Aemann is a current recipient of the Graduate Prize Fellow under UCHV. They hold a B.A. in Classics and Politics (Double Major) from Reed College (summa cum laude).