Hello! I am an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the Rochester Institute of Technology. My work focuses on conceptual and methodological problems in the science of animal minds and their implications for the treatment of nonhuman animals.
I am currently working on three distinct but overlapping projects. The first of these examines how simplicity preferences shape scientific research, especially in comparative cognition; the second considers the value of intervention in experiment; and the third investigates what invertebrates like bees, jumping spiders, and octopuses can teach us about the evolution of mind and moral value. This latter project is supported by a collaborative grant from the Templeton World Charity Foundation, titled Minds Without Spines: Uncovering the Deep Structure of Mind, Meaning, and Morality (PI: Russell Powell, Co-PIs: Kristin Andrews and Allen Buchanan).
I received my Ph.D. from Boston University in 2014 under the supervision of Alisa Bokulich and Colin Allen (Pittsburgh), following which I held the McDonnell Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Philosophy-Neuroscience-Psychology (PNP) Program at Washington University in St. Louis and a Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Berlin School of Mind and Brain at Humboldt University in Berlin, Germany. Most recently, I was a Visiting Fellow in the Philosophy and Religion Department at Northeastern University.
Photo: Death Valley, CA.