CV

(Full CV available here as a PDF.)

APPOINTMENTS  

Mount Holyoke College

Professor, Department of Philosophy. 2024 — ongoing 

Associate Professor, Department of Philosophy, 2020 — 2024.

Assistant Professor, Department of Philosophy, 2017 — 2020.

University of Massachusetts at Amherst

Affiliate Graduate Faculty, Department of Philosophy, 2019 — ongoing.

Brown University

Assistant Professor, Department of Philosophy, 2013 — 2017.

EDUCATION    

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Ph.D. in Philosophy, 2012.

Dissertation: ‘Chance, Indeterminacy, and Explanation’. Committee: Brad Skow, Robert Stalnaker, Ned Hall.

Cornell University

B.A. in Physics, Philosophy, 2005. Summa Cum Laude.

Oxford University

Visiting student in Physics and Philosophy. 2003-2004.

AREAS OF SPECIALIZATION  

Metaphysics, Philosophy of Science, Philosophy of Physics.

AREAS OF COMPETENCE

Epistemology, Applied Ethics, Logic & Critical Reasoning

HONORS & AWARDS    

• The American Philosophical Associations Anthony J. Lisska Prize for Excellence in Research and Teaching at Small Liberal Arts Colleges. 2023.

• President of the Philosophy of Time Society. 2023 - 2026.

• Finalist, American Philosophical Association Prize for Excellence in Philosophy Teaching. 2022.

• Mount Holyoke Faculty Teaching Award. 2022.

• Marion and Jasper Whiting Foundation Fellowship. 2022.

• President of the Society for the Metaphysics of Science. 2022 - 2023.

• Distinguished Faculty Teaching Fellow. Mount Holyoke College. 2021-2022.

• Visiting Fellowship at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Spring 2017.

• Henry Merritt Wriston Fellowship. Brown University. 2016 — 2017.

• The Harriet W. Sheridan Center for Teaching and Learning, Junior Faculty Teaching Fellow. Brown University. 2014 — 2015.

PUBLICATIONS    

BOOKS

• Naturalism Beyond the Limits of Science. Oxford University Press. 2023.

PAPERS

• ‘Metaphysical Emergence within Physics: Wilson’s Degrees of Freedom Account.’ Argumenta. Forthcoming

• 'The Explanatory Role Argument and the Metaphysics of Deterministic Chance‘. Levels of Explanation, Katie Robertson and Alastair Wilson (eds.) Forthcoming.

• 'Quantum Correlations and the Explanatory Power of Radical Metaphysical Hypotheses.’ Philosophical Studies. Forthcoming.

• ‘The Governing Conception of Laws.’ Ergo. Forthcoming.

• ‘Mooreanism in Metaphysics from Mooreanism in Physics.’ Inquiry. Forthcoming.

• ‘The Governing Conception of the Wavefunction.’ Quantum Mechanics and Fundamentality, Valia Allori (ed). Forthcoming

• ‘Temporal Ersatzism and Relativity.’ Australasian Journal of Philosophy. 2021.

• ‘Laws of Nature.’ Routledge Handbook of Metaphysical Grounding, Mike Raven (ed). 2021.

• ‘Chance and Determinism.’ Routledge Companion to Philosophy of Physics. Alastair Wilson and Eleanor Knox (eds). 2021.

• ‘Time.’ The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 2020. (Co-authored work with Ned Markosian and Meghan Sullivan.)

• ‘Laws and their instances.’ Philosophical Studies. 2019.

• ‘Actualism without Presentism? Not by way of the Relativity Objection.’ Nous. 2018.

• 'Actualism, Presentism and the Grounding Objection.’ Erkenntnis. 2018.

• ‘Against Radical Quantum Ontologies.’ Philosophy and Phenomenological Research. 2017.

• ‘A Naturalist’s Guide to Objective Chance.’ Philosophy of Science. 2017.

• ‘Temporal Ersatzism.’ Philosophy Compass. 2017.

• ‘Impossible Worlds and Metaphysical Explanation: Comments on Kment’s Modality and Explanatory Reasoning.’ Analysis. 2016. (Co-authored work with Christopher Hill, Brown University.)

• ‘The Metaphysical Consequences of Counterfactual Skepticism.’ Philosophy and Phenomenological Research. 2015.

• ‘Chance, Possibility, and Explanation.’ The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science. 2015.

BOOK REVIEWS & OTHER SCHOLARSHIP

• 'Review of Hütteman, A Minimal Metaphysics for Scientific Practice.' Forthcoming. Philosophical Review.

• 'Review of Alastair Wilson (ed.), Chance and Temporal Asymmetry.’ Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews. 2015.

• 'What is chance?' (A Wireless Philosophy video.)

• 'Compatibilism about Chance and Determinism.' (An entry for Auxiliary Hypotheses, the blog of the British Journal for the Philosophy of Science.)

• ‘A Middle Ground for Metaphysics.’ (A contribution to Meena Krishnamurthy's Featured Philosop-her blog series.)

IN PROGRESS

BOOK PROJECTS

• Philosophical Issues in Quantum Theory. (Co-authored work with Ned Hall.) (Under contract with Oxford University Press.)

• Routledge Companion to Philosophy of Time. (Under contract with Routledge.)

PAPERS

• Configuration Space Realism & Fundamentality (co-authored work with Gabrielle Kerbel)

SELECTED RECENT PRESENTATIONS

'Metaphysical Arguments from Temporal Experience'

• 9th Annual International Association for the Philosophy of Time in Lugano, Switzerland. June 2024.

‘Naturalism Beyond the Limits of Science’

• Duke University. November 2023.

• Rutgers University. October 2023.

• As the Presidential Address at the Society for the Metaphysics of Science Conference. August 2023.

• The From Science to Metaphysics? Workshop at UC Louvain, Belgium. May 2023.

• University of Maryland. October 2022.

• University of Leeds. May 2022.

• University of Wisconsin at Madison. March 2022.

• As an invited session of the Eastern APA on metaphysics of science. January 2021.

‘Self-grading in the Philosophy Classroom’ at the Eastern APA teaching hub session on alternative grading. January 2022.

‘Configuration Space Realism and Fundamentality’

• As a symposium session at the Pacific APA. 2022.

• The Nature of Quantum Objects Conference at the University of Geneva, November 2021.

• The 6th annual Society for the Metaphysics of Science Conference (online), September 2021.

‘The Governing Conception of the Wavefunction’

• University of Toronto. March 2021.

• The Harvard Foundations of Physics Workshop. June 2020.

'Subjective and Objective in the Metaphysics of Science'

• At the Cal Tech Philosophy of Physics Group. February 2021.

'Quantum Correlations and the Explanatory Power of Radical Metaphysical Hypotheses'

• At ELLMM City at Yale. February 2021.

‘What Was and What Could Be: What Makes Time Different from Modality’

• The California Metaphysics Conference at USC, January 2020.

• Colloquium talk at Amherst College, March 2019.

(Additional presentations listed on full CV.)

TEACHING

AT MOUNT HOLYOKE

• Logical Thought (PHIL 210),  Fall 2022 - Fall 2017.

• Metaphysics (PHIL 272), Fall 2019 & 2017.

• Science & Human Values (PHIL 104), Spring 2023, 2022, 2020 & 2019.

• Philosophy of Quantum Mechanics (PHIL 222), Spring 2023, Fall 2020, Spring 2019.

• Seminar: Public Philosophy (PHIL 350), Fall 2021.

• Seminar: Philosophy of Time (PHIL 350), Fall 2022, Spring 2022 & Fall 2018.

• Seminar: Radical Metaphysical Hypotheses (PHIL 350), Spring 2020.

• Honors Thesis Supervision (PHIL 395), 2022 - 2023, 2021 - 2022 (2), 2019 - 2020, 2018 - 2019.

AT BROWN

• Philosophy of Quantum Mechanics, Spring 2016, Fall 2013.

• Graduate Proseminar, Spring 2016.

• Undergraduate Independent Study, Spring 2016, Spring 2014, Spring 2015, Fall 2013.

• Modern Science and Human Values, Fall 2015, Spring 2014.

• Graduate Seminar: Physics as Metaphysics, Fall 2015.

• Metaphysics, Fall 2014, Fall 2013.

• Philosophy of Time, Fall 2014.

• Graduate Seminar: Metaphysics of Chance, Spring 2014.

AT MIT

• Philosophy of Quantum Mechanics, Spring 2012.

SERVICE

TO THE PROFESSION

• Ergo: An Open Access Journal of Philosophy, area editor, 2022 -- ongoing.

• Program Committee, Seventh International Conference on the Nature and Ontology of Spacetime, 2024.

• NSF Panelist, spring 2022 & fall 2022.

• Society for the Metaphysics of Science, council. 2021 -- ongoing.

• Summer Immersion Program in Philosophy at Brown (SIPP@Brown), co-founder and faculty director, 2015 — 2019.

• The Philosophy Mountain Workshop, co-founder and co-organizer, 2013 — ongoing.

• Society for the Metaphysics of Science, Pacific APA Group Meeting Organizer, 2017 — 2019.

• Referee: Philosophical Review, Mind, Nous, Philosophy of Science, British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, Philosophical Studies, Australasian Journal of Philosophy, Erkenntnis, Analysis, Oxford University Press, Routledge Publishing, Berlin Academy.

AT MOUNT HOLYOKE

• Academic Priorities Committee, 2022 -- ongoing.

• Faculty Friday presenter, fall 2022.

• Teaching and Learning Initiative, Talking about Teaching presentation, spring 2022.

• First Year Seminar Video, 'Making and Breaking Arguments', co-written and recorded with Katia Vavova. 2020.

• Advisory Committee on Admissions and Financial Aid. 2019 - 2022. (Chair, Fall 2020 and 2021-2022.)

• AALAC Assembly, Mount Holyoke representative and presenter. 2019.

• HackHolyoke, guest presenter. 2019.

• Philosophy Department work in progress series, organizer. 2017 - 2020.

• Philosophy Department speaker series, co-organizer. 2018 - ongoing.

AT BROWN

• Physics and Philosophy Group, director, 2015 — 2017.

• Brown National Diversity Summit session on diversity in philosophy, Co-organizer, 2015.

• The Harriet W. Sheridan Center for Teaching and Learning, departmental liaison, 2013 — 2017.

• Physics and Philosophy concentration advisor, 2013 — 2017.