I received my MA and Ph.D. in Philosophy at the University at Buffalo in 2016 and 2021, respectively. My specializations are in metaphysics (dispositions, free will), philosophy of medicine (addiction, disease), and bioethics. My past research has also included work in experimental philosophy, cognitive science of religion, and ethics, and I am currently just beginning to explore my new interests in teaching philosophy (especially to first-year non-majors). My dissertation ("Understanding Addiction") was, broadly speaking, on the nature of addiction. I defended a dispositionalist account of addiction, argued that addiction research should sys…
I received my MA and Ph.D. in Philosophy at the University at Buffalo in 2016 and 2021, respectively. My specializations are in metaphysics (dispositions, free will), philosophy of medicine (addiction, disease), and bioethics. My past research has also included work in experimental philosophy, cognitive science of religion, and ethics, and I am currently just beginning to explore my new interests in teaching philosophy (especially to first-year non-majors). My dissertation ("Understanding Addiction") was, broadly speaking, on the nature of addiction. I defended a dispositionalist account of addiction, argued that addiction research should systematically incorporate applied ontology so as to remedy what I call the 'disunification problem' abundant in the literature, and I offered a start towards developing an ontology of addiction. I am an affiliate of the Romanell Center for Clinical Ethics and Philosophy of Medicine at the University at Buffalo (http://www.buffalo.edu/romanell.html), and an affiliate ontology researcher with the National Center for Ontological Research Lab directed by Barry Smith. I am currently an adjunct philosophy instructor at Bakersfield College in California. I have done applied ontology consulting work a Dod-funded contract through MIT, as well as for the Behaviour Change Intervention Ontology being developed by Janna Hastings and Robert West as part of the larger Human Behaviour Change Project out of University College London. I am also working informally with Hastings and West on the development of the addiction ontology AddictO.