I am a Senior Research Fellow in Philosophy at the Global Priorities Institute at the University of Oxford, where I am also a Non-Stipendiary Research Fellow in Politics at Nuffield College. In Fall 2023, I’ll start as an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Vanderbilt University. I completed my PhD in philosophy at the University of Arizona under the primary supervision of the late, great Jerry Gaus.
I work primarily in social, moral, and political philosophy. Much of my research is interdisciplinary. It brings social scientific tools and evidence to bear on moral and political questions, and so falls under the umbrella of Philosophy, Politics, and Economics (“PPE”).
Although I have diverse research interests, what unifies my work is a concern with social reform or improvement. Specifically, my research focuses on methodological, evaluative, empirical, and normative questions about social reform, such as: how should we theorize about social reform? what makes a society better or worse? how do social institutions function and change? and when and how should individuals contribute to efforts to promote social reform?
I am especially interested in approaching these questions from a long-term and expansive perspective that attends both to our institutions’ long-run evolution and to their effects on people in other societies, on non-human animals, and on future generations.
I work primarily in social, moral, and political philosophy. Much of my research is interdisciplinary. It brings social scientific tools and evidence to bear on moral and political questions, and so falls under the umbrella of Philosophy, Politics, and Economics (“PPE”).
Although I have diverse research interests, what unifies my work is a concern with social reform or improvement. Specifically, my research focuses on methodological, evaluative, empirical, and normative questions about social reform, such as: how should we theorize about social reform? what makes a society better or worse? how do social institutions function and change? and when and how should individuals contribute to efforts to promote social reform?
I am especially interested in approaching these questions from a long-term and expansive perspective that attends both to our institutions’ long-run evolution and to their effects on people in other societies, on non-human animals, and on future generations.