My research is in the philosophy of language and in ethics, with many vested interests in topics across epistemology, logic, and related areas. I also have strong teaching interests in some areas in the history of philosophy. 

Below you will see information about my background and experience in teaching.

I am a Teaching Assistant Professor of Philosophy, University of Nevada, Reno

Before coming to UNR, I taught at the University of Sussex and at the University of St Andrews.

My recent work is on generics, especially (1) their place in ethical theory and (2) on the harms that generics can convey and questions about what we can do to mitigate these harms. I am also working on some issues in moral epistemology. You can read more about this, as well as some recent news, below.

I did my PhD and MLitt in Philosophy in the St Andrews-Stirling Graduate Programme where I was a member of the Arché Philosophical Research Centre for Logic, Language, Metaphysics, and Epistemology. I did my BA in Philosophy at the University of Texas at Austin.

Affiliations: 
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-Faculty Research Associate, Kenny Guinn Center for Policy Priorities

-Faculty Associate, Gender, Race, and Identity, UNR.

-Research Fellow, Hoffberger Center for Ethical Engagement at the University of Baltimore. 
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Please feel free to get in touch. I'd love to hear from you.

Recent News, Events, & Updates

  • Teaching Award

    2024 Dean's Award for Outstanding Teaching, College of Liberal Arts, University of Nevada, Reno.

  • New paper

    Moral principles as generics - Journal of the American Philosophical Association.

  • Upcoming talks

    Civility and Politics in a Changing World 2025, University of Kansas (joint work with Amy Pason); Philosophy of Language and Linguistics Conference, Inter-University Centre, Dubrovnik 2025.

  • Recent Talks

    Recent colloquium or conference talks at: University of Leiden (Generics and Stereotypes Conference 2025), Western States Communication Convention 2025, California State University, Sacramento (2024), Duke University (Social Ontology 2024), CU Boulder (Rocky Mountain Ethics Congress), Eastern APA (2025), San José State University (2024), and University of Glasgow (2024).

  • Dignity Index Project

    Interdisciplinary collaboration with the Guinn Center for Policy Priorities. More updates coming soon!

  • Review of Alex Worsnip

    Review of Fitting Things Together: Coherence and the Demands of Structural Rationality (Oxford University Press, 2021) by Alex Worsnip.

Research

Publications

Moral principles as generics

Journal of the American Philosophical Association (2024)
I argue that moral principles involve the same sort of generalization as ordinary yet elusive generic generalizations in natural language such as 'Tigers are striped' or 'Peppers are spicy'. A notable advantage of the generic view is that it simultaneously allows for pessimism and optimism about the role and status of moral principles in our lives. It provides a new perspective on the nature of moral principles on which principles are not apt for determining the moral status of particular actions while they may be apt, and even fundamental, to our acquisition of moral knowledge. A natural consequence of the view is variation amongst moral principles, with some regularly warranting exceptions, and some appearing arguably exceptionless. It is also argued that this generic conception of moral principles has significant advantages, as a normative model of moral reasoning, over the view of moral principles as defaults which has been advanced in recent years. ​
Generics and weak necessity

Inquiry (2018)
A prevailing thought is that generics have a covert modal operator at logical form. I claim that if this is right, the covert generic modality is a weak necessity modal. In this paper, I provide evidence for this claim and I sketch a theory. In particular, I will show that there are some important distributional parallels between generics and sentences with overt weak necessity modals: both sorts of sentences share behavior in nonmonotonic reasoning environments and also lack genuine epistemic readings. Acknowledging these parallels and the connection here is in the service of both our understanding of genericity and of weak necessity. Finally, I propose an understanding of generics as involving a covert weak necessity modal and argue that this is a promising path to pursue in relation to different issues related to the interpretation of generics. ​
Review of Fitting Things Together: Coherence and the Demands of Structural Rationality (Oxford University Press, 2021) by Alex Worsnip - Journal of Moral Philosophy (2024). PhilPapers.

Teaching

Fall 2025: 
  • Critical Thinking and Reasoning
  • Intro Symbolic Logic
  • Intro Ethics
Previous teaching at UNR: 
  • Intro Philosophy
  • Intro Symbolic Logic
  • Contemporary Moral Issues
  • Survey of 20th Century Philosophy
  • Philosophy of Language (combined undergraduate and graduate)
  • Ethical Theory (combined undergraduate and graduate)

Awards

Dean's Award for Outstanding Teaching - UNR (2024) 

  • In 2024, I received a college-wide teaching award for excellence in teaching at the College of Liberal Arts Awards Ceremony and Sesquicentennial Celebration. (Find out more about the University's 150th birthday here.) 
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Students' Association Teaching Award - St Andrews (2019) 

  • In 2019, I received a university-wide teaching award given to only one graduate teaching assistant across all departments. See here for a press release.  
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PhD Teaching Prize - St Andrews (2017)

  • In 2017, I won a department-wide competition to develop and teach my own honours seminar. The award is based upon the submission of the original design of a course for advanced undergraduate students and was judged by a committee of faculty members. I was subsequently given the opportunity to be lecturer on a course I designed on empathy which covered a range of issues in social and political philosophy, ethics, philosophy of mind, and philosophy of action. 
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Best Tutor in Philosophy - St Andrews (2014) 

  • In 2014, I received the award of Best Tutor in Philosophy while teaching a first-year introduction to epistemology and logic. This is a student-run award and I was selected on the basis of receiving the best overall feedback and highest score of 7.95/8 on independent student evaluation forms.
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