About

Teaching // Publications and Presentations // Contact

Hi! I’m a PhD candidate in philosophy at the University of Texas at Austin. My primary areas of interest are ethics and free will, although I also read widely and have taught courses in philosophy of mind and philosophy of religion. My dissertation is on suffering (yes, irony indeed abounds!). The primary upshots of the project are defenses of the claims that (a) we are rationally committed to believing that it is an objective, standpoint-independent normative truth that suffering is bad and that (b) we cannot justifiably believe that anyone deserves to suffer – and, therefore, ought not cause cause anyone to suffer merely for desert-based reasons – because we cannot justifiably believe that anyone is responsible for their acts in the requisite manner. My dissertation supervisors are Galen Strawson and Michelle Montague.

I earned my M.A. in philosophy from the University of Texas at Austin in 2016, and my B.A. in philosophy (with a minor in psychology) from Texas Christian University in 2012. I’ve had a lifelong passion for teaching and began running my own courses immediately upon earning my M.A. Apart from the University of Texas at Austin, I have taught at St. Edwards University and Texas Christian University, where I returned as an adjunct instructor in the fall of 2016 and as a lecturer for the entirety of the 2018-2019 academic year. Please see my teaching page for more details.

Outside of philosophy, I enjoy distance running (perhaps as a testament to my irrationality, I’ve completed eight marathons to date), playing tennis (I was a reasonably competitive junior back in my day), snapping shots of the Austin skyline (some of which I’ve posted to this site), and going for long walks with my border collie, Shelby, who’s my lodestar and constant companion. I also blog, from time to time.