I am a doctoral candidate in philosophy at the University of California, Santa Cruz. My primary research interests reside in the fields of epistemology and ethics. My dissertation project is on political disagreement in public discourse. In cases of political disagreement, I focus on the role that motivated reasoning plays in biasing our contributions to public discourse. I argue the effects of motivated reasoning are corrosive to a flourishing democracy and explore how intellectual virtue and friendship can aid in ameliorating motivated reasoning’s pernicious effects. See my research page for more details.
Through the Center for Public Philosophy at UC Santa Cruz, I teach ethics courses at the Santa Cruz County Jail and volunteer as a coach, moderator, and judge at the annual Northern California Ethics Bowl. Also, I am in the beginning stages of producing a philosophy podcast.