About Me
I am an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Colby College and affiliated faculty at the Davis Institute for Artificial Intelligence. My research explores how we understand and model cognitive capacities, and how we understand and interact with artificial intelligence. One strand of my work focuses on internal representations that structure the behavior of biological and artificial systems. Another focuses on how embodiment and expressive movement shape cognition. I have a special interest in studying the mind in dance, and have developed a novel approach to the computational analysis of human movement. I regularly collaborate across disciplines, contributing philosophical perspectives to projects working to simulate neural systems and apply new machine learning methods. At Colby, I teach courses in philosophy of mind, AI, cognitive science, and dance. Before joining the Colby faculty, I completed a postdoctoral fellowship in computational neuroscience at UPenn, where I also received my PhD in Philosophy, and I hold a JD from Yale Law School.
Research
Selected Publications
Rethinking Artificial General Intelligence: Beyond Anthropomorphism (Invited chapter for Introducing Philosophy of Mind, Today, Routledge),
-- 2025 (forthcoming)
Understanding Complexity Through Affordances (with Sonia Roberts),
-- 2025 (under review at Minds and Machines)
Computational kinematics of dance: distinguishing Hip Hop genres (with Tony Liu, Jordan Matelsky, Felipe Parodi, Brett Mensh, John Krakauer and Konrad Kording),
-- 2024 Frontiers in Human Robotics and AI
Commentary on Favela and Machery, "Investigating the concept of representation in neural and psychological sciences
-- 2023 The Brains Blog
Three Aspects of Representation in Neuroscience (with Ben Lansdell and Konrad Kording),
-- 2022 Trends in Cognitive Sciences
Creativity in AI Dance Art
-- 2022 International Conference on Computational Creativity
Natural information, factivity and nomicity
-- 2021 Biology and Philosophy
Referee Report of (hypothetical) Philosophy-101 Textbook, by Professor Unspecified
-- 2021 Teaching Philosophy
Spanish Translation by Fredy H.P. Galindo
-- 2023 Cuestiones Filosophia
Teaching
I strive to empower my students to let their curiosity and passion drive their education. My courses challenge students to consider a topic from multiple disciplinary and cultural perspectives, and I incorporate hands-on interaction with emerging technologies, helping to build broadly applicable skills and knowledge.
Courses Taught
AI and Human Values
Central Philosophical Issues: Mind, Body and Machine
Philosophy of Cognitive Science
Philosophy of Dance
Philosophy of Emotion
Philosophy of Visual Perception
Introduction to Ethics
Dance
Dance is a major part of my life and identity. My primary background is in hip-hop choreography, popping, and house, and I like to explore many movement styles.
A Dance Video
CV
You can view and download my full CV by clickinghere
About Now
Now in my second Spring semester at Colby, getting more fully engaged in the academic community there and in the rhythm of life in Maine.
Some things I'm up to: revising a draft about a non-anthropomorphic view of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) for a Routledge coursebook in Philosophy of Mind; finishing a draft about the forms of thinking that are essential to dance; developing the next steps of my work using computational methods to analyze movement, including setting up a motion capture lab in Colby's performance arts center.
In the classroom, I'm teaching an intro-level 'Mind, Body & Machine' course, and a senior majors seminar called 'AI and Human Values'. I'm also advising two interesting independent research projects by Colby seniors. And thinking through how to adapt my teaching to advancing AI tools, with the help of colleagues at the Davis AI Institute.
In the coming weeks I'm looking forward to speaking at the Technology & Cognition symposium at the Southern Society for Philosophy and Psychology, presenting at Oberlin's Colloquium in Philosophy, and contributing to the Slippage: 3D Humanities Series at Northwestern University.
Also looking forward to basketball in the driveway -- the snow has been fun (mostly), but I'm ready for some more sun.