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
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 here
About Now
Second year at Colby in the rear-view, enjoying summer in Southern Maine and its many welcoming hikes, beaches, and playgrounds
Revising a paper about agent complexity for Minds & Machines (fingers crossed - this one has seen many iterations). Meanwhile waiting for responses about several projects: a chapter about Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) for a Routledge coursebook in Philosophy of Mind, a paper "Six Forms of Dance Cognition" from Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences, and an NSF proposal for a science and technology center aiming to make the first comprehensive simulation of a nervous system. Trying not to let the excited waiting distract from other ongoing projects
Like the motion lab I've been building at Colby -- with the major pieces in place now I'm just tinkering so that the 3D pose results stay accurate when the subject is flipping, spinning, or six-stepping. And look, Colby News did a story about it!
And of course preparing for the Fall semester and the two courses I'll teach -- my recurring "Mind Body & Machine" course, and a new one called "Bodies and Power"