Social Epistemology
I am interested in two types of questions. The first concerns what we should do (epistemically) when we learn what someone believes. The second concerns the speech act of assertion and its role as a vehicle for the spread of knowledge. The first set of issues centers on the hearer’s side of a communicate exchange, while the second set centers on the speaker’s side. One thing I hope to show is that the issues at the core of social epistemology – assertion, testimony, and disagreement – are more intimately connected than has been previously recognized.
Medical Humanities
A lot of research on the nursing profession focuses on nursing in connection to burnout and compassion fatigue. This literature has exploded since COVID-19. However, not much has been done on the positive effects of nursing. I am currently working together with Mark Lazenby (PI: Dean of the School of Nursing, UC Irvine) on a project which aims to do just that. Our goal is to put forth a new theory and, hopefully, establish a new area of inquiry, one focused on how nursing, insofar as it involves the cultivation of virtues associated with altruism and service, is conducive to an individual’s spiritual flourishing. The project has received funding from the Mellon Foundation, and we are applying for a National Endowment of the Humanities grant. The project will culminate in a co-authored book tentatively titled Healing the Healer’s Soul: Spiritual Repair in Nursing.
Applied Epistemology
People believe a lot of weird things. Sometimes, people believe things that are subject to social, political, or legal sanction. I call these heterodox beliefs. By relying on a functionalist framework, I aim to address the following research question: why do people hold heterodox beliefs, given the practical costs associated with the threat of sanction? Along the way, I plan to apply the results to other theoretically interesting phenomena, such as misinformation, vaccine skepticism, expert testimony, and epistemic injustice in the medical setting.
I am a PhD candidate in the Department of Philosophy at UC Irvine. My dissertation focuses on some of the core issues in social epistemology — higher-order evidence, testimony-based justification, and the norm of assertion, in particular. I have another line of research in the medical humanities, focusing on the nursing profession and its connection to spiritual fulfillment. Finally, I am developing a new line of research that connects the other two, focusing on heterodox beliefs, misinformation, vaccine skepticism, and expert testimony.
