My research is largely focused on democratic theory and applied ethics. On this page you can read about my research interests, and find links to papers I’ve written. This information is divided by general topic area.
APPROACH
My work uses formal modeling tools from voting theory and game theory, and empirical results from social science, in the development of normative arguments and critiques. I believe that these tools are important for my research because they allow for more in-depth analyses of the political institutions and interpersonal relationships in which I am interested.
These analyses take two forms. First, voting theory and game theory models can be used to test claims that arise in democratic theory about the intrinsic fairness and instrumental value of democratic systems. By modeling the democratic voting and deliberation schemes promoted in democratic theory, we can test whether those systems (in their idealized form) would live up to the intrinsic and instrumental values that their proponents espouse. Second, empirical social science is an important (but often overlooked) resource for political theory and ethics. I believe that democratic and ethical theories should recognize and account for the non-ideal features of people and political institutions to which the theories are meant to apply. Empirical social science can be used to determine the applicability of political and ethical theories that make (a) assumptions about how people are, or what they are capable of doing, and (b) claims about the behavioral effects of policy interventions or institutional design choices for individual decision makers.
DEMOCRATIC THEORY
Within democratic theory, I am interested in the moral duties that voters have (or do not have), and whether we can expect real voters to live up to their duties in practice. This topic is the main focus of my dissertation, which focused on the duties of voters within deliberative democratic theory. You can read my dissertation here. I'm currently preparing the central chapters of the project for publication in political philosophy journals.
More recently, I've been interested in questions surrounding political redistricting. Redistricting has received very little attention in the political philosophy literature, and the paper in draft (co-authored with Moon Duchin, Professor of Mathematics at Tufts University) aims to survey several of the values at play in political redistricting.
MEDICAL AND RESEARCH ETHICS
I also have research interests in applied ethics, and in particular, ethical questions surrounding interpersonal relationships in research and medicine. “Adversaries at the Bedside: Advance Care Plans and Future Welfare” focuses on the topic of advance care planning. This paper was co-authored with Dr. Alex John London, the Clara L. West Professor of Ethics and Philosophy at Carnegie Mellon University. In this paper, we argue that a debate surrounding the normative status of advance care plans in the medical ethics literature is flawed, in part because the debate fails to recognize the significance of institutional transparency and honesty in the advance care planning process. We now have a paper titled "A Dilemma Respecting Autonomy" forthcoming in the Journal of Medicine & Philosophy that considers the role of advance care plans in complex decision scenarios surrounding artificial heart transplants.
I also have interests in ethics policy surrounding social scientific research involving humans. In "Freedom as Non-Domination in Behavioral and Biomedical Research." In the paper, I argue that the political theory of Republicanism can better address the concerns of both the proponents and critics of current policy.
PEDAGOGY RESEARCH
My most recent work, made public through an online interactive textbook and workbook on intellectual charity,
aims to give students complete resources for developing their argumentative reasoning skills. I have a particular interest in helping students reason about controversial issues. These resources were developed in collaboration with ThinkerAnalytix staff and our network of philosophy professors and classroom teachers.
When I began teaching at Carnegie Mellon Universities, majority of the courses I taught at are introductory and intermediate courses designed for students from a variety of disciplines. Because these students were new to philosophical reading and writing, I designed these courses to help students develop their reading and writing skills such that they are able to write an original, philosophical essay by the end of the course. To this end, I am studying the benefits of integrating low-stakes blogging assignments into introductory philosophy courses. You can read about this work in “Blogging as Practice in Applied Philosophy.”
APPROACH
My work uses formal modeling tools from voting theory and game theory, and empirical results from social science, in the development of normative arguments and critiques. I believe that these tools are important for my research because they allow for more in-depth analyses of the political institutions and interpersonal relationships in which I am interested.
These analyses take two forms. First, voting theory and game theory models can be used to test claims that arise in democratic theory about the intrinsic fairness and instrumental value of democratic systems. By modeling the democratic voting and deliberation schemes promoted in democratic theory, we can test whether those systems (in their idealized form) would live up to the intrinsic and instrumental values that their proponents espouse. Second, empirical social science is an important (but often overlooked) resource for political theory and ethics. I believe that democratic and ethical theories should recognize and account for the non-ideal features of people and political institutions to which the theories are meant to apply. Empirical social science can be used to determine the applicability of political and ethical theories that make (a) assumptions about how people are, or what they are capable of doing, and (b) claims about the behavioral effects of policy interventions or institutional design choices for individual decision makers.
DEMOCRATIC THEORY
Within democratic theory, I am interested in the moral duties that voters have (or do not have), and whether we can expect real voters to live up to their duties in practice. This topic is the main focus of my dissertation, which focused on the duties of voters within deliberative democratic theory. You can read my dissertation here. I'm currently preparing the central chapters of the project for publication in political philosophy journals.
More recently, I've been interested in questions surrounding political redistricting. Redistricting has received very little attention in the political philosophy literature, and the paper in draft (co-authored with Moon Duchin, Professor of Mathematics at Tufts University) aims to survey several of the values at play in political redistricting.
MEDICAL AND RESEARCH ETHICS
I also have research interests in applied ethics, and in particular, ethical questions surrounding interpersonal relationships in research and medicine. “Adversaries at the Bedside: Advance Care Plans and Future Welfare” focuses on the topic of advance care planning. This paper was co-authored with Dr. Alex John London, the Clara L. West Professor of Ethics and Philosophy at Carnegie Mellon University. In this paper, we argue that a debate surrounding the normative status of advance care plans in the medical ethics literature is flawed, in part because the debate fails to recognize the significance of institutional transparency and honesty in the advance care planning process. We now have a paper titled "A Dilemma Respecting Autonomy" forthcoming in the Journal of Medicine & Philosophy that considers the role of advance care plans in complex decision scenarios surrounding artificial heart transplants.
I also have interests in ethics policy surrounding social scientific research involving humans. In "Freedom as Non-Domination in Behavioral and Biomedical Research." In the paper, I argue that the political theory of Republicanism can better address the concerns of both the proponents and critics of current policy.
PEDAGOGY RESEARCH
My most recent work, made public through an online interactive textbook and workbook on intellectual charity,
aims to give students complete resources for developing their argumentative reasoning skills. I have a particular interest in helping students reason about controversial issues. These resources were developed in collaboration with ThinkerAnalytix staff and our network of philosophy professors and classroom teachers.
When I began teaching at Carnegie Mellon Universities, majority of the courses I taught at are introductory and intermediate courses designed for students from a variety of disciplines. Because these students were new to philosophical reading and writing, I designed these courses to help students develop their reading and writing skills such that they are able to write an original, philosophical essay by the end of the course. To this end, I am studying the benefits of integrating low-stakes blogging assignments into introductory philosophy courses. You can read about this work in “Blogging as Practice in Applied Philosophy.”
