Brief Biography
I began studying philosophy and the social sciences as an undergraduate at Kenyon College, a small liberal arts institution in Ohio. My major interest was on how institutions and social configurations affected and were affected by claims to knowledge, justificatory practices, and so on. I earned an Honours B.A. in General Philosophy and a Minor in Theoretical Sociology.
Upon completing my undergraduate studies, I joined the US Peace Corps. I served for two years and three months in Azerbaijan, a country in the South Caucasus. My experiences over this service both made concrete several of the questions I had studied as an undergraduate. Indeed, I soon realized that in Azerbaijan, what counted as a reason, what was presupposed over the course of a conversation, justificatory standards, and even elements of ontology varied drastically when embedded in this non-'Western' context. Moreover, during my time in Azerbaijan, I encountered various religious uses of pain, which raised profound new questions for me, and would set my subsequent research agenda.
After Peace Corps, I stayed in Azerbaijan an additional year and had the privilege of working with a non-governmental organization, Gender Equality and Women Initiatives Public Union. Over the course of this year, I helped to organize and run a project focused on women's rights, specifically domestic abuse and marital rape.
However, Azerbaijan raised a host of new questions that required careful philosophical, anthropological, and legal examination. To address (some) of these, I enrolled at the London School of Economics and Political Science. I earned an MS.c. First-Class with Distinction in the Philosophy of the Social Sciences. My dissertation focused on the the role of values in classical Boasian school of cultural anthropology. My supervisor was Prof. Dr. J. Mckenzie Alexander.
During my studies at LSE, I became increasingly interested in the works of Wittgenstein. I found earlier Wittgenstein's account of language, and his claims that value could not be conveyed in words, fascinating. However, critical for me was later Wittgenstein's engagement with pain. Specifically, I found Wittgenstein's exploration of the intersubjective and social aspects of pain vitally important. Moreover, Wittgenstein's engagement with pain relied on a novel philosophical methodology that I did not fully grasp.
To understand Wittgenstein's way of investigating philosophical issues surrounding pain and other topics, I enrolled at the University of Zurich, the Department of Theoretical Philosophy. My supervisors were Prof. Dr. Hans-Johann Glock (University of Zurich) and Prof. Dr. Paul Horwich (New York University). My dissertation explored the relationship between later Wittgenstein's metaphilosophical remarks, his philosophical methodology, and his idiosyncratic style. I earned a Summa Cum Laude for my defense and am currently preparing my Ph.D. dissertation for publication.
Over the course of this research, I became increasingly interested in the how Wittgenstein's method and various social sciences might enrich each other. To further this research, I stayed in Zurich and worked with Prof. Dr. Catherine Herfeld who holds a joint appointment in both the Institute of Philosophy and the Institute of Sociology at the University of Zurich, Switzerland. Specifically, we explored the role that value-laden concepts play in the social sciences. I also renewed my research in pain and its uses in the social world. To further develop this research, I accepting a visiting researcher position at the TINT Centre for the Philosophy of Social Sciences at the University of Helsinki, Finland. There, I engaged further with classical and contemporary anthropology, focused specifically on ethnographic methodology and values.
After completing this research, I became the Kierkegaard House Foundation Fellow at the Hong Kierkegaard Library, at St. Olaf College, MN, US. There, I worked closely with Prof. Dr. Gordon Marino in exploring how Kierkegaard and Wittgenstein made sense of description as an evaluative action, rather than a passive recording. This directly connected to pain, as both Wittgenstein and Kierkegaard offered an account of it that did not cast it as a mere 'passive' state that subjects endure.
However, I realized that properly researching pain required a medical background that I did not possess. To fill this lacuna, I enrolled in the Bachelor's of Nursing Science program at Cleveland State University. I completed this program, Summa Cum Laude, in May, 2022.
Currently, I teach courses at Lorain County Community College and work the Cleveland Clinic. I have published several works this year on pain and am currently striving to develop the intersubjective account further.
Upon completing my undergraduate studies, I joined the US Peace Corps. I served for two years and three months in Azerbaijan, a country in the South Caucasus. My experiences over this service both made concrete several of the questions I had studied as an undergraduate. Indeed, I soon realized that in Azerbaijan, what counted as a reason, what was presupposed over the course of a conversation, justificatory standards, and even elements of ontology varied drastically when embedded in this non-'Western' context. Moreover, during my time in Azerbaijan, I encountered various religious uses of pain, which raised profound new questions for me, and would set my subsequent research agenda.
After Peace Corps, I stayed in Azerbaijan an additional year and had the privilege of working with a non-governmental organization, Gender Equality and Women Initiatives Public Union. Over the course of this year, I helped to organize and run a project focused on women's rights, specifically domestic abuse and marital rape.
However, Azerbaijan raised a host of new questions that required careful philosophical, anthropological, and legal examination. To address (some) of these, I enrolled at the London School of Economics and Political Science. I earned an MS.c. First-Class with Distinction in the Philosophy of the Social Sciences. My dissertation focused on the the role of values in classical Boasian school of cultural anthropology. My supervisor was Prof. Dr. J. Mckenzie Alexander.
During my studies at LSE, I became increasingly interested in the works of Wittgenstein. I found earlier Wittgenstein's account of language, and his claims that value could not be conveyed in words, fascinating. However, critical for me was later Wittgenstein's engagement with pain. Specifically, I found Wittgenstein's exploration of the intersubjective and social aspects of pain vitally important. Moreover, Wittgenstein's engagement with pain relied on a novel philosophical methodology that I did not fully grasp.
To understand Wittgenstein's way of investigating philosophical issues surrounding pain and other topics, I enrolled at the University of Zurich, the Department of Theoretical Philosophy. My supervisors were Prof. Dr. Hans-Johann Glock (University of Zurich) and Prof. Dr. Paul Horwich (New York University). My dissertation explored the relationship between later Wittgenstein's metaphilosophical remarks, his philosophical methodology, and his idiosyncratic style. I earned a Summa Cum Laude for my defense and am currently preparing my Ph.D. dissertation for publication.
Over the course of this research, I became increasingly interested in the how Wittgenstein's method and various social sciences might enrich each other. To further this research, I stayed in Zurich and worked with Prof. Dr. Catherine Herfeld who holds a joint appointment in both the Institute of Philosophy and the Institute of Sociology at the University of Zurich, Switzerland. Specifically, we explored the role that value-laden concepts play in the social sciences. I also renewed my research in pain and its uses in the social world. To further develop this research, I accepting a visiting researcher position at the TINT Centre for the Philosophy of Social Sciences at the University of Helsinki, Finland. There, I engaged further with classical and contemporary anthropology, focused specifically on ethnographic methodology and values.
After completing this research, I became the Kierkegaard House Foundation Fellow at the Hong Kierkegaard Library, at St. Olaf College, MN, US. There, I worked closely with Prof. Dr. Gordon Marino in exploring how Kierkegaard and Wittgenstein made sense of description as an evaluative action, rather than a passive recording. This directly connected to pain, as both Wittgenstein and Kierkegaard offered an account of it that did not cast it as a mere 'passive' state that subjects endure.
However, I realized that properly researching pain required a medical background that I did not possess. To fill this lacuna, I enrolled in the Bachelor's of Nursing Science program at Cleveland State University. I completed this program, Summa Cum Laude, in May, 2022.
Currently, I teach courses at Lorain County Community College and work the Cleveland Clinic. I have published several works this year on pain and am currently striving to develop the intersubjective account further.