I am currently an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Nanyang Technological University.

I received my PhD in philosophy in 2020, from University of Pennsylvania. Before this, I graduated in May 2014 with an MA in philosophy from New York University, and worked from 2014-2015 as a Research Associate with the Philosophy Group at Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore.

My current research areas are ethics, epistemology, and social philosophy. Right now, my main research project defends views about moral expertise and deference to moral testimony, and applies general theories about these views to the specific, real-world phenomenon of oppression. Among other things, I argue that experience generally has an important role to play in the development of moral expertise, because of how it puts us in touch with morally relevant features. Although imagination is a useful moral epistemic tool, it is often a poor substitute for real-world experience. I also argue for various positive features of deferring to expert moral testimony in general, including virtue and the possibility of morally worthy action. In the particular moral sub-domain of oppression, I argue that this is a clear case where first-personal experience puts one in an especially good position to acquire high levels of moral expertise. Analysing oppression also illuminates more reasons to defer to expert moral judgment, such as those related to epistemic injustice and moral encroachment.

My current research also cuts across normative, applied and meta-ethics, normative epistemology, standpoint epistemology, moral psychology, philosophy of emotion, and philosophy of imagination. I’ve also worked on moral decision-making procedures, food ethics, and philosophy of mental illness.

In my non-philosophy time, I enjoy, perform and create music, and create visual art.

PUBLICATIONS:

• (2016) Eating Animals and Personal Guilt, Food Ethics, Oxford UP
  (edited by Anne Barnhill, Mark Budolfson, and Tyler Doggett)

TALKS AND PRESENTATIONS:

Talks & presentations within research areas

• Virtuous & Morally Worthy Deference (2022). Philosophy Department, University of Helsinki.
• Moral Deference to the Marginalised (Sept 2019). Mind-like Intelligence, Research, and Analysis Group, University of Pennsylvania.
• The Limits of Empathy in Moral Epistemology (June 2019). Summer Workshop on Empathy, Error, and Ethics, University of Tartu (Estonia).
• Moral Deference, Moral Understanding, & Epistemic Injustice (May 2019). Annual SWIP-UK Conference on Epistemic Injustice, Reasons and Agency, University of Kent (UK).
• Moral Expertise on Oppression (April 2018). Penn Normative Philosophy Group, University of Pennsylvania.
• Deferential Moral Knowledge & Moral Worth (April 2019). Cyprus Metaethics Workshop, University of Cyprus (Cyprus).
• Morally Worthy Deference (April 2019). Great Lakes Philosophy Conference in Ethics, Siena College.
• Morally Worthy Deference (March 2019). Southeast Graduate Philosophy Conference, University of Florida.
• Moral Expertise & Traumatic Experiences (March 2019). Philosophical Engagements with Trauma Conference, UNC Asheville.
• Morally Worthy Deference (Feb 2019). Harvard-MIT Graduate Philosophy Conference, Harvard University.
• Virtuous & Worthy Moral Deference (Nov 2018). Penn Normative Philosophy Group, University of Pennsylvania.
• Deference to Morality De Dicto (Oct 2018). Mind-like Intelligence, Research, and Analysis Group, University of Pennsylvania.
• Moral Emotions & Imagination (July 2018). CEU Moral Epistemology Summer Course, Central European University (Hungary).
• Can Imagination Replace Reality for Sentimental Perceptualism? (July 2018). FRIAS Normative Epistemology Workshop, Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies, University of Freiburg (Germany).
• Moral Expertise & Hermeneutical Justice (Oct 2017). Penn Philosophy Graduate Colloquium, University of Pennsylvania.
• Expertise on Identifying Oppression (April 2017). Penn-Rutgers-Princeton Social Epistemology Workshop 2017, University of Pennsylvania.

Other talks & presentations

• Using Race & Ethnicity in Humour: Ali Wong vs. Amy Schumer (Nov 2017). Philosophy and Film Series, University of Pennsylvania.
• Sexual Violence in Westworld: Glorification or Commentary? (Oct 2016). Philosophy and Film Series, University of Pennsylvania.
• Eyes Wide Shut and the Ethics of Monogamy (Feb 2016). Philosophy and Film Series, University of Pennsylvania.
• The Question of Mary Astell’s Feminism (Oct 2015). Workshop on the History and Philosophy of Education, University of Pennsylvania.
• Can we love animals and still eat them? (March 2015). Philosophy Club Speaker Series, Philosophy Group, Nanyang Technological University (Singapore).

Comments & Others

• Commentator-at-large for at Between Ethics and Belief: Ethical Believing and the Epistemology of Ethics Workshop, University of Cologne (Germany) (June 2018).
• Invited participant to the Washington University Workshop in Ethics, Washington University in St. Louis (October 2018).
• Commentator for ‘Glued to the Image: A phenomenology of racialization through works of art’ (March 2017), by Alia Al-Saji. Minorities and Philosophy Conference: Global Feminisms, University of Pennsylvania.

TEACHING (as of 2019 – to be updated)

Primary Instructor:

• (Fall 2019) Introduction to Ethics, University of Pennsylvania.

Teaching Assistant, University of Pennsylvania

• (Spring 2018) Introduction to Philosophy, Michael Weisberg.
• (Fall 2017) Ethics of Eating, Andrew Chignell.
• (Spring 2017) History of Early Modern Philosophy, Andrew Chignell.
• (Fall 2016) Ethics, Errol Lord.

Nanyang Technological University

• (Spring 2015) Guest lecturer (Philosophy of Religion), Introduction to Philosophy.
• (Spring 2015) Teaching Assistant, Philosophy for Everyone, Li Chenyang.
• (Fall 2014) Guest lecturer (Animal Ethics), Moral Philosophy.
• (Fall 2014) Guest lecturer (Philosophy of Mind), Introduction to Philosophy.

FELLOWSHIPS AND SCHOLARSHIPS:

• (2015-20) Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences International PhD Scholarship, Nanyang Technological University (Singapore)
• (2012-14) Graduate Fellowship, New York University

PRIZES:

• (2014) Winner of the 3QD Philosophy Prize 2014.

SERVICE:

Journals

• (2017-2018) Referee, Journal of Moral Philosophy

Conferences, Events, & Reading Groups

• (Spring 2017) Organiser, Epistemic Injustice reading group, University of Pennsylvania.
• (Nov 2015) Assistant Organiser, Penn Reasons and Foundations in Epistemology Conference (PeRFECt) 2015, University of Pennsylvania

This page was last updated on September 26, 2019.