Research Interests
My current research engages Aristotle’s ethics, Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology, and bioethical work on empathy to propose a model of ethical expertise grounded in empathy on the basis of the shared perspective developed in interpersonal relationships.
I am interested in philosophical issues related to ethics, friendship and relationships, emotions and affectivity, health and illness, and questions about the development of habits and expertise.
More generally, my research interests are in Applied Ethics (especially Bioethics), Phenomenology, Ancient Philosophy (especially Aristotle), Philosophy of Emotions, and Philosophy of Health & Illness.
I am grateful for support I have received from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), Emory University, and Toronto Metropolitan University (formerly Ryerson University), which has enabled me to undertake these research projects.
Peer-Reviewed Article
- “Grief, Phantoms, and Re-membering Loss” Journal of Speculative Philosophy Vol. 34, No. 3 (2020), 284-296. [Link]
Public Talk
Here [link] is a description and short video of a public talk I gave on grief and mourning, as part of a Death Cafe organized by Dr. Michael Butler (University of Texas – Rio Grande Valley). The purpose of the talk was to create space for a public discussion of death, dying, grief, and mourning — topics that are often considered taboo for public discussion and conversation.
Conference Presentations & Invited Talks
- “Sympathy and Care in Sophocles’s Philoctetes”
Keynote Talk – Undergraduate Ethics Conference, Roger Mudd Center for Ethics, Washington and Lee University, Online (6 March 2022). [PDF of program] - “Grief, Phantoms, and Re-membering Loss”
Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy (SPEP), Pittsburgh, PA (2019). [PDF of program]. - “Empathy, Perspective, Parallax”
International Merleau-Ponty Circle (IMPC), New York, NY (2019). [PDF of program] - “Living with Ghosts: Being Haunted as a Structure of Experience”
International Association for the Philosophy of Death & Dying, Uppsala, Sweden (2018). [PDF of program]. - “Co-Perception and Shared Worlds in Aristotelian Virtue Friendships”
Collegium Phaenomenologicum. Citta di Castello, Italy (2018). [PDF of program]. - “Emotional Work in Progress: Empathy as an Interpersonal (Self-)Hermeneutic”
Canadian Hermeneutic Institute. York University, Toronto, Canada (2016). - “Pain as an Intersubjective Experience”
Canadian Hermeneutic Institute, York University, Toronto, Canada (2013).