Graduate Students

Randall Amano (A.B., Harvard University) Randall is writing a dissertation on the role of normativity in Kant’s account of our cognitive capacities. His advisors are Hannah Ginsborg and Janet Broughton. He has interests in many areas of philosophy including the history of modern philosophy, epistemology, self-knowledge, normativity, and Wittgenstein.

Austin Andrews (B.A., UCSB, 2009). Austin is interested in what the mind is and how it works. Currently Austin has no clue how to answer either of those questions but he hopes to have something to say about them some day.

Joseph Barnes (B.A. and B.S., Computer Science - UNC) Joseph has broad interests in metaphysics and epistemology, both contemporary and ancient. He’s currently working on a dissertation on epistemic value. Or at least that’s what he thinks.

Joshua Beattie (B.A., Northwestern University) His main interest is philosophy of mind, and he is working on a dissertation that examines whether mentality is (or important aspects of it are) normative in some fundamental sense, and how that bears on a naturalistic approach to the mind. He is also interested in philosophy of science (esp. biology), philosophy of art, and some 19th/20th-century continental philosophy. He is currently a GSI for Philosophy 100.

Erin Beeghly (B.A., History, UC Berkeley, 2004; B.A., PPE, Oxford, 2006) Erin is interested in ethics, moral psychology, and political theory.

Brian Berkey (B.A., Philosophy and Politics (summa cum laude) - NYU, 2004; M.A. - NYU, 2005) Brian is a fifth year student interested mainly in moral and political philosophy. He is currently thinking about issues arising out of G.A. Cohen’s critique of Rawls, as well as philosophical questions related to terrorism. He maintains a philosophical blog.

Tony Bezsylko (B.A., magna cum laude, U.C. Berkeley, 2001) Tony’s primary interests are in philosophy of psychology, philosophy of mind, and epistemology. He also has serious interests in the history of philosophy, particularly the modern period and Descartes, philosophy of psychoanalysis, free will, and moral and political philosophy. Tony’s dissertation is about dreams.

Justin Bledin (MSc History & Philosophy of Science, London School of Economics; B.S. Economics and A.B. Mathematics, Duke University) Justin is a third year student in the Group in Logic & the Methodology of Science. He is primarily interested in formal logic and the normative component of our linguistic practices and reasoning processes.

Benjamin Boudreaux (B.A., NYU, 2003) Ben is primarily interested in political philosophy, and is writing a dissertation on the demands of assimilation in liberal states. He is currently a GSI for Philosophy of Society, and is teaching an English course at San Quentin Prison. Ben also has interests in foreign policy and the Arabic language.

Zachary Bruce (B.A., summa cum laude, UCLA, 2003). His main interests are in Descartes, theories of modality, and skepticism. He is currently working on Descartes’s eternal truths.

Michael Caie (B.A., McGill University) Mike works on topics in philosophy of language and philosophical logic.

William Campbell (B.A., Michigan, 2003)

Jeremy Carey (B.A., Florida State University) Jeremy’s main interests are in epistemology and ethics (broadly speaking; mostly in metaethics and moral psychology) as well as some related issues in the philosophy of mind. He has a strong secondary interest in the philosophy of religion, and to a lesser extent, aesthetics (especially the philosophy of music).

Stanley Chen (A.B., University of Chicago, 2004) Stanley is now entering his sixth year.

Eugene Chislenko (B.A., Harvard, 2005) Eugene is interested in moral philosophy and its foundations, and in related issues in the philosophy of action, philosophy of mind, and phenomenology.

Lindsay Crawford (B.A., summa cum laude, Mount Holyoke College, 2005.) Lindsay is interested primarily in epistemology and early modern philosophy.

Vanessa de Harven (B.A., Pomona College) Vanessa is interested in the intersection of philosophy of mind, language and metaphysics, with an emphasis on Ancient Philosophy. She is writing a dissertation on intentionality and the nature of mental content among the Stoics, which will be brought to bear on contemporary debates (e.g., internalism/ externalism of intentional content). Vanessa has been a GSI for a broad cross-section of courses in the department, including metaphysics, epistemology, philosophy of mind and language, ancient philosophy, modern philosophy, Plato, and Aristotle.

Andy Engen (B.S., Philosophy and Computer Science, University of Wisconsin, 2001).

Peter Epstein (A.B., summa cum laude, Harvard University, 2004) Peter is primarily interested in philosophy of mind, and in empirical work in psychology and neuroscience that relates to contemporary philosophical debates.

Melissa Fusco (B.A., Stanford University). Melissa’s interests are in philosophy of language, metaphysics, and philosophy of mind.

Maxwell Gee (B.A., Brown University, 2008) Max is currently interested in the philosophy of action as it applies to our decision making about ethics and amoral utility maximization. He is also interested in emotions and what causes people to deviate from models of rational choice.

Kristina Gehrman (B.A., Williams College, 2000) Kristina is a fifth year graduate student, interested in ethics (particularly neo-Aristotelian ethics), moral psychology, and (recently) philosophy of mind. She has lived in the Bay Area since she graduated from college.

Jessica Gelber (B.A., UC Berkeley 1997) Jessica is in the Classical philosophy program finishing a dissertation on metaphysical issues in Aristotle’s biology.

James Genone (B.A., UC Berkeley; M.A., Boston College). James is currently a post-doctoral fellow in the Introduction to the Humanities Program at Stanford University. His new website can be found here.

Kelly Glover (B.A. Hon. with high distinction, University of Toronto, 2008) Kelly’s philosophical interests include, but are not limited to, Early Modern Philosophy (especially Descartes and Leibniz), Epistemology, and Philosophy of Language.

Matthew Hoberg (A.B., Princeton, 2009). Matthew’s primary interests are in ethics, action theory, epistemology and the philosophy of religion.

James Hutchinson (B.A., University of Toronto, 2009) Jim likes meaning and thoughts and Frege, as well as a lot of other things in philosophy.

Arpy Khatchirian (B.A., Mathematics & Philosophy - Rutgers University, 1996) Arpy’s interests include the philosophy of mind, epistemology, and some issues in the philosophy of language and logic. She is working on questions concerning the relation between content, propositional attitudes and normativity.

Erica Klempner (B.A., Oxford University; S.M., MIT) Erica is currently interested in everything. Eventually, she will have received an education, and will therefore only be interested in one or two things.

Markus Kohl (B.Phil., M.St., Oxford)

Tamar Lando (B.A., Stanford University) Tamar is a first year student.

Richard Lawrence (B.A., University of Pennsylvania, 2007). His interests are in the philosophy of language and science, particularly with the problem of how to describe and understand complex systems.

Kathryn Grzenczyk Mantoan (A.B., magna cum laude, Princeton University, 2002; J.D., cum laude, Harvard Law School, 2005) Kathryn is a first-year graduate student whose main interests include applied ethics and moral psychology. Prior to attending Berkeley, she worked as an attorney for four years in San Francisco. She is a proud coach of the San Francisco School of the Arts mock trial team.

Erich Matthes (B.A., Yale, 2007). Erich is primarily interested in moral, political, and legal philosophy, both historical and contemporary.

Luke Misenheimer (BA, Philosophy, UNC at Chapel Hill). Luke is interested in philosophy, especially philosophy of mind.

Julia Nefsky (B.A., Mathematics and Philosophy, McMaster University, 2005) Julia is working on a dissertation about the morality of collective harm. In addition to moral philosophy, she has interests in philosophy of logic and mathematics and various issues in epistemology.

Alison Niedbalski (B.A., Indiana University-South Bend, 2006; M.A., Western Michigan University, 2008)

Ethan Nowak (BA, Reed College; BPhil, University of Oxford) Ethan is interested in the philosophy of mind, in linguistics, and in the 22r Toyota motor.

Matthew Parrott (B.A., University of Michigan) Matt is finishing his dissertation “Agency and First-Person Authority”. His work concentrates on questions in philosophy of mind and epistemology but he also works in the history of modern philosophy (especially Hume). Additionally, Matt is interested in various questions in the philosophy of psychology, metaphysics, and Wittgenstein.

Kirsten Pickering (B.A., Philosophy and Political Science, Arizona State, 2009) Kirsten is a first year student in the department, and is currently interested in the broad field of ethics, including moral psychology, normative ethics, and political and legal philosophy.

Aparna Rao (B.A., Brandeis University, 1995) Aparna’s interests are primarily in contemporary metaphysics and epistemology. She is also interested in questions found at the juncture of philosophy of mind and philosophy of language. She hopes to broaden her interest in contemporary moral philosophy by investigating the relation between moral relativism and tolerance.

Michael Rieppel (B.A. University of Wisconsin) Mike is particularly interested in the philosophy of language, theory of meaning, and early analytic philosophy.

Stephen Schmall (B.S., Philosophy and Psychology, University of Wisconsin, 2005)

Ian Schnee (B.A., Middlebury, 1999; B.A., Oxford, 2002) Ian works the day shift in epistemology and philosophy of mind, but he moonlights as a Kant/language/logic/existentialism/film enthusiast. He is currently finishing a dissertation on the theory of reasons and the internalism-externalism debate in epistemology.

John Schwenkler (B.A., Catholic University, 2003; M.A. - Philosophy, Notre Dame, 2005) John works in the philosophy of psychology. Beginning January 2010 he will take up a tenure-track position at Mount St. Mary’s Unviersity.

Janum Sethi (B.A., Yale, 2005)

Umrao Sethi (B.A., Psychology, Philosophy, Columbia University, 2006). Umrao is a second year student. Her main interests are in philosophy of language, political philosophy and the history of modern philosophy.

Josh Sheptow (B.A., Philosophy - Wake Forest, 1997)

David Sidi (B.A., University of Arizona, 2006). David is a third-year student. He is a GSI for Philos 12a - Introduction to Logic. Find the website for his section here.

James Stazicker (B.A., Classics, Oxford; M.Phil., Philosophy, University College London) James’s main interests are in the philosophy of mind and philosophy of psychology. He’s writing a dissertation about the role of attention and knowledge in perceptual experience. His wider interests include ancient philosophy, metaphysics and conceptual truth.

Kathryn Swift (B.S., Math/Applied Science & Philosophy - UCLA, 1991)

Stephen Thurman (B.A., Brown University, 2007). Stephen is a third-year student. He is primarily interested in the history of philosophical methodology, particularly as it pertains to the development of the phenomenological tradition in the 19th and 20th centuries. Other interests of his include the philosophy of history, the philosophy of technology, and transhumanism.

Arthur Tilley (B.A., Philosophy, Math & English, University of Colorado). Arthur is interested in the foundations of math.

George Tsai (B.A., summa cum laude, Amherst College, 2002) George’s interests are mainly in ethics, political philosophy, and moral psychology. Other interests include the philosophy of mind, philosophy of law, 19th/20th-century “continental” philosophy (esp. Nietzsche), Chinese philosophy, and experimental philosophy. His dissertation takes up issues pertaining to the contingency of ethical thought and practice.

Gerardo Vildostegui (B.A. 1996, J.D. 2000, Yale University) Gerardo is writing a dissertation on justification by history, under the supervision of Professors Scheffler, Wallace, and Kutz. He is currently Assistant Professor of Law at Rutgers Law School, Camden, and a member of the Advisory Board of the Rutgers Institute for Law and Philosophy.

Katrina Winzeler (B.A. Tufts University, Philosophy and Biology, 2003) Katrina is mainly interested in philosophy of science (reductionism, physics, biology) and philosophy of mind, especially as it relates to neurobiology. As such, her current research project involves looking at the implications of the different interpretations of quantum mechanics on our understanding of the mind and possibly, free will.