Education

B.A., Yale University (2005)
Ph.D., Rutgers University (2011)

Research

I study representation, semantics, and iconicity through the lens of a computational theory of mind.

Please visit my personal website for pdfs, abstracts, and works in progress.

Publications

Articles

Published and forthcoming:

  • “The Iconic-Symbolic Spectrum,” forthcoming, Philosophical Review.
  • “Map Semantics and the Geography of Meaning,” forthcoming, Handbook of Applied Philosophy of Language, OUP.
  • “The Semantics of Face Emoji in Discourse” Linguistics and Philosophy (2023) (with Patrick Grosz, Christian De Leon, and Elsi Kaiser)
  • “Review of John Kulvicki’s Modelling the Meaning of Pictures,” Philosophical Review 131 (3), 373-378.
  • “Showing Seeing in Film,” Ergo, 7:27 (2021): 730-756. (with Sam Cumming, Rory Kelly, and Elsi Kaiser)
  • “Semantics of Pictorial Space,” Review of Philosophy and Psychology (2021).
  • “Counterfactuals and Modality,” Linguistics and Philosophy (2021).
  • “Tagging: Semantics at the Iconic/Symbolic Interface,” Proceedings of the 22nd Amsterdam Colloquium (2019): 11-20.
  • “Content and Target in Pictorial Representation,” Ergo, 5:33 (2018): 865-898. “Conventions of Viewpoint Coherence in Film,” Philosopher’s Imprint, 17:1 (2017): 1-28. (with Sam Cumming and Rory Kelly)
  • “Varieties of Iconicity,” Review of Philosophy and Psychology, 6:1 (2015): 1-25. (with Valeria Giardino)
  • “Beyond Resemblance,” Philosophical Review 122:2 (2013): 215-287.

Work in progress:

  • “Spatial Coherence in Narrative Film” (under review)
  • “The Structure of Visual Content” (under review)
  • “Iconic and Symbolic Representation” (book project, under contract with OUP)
  • “Visual Objects”

Courses

I regularly teach the following undergraduate courses:

  • Philosophy 7: Introduction to Philosophy of Mind
  • Philosophy 133: Computational Theory of Mind
  • Philosophy 161: Visual Representation

I’ve taught the following graduate seminars:

  • Mental Iconicity
  • Emotions and their Expression
  • Non-Linguistic Representation
  • Visual Narrative (with Sam Cumming, UCLA Philosophy)
  • Indexicality
  • Visual Objects
  • 80’s Classics (aka Naturalizing Intentionality)
  • Iconic and Symbolic Representation
  • Semantics of Irreality (with Jessica Rett, UCLA Linguistics)
  • Pictorial Semantics
  • Cognition and Computation