Thank you for visiting my site! I hope that it gives you a clear idea of who I am as a scholar and a teacher.

From Fall 2019 to Fall 2026, I was Professor of Philosophy at Sheridan College (Oakville, Ontario). I have studied at the University of Guelph (PhD, ’15), McMaster University (MA, ’08), and The University of Western Ontario (BA, ’06).

My current research asks how we ought to conceive of AI-mediated causal chains, and applies a diagnostic method drawn from my doctoral work on William James to answer it. In a Jamesian account of action, an ascription of agency is legitimate only when an observer’s inference that behaviour felt like action is matched by the conditions for it having done so; this is why dreamed actions are not actions. My method is thus to take a marker we typically treat as evidence of genuine agency, identify the condition that makes that marker normatively significant, and ask whether AI systems which display the marker of agency are able to satisfy the condition for normative significance. In short, I check whether the thing we are reading as agency is backed by what is supposed to back it, and then consider what follows normatively from any answer. You can find a brief description of my current research projects under “Research.”

Prior to Sheridan, I have had teaching appointments at the University of Guelph (F’15-W’19) and Redeemer University College (W’19). I have taught courses in digital ethics, applied ethics, critical thinking, social-political philosophy, epistemology, philosophy of science, and metaphysics. You can see descriptions for many of my courses under the “Teaching” tab, along with some words about my general approach to teaching.

If you have any questions about my work or how it may fit into your institution’s goals, please feel free to reach out at the email given to the right.