Research Overview
My research focuses on topics in social metaphysics and the ethics of identity. Many of my current projects start from an interest in the ways we group ourselves with others. I think this “social grouping” is central to identity formation. Often, we look to people around us to figure out who we are like, and in turn, who we are. Am I one of the band kids, the nerds, the cheerleaders?; one of the liberals, the conservatives, the moderates?; one of the boys, the girls, or none of the above? Three questions have guided my recent work: (1) How does “social grouping” contribute to the project of self-discovery and self-determination, and what does the answer to this question reveal about what we owe to each other?; (2) How can we understand the pervasiveness and value of identity ambivalence?; and (3) What is the political import of “social grouping”?
For more detailed information about my current and future research projects, please see my research statement (linked).
Dissertation Chapters
My first and second chapters are currently under review; I have removed their descriptions here. Please email me if you would like to know more about them and/or read drafts.
In the third chapter of my dissertation (“Emerging Social Group Identities”), I start with the observation that we often group ourselves in ways that don’t correspond to stable social groups, classes, kinds, concepts, or labels. Take, for example, cases of new religious sects, burgeoning friend groups, or grassroots political organizations; in these cases, people can start to group themselves with one another before there is a corresponding stable group or a label to refer to such a group. I demonstrate how my account of social grouping can help us to better understand this phenomenon and argue that this type of social grouping has political potential: it offers us a way to reorient how we group other people and ourselves by changing which similarities we share with others are significant to us and others around us.