about me

I’m a PhD candidate in Philosophy at the University of Michigan and a JD student at Stanford Law School. For my CV, click here.

I think most about foundational issues of environmental law. In other words, I apply the methods and questions of political philosophy to relevant areas of law — inter alia, regulatory, property, and toxic torts — to better understand how we might promote environmental justice. I’m in the very early stages of a dissertation which seeks to use political philosophy to better understand how to promote environmental justice through law. I’m especially interested in normative questions relating to real property dispossession, zoning regulation, and toxic torts.

More broadly, I maintain research interests in the union of legal theory, political philosophy, and epistemology. A smattering of the questions I’m currently grappling with: how do excuses and justifications operate across different normative domains? How might our normative and communicative practices alienate neurodivergent people from our moral communities? How do the structures of social movements (e.g. protest groups or advocacy networks) change their moral and epistemic statuses? I’m happy to share drafts of work in progress. For more specifics, see my research page.

At Michigan, I’ve organized for quite a few groups in philosophy, including Michigan’s chapter of Minorities and Philosophy; an interdisciplinary working group on politics, law, and technology; an epistemology works-in-progress group; the 2022 Spring Colloquium in Political Epistemology; the 2023 Spring Colloquium on Salience and Attention, the Michigan Ethics Bowl, and more. I’m currently an International Organizer for Minorities and Philosophy International. For my organizing and service work, I received the Special Prize for Leadership in Co-Curricular Education (SPLICE) which “honors graduate students who have made outstanding contributions” that benefit our academic disciplines and institutions.

Before coming to graduate school, I was Research and Development Officer at the University Network for Human Rights in Middletown, Connecticut, where I worked on human rights advocacy related to global migration, environmental racism, and mass incarceration. While at the University Network for Human Rights, I wrote a number of policy publications, including They Didn’t Pay Us for Our Memories, a study of environmental racism and forced displacement near Lake Charles, Louisiana. You can read more about this report in The Guardian or watch Vice’s documentary on the findings of our study.

I completed my undergraduate degree in Philosophy and German at Stanford University, and I spent a significant amount of time studying at the University of Freiburg as a 2016-2017 Undergraduate Fellow of the Deutscher Akademischer Austausch Dienst. While in college, I interned in Belgium and Germany working on issues related to migration and technology policy.

I’ve played classical piano for over two decades. I still play in piano trios from time to time. I’m also an avid baker and experimental theatre-maker. I hold a deep love for avant-garde literature, and I try to get outside as often as possible. The Texas deserts, the California beaches, and the German mountains all hold a special place in my heart.