I am an Assistant Professor in the Philosophy Department at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT). I am also affiliated with RIT's Cognitive Science PhD program and its Center for Cognitive Science and with the Center for Music, Brain, and Society at the University of Southern California (where I did my PhD). My research follows three distinct, but frequently overlapping streams: the philosophy of mind and cognitive neuroscience, the philosophy of language and linguistics, and the philosophy of art (especially the philosophy of music).
 
My research in philosophy of mind and cognitive neuroscience develops and applies an account of perceptual contents that is grounded in a fine-grained functional analysis of the neural mechanisms involved in perception. This stands in contrast to the standard way of theorizing about perception in philosophy, cognitive science, and perceptual psychology; namely, in terms of the Aristotelian senses (sight, hearing, touch, taste, and smell). I apply this account to a number of topics in the philosophy of perception – particularly those related to spatial perception. I am also conducting research on mental imagery with a team of neuroscientists and philosophers (see here).

My work on perception fits into my broader interests in mental content and its connection to issues in the philosophy of language and linguistics. I am currently conducting research on the perception/language interface – e.g., how perceptual and linguistic representations of events interact and the extent to which they overlap.

My research in the philosophy of art (especially the philosophy of music) connects to my prior work as a composer and musicologist (see here). I am currently working on a series of papers on the implications of composer John Cage's work for the ontology of experimental musical works and conceptual art and the scope of evaluative statements regarding such works.
 
​Click here for a look at my CV (last updated 15 May 2024). Click here for my recent research.
 
And I am a composer.  Click here for more on my work in music.