Writing & Talks

academic work · public talks · interviews

Academic

PhD Dissertation · MIT · 2016

Precisifying Art Pluralism

Art isn't one thing. There are aesthetic, institutional, and historical definitions, and none of them alone captures it. I argue that art is a complex kind: a structure of interrelated definitions where the aesthetic is focal. The experience of encountering art gives you freedom to think outside normal constraints. The institutions and the history exist in service of that experience.

Advisor: Sally Haslanger · Department of Linguistics and Philosophy

Talks

TEDxURI · 2021

What Kind of Life Should I Live?

Not about carbon footprints or policy. About the prior question: what kind of person do you want to be in relation to the climate crisis? How do you answer that honestly, without consumer guilt substituting for real engagement?

Tribute Labs · February 2026

AI-Facilitated Collaboration

What changes when AI operates in the space between people, rather than as a tool for individuals. With Joshua Kampa.

Artist Commons · 2025–2026

Philosophy of Art (Lecture Series)

Ongoing. Frameworks for understanding art practices; vocabulary to articulate them.

Interviews & Features

Engaged Philosophy · 2021