I am a newly tenured professor in the Department of Philosophy at Florida State University. My research is in interdisciplinary philosophy of mind, spanning a range of topics concerning perception, action, and the self.
With the support of an ACT Fellowship, I would spend three years taking graduate coursework and conducting laboratory research in psychology and neuroscience at my home institution. In the course of this study I would earn an M.S. in Cognitive Psychology and complete all the requirements for a Ph.D. but a dissertation.
My research already draws significantly on these fields, but my knowledge of them is incomplete. The proposed course of study will put me in a position to publish in the fields of psychology and neuroscience, to dialogue more fruitfully with researchers in those fields, and to draw more widely on experimental data and scientific theories in my philosophical work. In addition, by undertaking this study at my home institution I will be ideally situated to join my colleagues in cross-disciplinary work.
My cross-disciplinary mentor is Dr. Michael Kaschak, a Professor in our Department of Psychology whose research is in cognitive science and embodiment. Under his supervision I will spend time working with a range of different faculty during my first two years of study before settling formally on an academic supervisor.
Following my completion of these three years of study I intend (a) to incorporate what I have learned about the human mind into my philosophical research, (b) to make direct contributions to the fields of psychology and neuroscience (including, perhaps, by completing my dissertation and thus earning my second Ph.D.), (c) to join with colleagues at Florida State and elsewhere in cross-disciplinary research, and (d) to pursue large grant opportunities, from the John Templeton Foundation and elsewhere, that will help to further these goals.
