Graduate Students
Anna Brinkerhoff
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Anna is originally from Auburn, AL. She received her BA in philosophy from Pepperdine University before coming to Brown. Her main philosophical interests are in epistemology, normative ethics, and moral psychology.
Mark Christman
Mark received his B.A. in Philosophy from the University of Rochester along with a degree in Physics. While he enjoys dabbling in all areas of Philosophy, his primary interests are in Logic, Philosophy of Physics, and playing devil's advocate.
Conrad Damstra
Conrad received his BA in philosophy from Williams College. He is primarily interested in Kant’s theoretical philosophy but also has interests in early modern philosophy, political philosophy, and German idealism. Outside of philosophy, he enjoys reading (fiction and history) and watching sports, especially the Philadelphia Eagles.
Arianna Falbo
Arianna grew up in Mississauga, ON. She got her HBA in Philosophy from University of Toronto and her MA in Philosophy from Simon Fraser University. Her research interests are primarily in epistemology and she has secondary interests in philosophy of language, feminist philosophy, and ethics. She also co-organizes the Minorities and Philosophy (MAP) chapter at Brown.
Leonard Feldblyum
Leonard received his MA from Georgia State University. His interests include history of philosophy (Kant, Hegel, Nietzsche) and ethics.
Meredith Gilman
Louis Gularte
Louis received his B.A. in psychology and philosophy from Notre Dame and his M.A. in philosophy from NIU. His dissertation is about suffering and whether it (or anything) is bad. He tells people his main interests are in metaethics and philosophy of emotion, but he's also interested in philosophy of language, philosophy of mind, epistemology, Buddhist philosophy, and pretty much everything else. He is also pursuing an M.S. in cognitive neuroscience through Brown's Open Graduate Education (OGE) program.
Yongming Han
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Yongming's main research interests are in moral philosophy, though he also has research programs on issues at the interface of thought and speech. His primary research program involves advancing a broadly neo-Humean, subjectivist view in moral philosophy.
Marc Hewitt
Marc is from Vancouver, British Columbia. He received his B.A. in philosophy from UBC in 2015 and his M.A. in theology from Regent College in 2018. His main philosophical interests are in political philosophy, ethics, and epistemology.
Emily Hodges
Emily’s main interests lie in history of philosophy (especially Kant and post-Kantian German philosophy), philosophy of moral psychology, aesthetics, intersubjectivity, action theory, and value theory. In terms of moral psychology, she is especially interested in moral development -- such as cultivation of respect, virtue, centeredness, and intersubjective attentiveness. In terms of aesthetics, she is currently exploring aesthetic experience, curiosity, and the role of place. She utilizes methods of systematic philosophy, historical interpretation, dialogue, and phenomenology. Her dissertation explores the interplay between individual moral development, community development, and development of socio-political structures in Kant. She also has interests in applied ethics (especially sustainability) and philosophy of psychoanalysis.
Yiran Hua
Ying Huang
Ying’s main interests lie in the philosophy of mind and cognitive science. She is also interested in the philosophy of science, metaphysics, aesthetics and Kant.
Laurence Kenny
Larry received his B.A. in linguistics from Dartmouth and his M.A. in philosophy from Tufts. His interests are in phenomenology and translation and especially the early translation of Western philosophy into Japanese. He makes a hobby of starting, and sometimes even continuing, to study languages and musical instruments, with a current focus on German and the flute.
Rachel Leadon
Rachel is from Seattle, Washington. She received her BA from Willamette University and her MA in Philosophy from Tufts University. Her main areas of philosophical interests include philosophy of mind, ethics, metaethics, and action theory. She has served as a member of AmeriCorps, working with Adult Basic Education students and Adult ESL students. Rachel spent the last year teaching 7thgraders for an extended-day program in Roxbury, Massachusetts.
Chad Marxen
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Chad is from Sammamish, WA. He received a B.A. in Philosophy from Pepperdine University before coming to Brown. His main philosophical interests are in epistemology, metaethics, normative ethics, and metaphysics.
Sam McGrath
Originally from Miami Beach, FL, Sam McGrath received his BA from the University of Chicago in 2014 with a thesis focused on Wittgenstein’s Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus. Upon graduating, he moved to rural Japan, where he worked as an English Teacher. In 2016, he completed an MPhil in Philosophy at Trinity College, Dublin, writing his thesis on Carnap, Quine, and the concept of metalinguistic negotiation. His general philosophical interests thus far have centered on language, metaphysics, and the history of analytic philosophy.
Patrick McKee
Patrick grew up in Maryland, received his A.B. in applied mathematics (focusing on economics) from Harvard College in 2007, and worked in the financial services industry for a decade. He joined the philosophy PhD program at Brown in 2020. His philosophical interests include ethics, metaethics, epistemology and philosophical logic.
Haigen Messerian
Haigen is originally from Southern California, and received his B.A. from UC Berkeley. His philosophical interests are mainly in philosophy of mind, epistemology, and the history of analytic philosophy. He also loves listening to jazz music and playing his banjo.
Samuel Musker
Sam is from Johannesburg, South Africa. After beginning his studies in engineering at the University of Cape Town, he transferred to the University of Pennsylvania. There he received his BA in 2019 with a major in philosophy and science, and with minors in mathematics and "logic, information, and computation". Before joining the philosophy program, Sam worked at the Boston Consulting Group for a year in Boston. At Brown he is excited to pursue research at the intersection between philosophy and computer science.
Mary Renaud
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Mary received her B.A. and M.A. in Philosophy from Carleton University (Ottawa, Canada). Her main areas of interests are in Metaethics and Philosophy of Action, with additional interests in Philosophy of Language, Formal and Informal Logic, and Buddhist Ethics & Metaphysics.
Matthew Schrepfer
Matthew grew up in rural Pennsylvania. He received his BA from Fordham University and an MA from Georgia State University, both in philosophy. His interests are in political philosophy and history, especially Hegel and Marx.
Taylan Susam
Taylan is from Amsterdam, the Netherlands. He studied music composition the Royal Conservatoire of The Hague, and philosophy and political science at the University of Leuven and at Boğaziçi University, Istanbul. His current philosophical interests include Kant’s practical philosophy, moral psychology and the self.
Anna Tsvetkov
Anna is from Brooklyn, New York. She is primarily interested in philosophy of mind, especially consciousness. She also has strong interests in epistemology. Prior to joining Brown, she completed her B.A. in Philosophy at SUNY Binghamton.
Taojie Wang
Taojie received a BA in English from University of Liverpool, a BA in philosophy from KU Leuven, and an MA in philosophy from University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. His philosophical interests are broad. They include philosophy of mind, philosophy of action, philosophy of language, epistemology, Kant, and Wittgenstein. He also has a growing interest in aesthetics and moral psychology.
Stavros Orfeas Zormpalas
Orfeas grew up in Athens, Greece and got his BA in philosophy at Dartmouth College. His philosophical interests are still forming, and still very, very broad. They include metaphysics, language, philosophical logic, epistemology, and many questions in metaethics that overlap with any of the above. In his spare time, he likes to be with friends, and to be outside, walking, biking, camping, climbing and sitting around. He also loves music.
