I am a fifth-year graduate student at the University of Pittsburgh in the Department of History and Philosophy of Science. My primary interests are in general philosophy of science, philosophy of neuroscience, and feminist philosophy.
 
I am currently interested in the uses and limitations of network modeling and graph theory across the life sciences. The current interest in network science in biology, neuroscience, and social epistemology raises classic philosophy of science issues such as the integration of models at different scales, types and features of scientific explanation, and epistemological issues in model building and evaluation. I am also interested in experimentation in neuroscience. For example, I examine how the distinction between hypothesis-driven and exploratory (or data-driven) research can clarify neurofeminist critiques of gender difference neuroscience experiments as well as provide constructive suggestions for conducting better studies in the future.
 
Another area of research is in feminist philosophy broadly construed. I research the demographics of philosophy and causes of the underrepresentation of women and minority groups across various disciplines. Along with many of my co-authors, I have researched possible factors for women's and black students' underrepresentation in philosophy. Additionally, some of my co-authors and I have proposed a causal framework for testing claims about intersectionality, which would be able to test claims about intersectionality of these factors or about the experiences of black women in philosophy, were the appropriate data sets available. Much of my work in this area ties into recommendations and interventions in the philosophy classroom. I have also compiled interventions from the social psychology literature concerning minorities' experiences in computer science, physics, and engineering. This literature review has resulted in several documents with plausible recommendations for improving and diversifying the philosophy classroom.
 
I am a student member of the Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition, an interdisciplinary neural and cognitive science center with both Pitt and Carnegie Mellon University. I am also a member of the Pittsburgh Empirical Philosophy Lab. Before attending Pitt, I completed my Master's in Philosophy at Georgia State University with an emphasis in Neurophilosophy. While there I received the Brains & Behavior Fellowship. Prior to Georgia State, I completed my Bachelor's in Philosophy and Psychology at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville.