I am a Ph.D. Candidate and Connaught Scholar in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Toronto. In the Fall I will become a Limited Term Assistant Professor in the Teaching Stream at U of T.

I study inferential communication, social dynamics including norms and expectations, social meaning, abduction, conversational implicature, and Peircean pragmatism and semiotics. My dissertation argues the following:

1. Gricean implicature mechanics cannot generalize to all inferential communication.

2. Relevance Theory, plus three premises, shows how humans communicate by merely deviating from social expectations.

3. Dogwhistles are just as much about insiders maintaining plausible deniability with themselves, as they are about insiders maintaining plausible deniability with outsiders. 

My thesis is co-supervised by Cheryl Misak & Nate Charlow, and it is advised by Brendan de Kennessey and Joseph Heath. 

In addition to philosophy I have a passion for issues surrounding mental health and disability. During the pandemic I trained as a peer counsellor and helped found our department's inaugural Mental Health & Disability Caucus, receiving a Graduate Student Service Award for my work in this role. 

Before attending the University of Toronto I received a B.A. in Philosophy with Honors and a minor in Physics from the University of Tennessee.