Academic Appointments
Associate Professor, Department of Philosophy, Oklahoma State University, Fall 2019 - Present
Assistant Professor, Department of Philosophy, Oklahoma State University, Fall 2012 - Spring 2019.
Visiting Research Fellowship, Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities, University of Edinburgh, Spring 2015
Fellowship in Philosophy of Cognition, Center for Mind, Brain and Cognitive Evolution at Ruhr University Bochum, Summer 2014.
James S. McDonnell Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Philosophy-Neuroscience-Psychology Program, Washington University in St. Louis, Fall 2011 - Spring 2012.
Education
Ph.D. 2011, Philosophy, University of Wisconsin-Madison
M.A. 2005, Philosophy, University of Arkansas
B.A. 2002, Philosophy, Texas Tech University
Publications
Books
41. Routledge Handbook of Embodied Cognition, second edition, coedited with Lawrence Shapiro. Forthcoming in Routledge.
40. How We Understand Others: Philosophy and Social Cognition. 2018: Routledge.
Articles
39. "Defining key concepts for mental state attribution" (with Francois Quesque, Ian Apperly, Renée Baillargeon, Simon Baron-Cohen, Cristina Becchio, Harold Bekkering, Daniel Bernstein, Maxime Bertoux, Geoffrey Bird, Henryk Bukowski, Pascal Burgmer, Peter Carruthers, Caroline Catmur, Isabel Dziobek, Nicholas Epley, Thorsten Erle, Chris Frith, Uta Frith, Carl Galang, Vittorio Gallese, Delphine Grynberg, Francesca Happe, Masahiro Hirai, Sara Hodges, Philipp Kanske, Mariska Kret, Claus Lamm, Jean-Louis Nandrino, Sukhvinder Obhi, Sally Olderbak, Josef Perner, yves rossetti, Dana Schneider, Matthias Schurz, Tobias Schuwerk, Natalie Sebanz, Simone Shamay-Tsoory, Giorgia Silani, Andrew Todd, Evan Westra, Dan Zahavi, and Marcel Brass) forthcoming in Communications Psychology.
38. "Imagining Others"
forthcoming in Analysis.
37. "Motivating Empathy"
forthcoming in Mind & Language.
36. “Phenomenology of Social Explanation”
forthcoming in Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences.
35. "Assessing the Implicit Bias Research Programme"
WIREs Cognitive Science (2022).
34. "Embodied Cognition" (with Lawrence Shapiro)
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (2021).
33. "Beliefs and Biases"
Synthese. 2021: 199, 7575–7594.
32. "Introduction to Folk Psychology: Pluralistic Approaches" (with Kristin Andrews and Evan Westra)
Synthese. 2021: 199, 1685–1700.
31. "What is Mindreading?"
WIREs Cognitive Science. 2020: 11(3).
30. "Response to Evan Westra’s review of How We Understand Others”
Philosophical Psychology. 2020: 33(6): 883-887.
29. Review of Michael Brownstein and Jennifer Saul’s Implicit Bias and Philosophy: Metaphysics and Epistemology (Oxford 2016). The Philosophical Review. 2018: 127(4), 536-541.
28. “Mindreading Beyond Belief: A More Comprehensive Conception of How We Understand Others”
Philosophy Compass. 2018: 13(11).
27. “Do You See What I See? How Social Differences Influence Mindreading”
Synthese. 2018: 195(9), 4009-4030
26. “Conceptual Centrality and Implicit Bias” (with Guillermo del Pinal)
Mind & Language. 2018: 33(1), 95-111.
25. “How We Think and Act Together”
Philosophical Psychology. 2017: 30(3), 302-218.
24. “On Whether We Can See Intentions”
Pacific Philosophical Quarterly. 2017: 98(2), 150-170.
23. “Intersubjectivity”
Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy Online. 2016.
22. “Mind Misreading”
Philosophical Issues. 2016: 26(1), 422-440.
21. “Imagination, Desire, and Rationality”
The Journal of Philosophy. 2015: 112(9), 457-476.
20. “On Direct Social Perception”
Consciousness and Cognition. 2015: 36, 472-482.
19. “Phenomenology of Social Cognition”
Erkenntnis. 2015: 380(5), 1069-108.
18. “Mirror Neurons and Social Cognition”
Mind & Language. 2013: 28(2), 233-257.
17. “Mirror Neurons Are Not Evidence for the Simulation Theory”
Synthese. 2012: 189(3), 515-534.
16. “Introduction to Debates on Embodied Social Cognition”
Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences. 2012: 11(4), 431-448.
15. “Overextended Cognition”
Philosophical Psychology. 2012: 25(4), 469 - 490.
14. “Embodied Social Cognition”
Philosophical Topics. 2011: 39(1), 141-162.
13. “A Critique of Embodied Simulation”
Review of Philosophy and Psychology. 2011: 2(3), 579-599.
12. “Embodied Cognition and Mindreading”
Mind & Language. 2010: 25(1), 119-140.
11. “Imagination and Other Scripts” (with Eric Funkhouser)
Philosophical Studies. 2009: 143(3), 291-314.
10. Review (with Lawrence Shapiro) of Andy Clark's Supersizing the Mind (Oxford, 2008).
Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews. 2009.
Chapters
9. "Empathy Skills and Habits"
Empathy’s Role in Understanding Persons, Literature, and Art, Thomas Petraschka and Christiana Werner (eds.). 2024: 25-43. Routledge Press.
8. “Implicit Social Cognition”
Routledge Handbook of Philosophy and Implicit Cognition, Robert Thompson (ed.), Forthcoming. Routledge Press.
7. "How I Know What You Know"
Oxford Handbook of Social Epistemology, Jennifer Lackey and Aidan McGlynn (eds.) Forthcoming. Oxford University Press.
6. "The Nature of Empathy"
(with Rita Svetlova and Hannah Read): Philosophy of Neuroscience, Walter Sinnott-Armstrong and Felipe De Brigard (eds.). 2022: 49-77. MIT Press.
5. “Embodied Cognition and Sport”
(with Lawrence Shapiro) Handbook of Embodied Cognition and Sport Psychology, Massimiliano Cappuccio (ed.). 2018: 3-22. MIT Press.
4. “Cognitive Empathy”
The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of Empathy, Heidi Maibom (ed.). 2017: 13-21. Routledge Press.
3. “Simulation Theory”
The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of Imagination, Amy Kind (ed.). 2016: 262-273. Routledge Press “Imagination Through Knowledge”
2. "Imagination Through Knowledge"
Knowledge Through Imagination, Amy Kind and Peter Kung (eds.). 2016: 207-226. Oxford University Press.
1. “Embodied Cognition and Theory of Mind”
The Routledge Handbook of Embodied Cognition, Lawrence Shapiro (ed.). 2014: 197-206. Routledge Press.
2010 - present
2010 - present
Presentations
75. "Imagining Others"
University of Giessen (September 2025)
74. "Socially Extended Cognition"
Extended Mind at 25, University of Colorado (August 2023)
71-73. "Trust and Empathy"
University of Antwerp (May 2023)
University of Minnesota Mankato (February 2024)
Indiana University - Bloomington (March 2024)
70. "The Empathy Habit"
University of Duisburg - Essen (May 2022)
68-69. "Motivating Empathy"
University of Georgia (March 2022)
University of Zurich (December 2021)
67. "Phenomenology of Social Cognition"
University of Leipzig (October 2021)
66. "Social Cognition Meets Social Epistemology"
American Philosophical Association, Central Division (February 2021)
65. "How I Know What You Know"
City University of New York Graduate College (October 2020)
64. "Minds, Bodies, and Environments"
Bryn Mawr College (October 2019)
60-63. "Beliefs and Biases"
Van Leer Institute – Jerusalem, Israel (September 2022)
University of Miami (January 2020)
Iowa State University (November 2019)
University of Maryland – College Park (May 2019)
59. Author Meets Critics for my book “How We Understand Others”
Society for Philosophy and Psychology (March 2019)
57-58. "How We Understand Others"
Eastern Michigan University Undergraduate Conference in Philosophy keynote (March 2020)
Pitzer College (December 2018)
55-56. "Stereotypes in Folk Psychology"
University of Alabama Birmingham (November 2017)
Normative Folk Psychology workshop, York University (October 2017)
54. “Conceptual Centrality and Implicit Bias”
Society for Philosophy and Psychology (July 2017)
51-53. "Do You See What I See? How Social Differences Influence Our Perceptions"
iCOG Conference, University of Oxford (June 2017)
Coastal Carolina University (public lecture, February 2016)
Oklahoma State University (public lecture, September 2015)
50. “How We Think and Act Together”
Embodied Awareness Conference, University of Cincinnati (February 2017)
48-49. "Mind Misreading"
Society for Philosophy and Psychology (cancelled) (June 2016)
Southern Society for Philosophy and Psychology (March 2016)
43-47. “Divergent Social Interpretations”
Mississippi State University (January 2016)
University of Houston (November 2015)
George Washington University (October 2015)
Mentoring Workshop, University of Duke (June 2015)
University of Kansas (May 2015)
42. “Theory of Mind: A Paradigmatic Case of Interdisciplinary Research”
Southern Society for Philosophy and Psychology (April 2015)
40-41. "On Direct Social Perception"
University of Stirling (February 2015)
Dimensions of Intentionality, Ruhr University Bochum (October 2014)
33-39. “Imagination, Rationality, and Desire”
Coastal Carolina University (February 2016)
Glasgow University Philosophy Society (January 2015)
University of Oxford (July 2014)
Heinrich-Heine University of Düsseldorf (May 2014)
American Philosophical Association, Central Division (February 2014)
Southern Society for Philosophy and Psychology (February 2014)
American Society for Aesthetics (November 2013)
32. "Does Philosophy Matter for Science?"
Henderson State University (public lecture, November 2014)
30-31. "Phenomenology of Social Cognition"
Society for Philosophy and Psychology (June 2015)
Instituting Minds Conference, London UK (July 2014)
27-29. “Mirror Neurons Are Not Evidence for Simulation Theory”
Berlin School of Mind and Brain (June 2014)
Ruhr University Bochum (June 2014)
St Louis Area Philosophy of Science Association (February 2012)
26. "Philosophy and Science"
Emerson-Wier Symposium, USAO (public lecture, March 2014)
25. “Imaginary Desires”
Texas Tech University (October 2013)
20.-24. “On Whether We Can See Intentions”
Texas Tech University (public lecture, October 2013)
Workshop for Pre-Tenure Women in Philosophy (June 2013)
University of Memphis (April 2013)
Southern Society for Philosophy and Psychology (March 2013)
Metaphysics of Mind and Brain Workshop, Humboldt University (July 2012)
19. “Implicit Mindreading”
Society for Philosophy and Psychology (paper swap, June 2013)
17.-18. “A Theory-Theory Account of Mirror Neurons”
Society for Philosophy and Psychology (poster, June 2012)
Southern Society for Philosophy and Psychology (March 2012)
15.-16. “Mirror Neurons and Social Cognition”
Washington University PNP/Medical School Seminar (March 2012)
Washington University in St. Louis (November 2011)
10.-14. “Overextended Cognition”
University of Missouri – St Louis (February 2012)
Oklahoma State University (January 2012)
Georgia State University (April 2011)
University of Arkansas (April 2011)
University of Cincinnati (January 2011)
9. “The Role of Mirror Neurons in Social Cognition”
Southern Society for Philosophy and Psychology (April 2011)
7.-8. “The Mark of the Cognitive”
Society for Philosophy and Psychology (poster) (June 2009)
University of Texas Graduate Philosophy Conference (April 2009)
5.-6. “The Thesis of Multiple Realizability”
Southern Society for Philosophy and Psychology (April 2009)
University of Wisconsin – Madison (March 2009)
1.-4. “Embodied Cognition and Mindreading”
Southern Society for Philosophy and Psychology (March 2008)
Yale/UConn Graduate Philosophy (November 2007)
Iowa Philosophical Society Conference (October 2007)
University of Wisconsin – Madison (September 2007)
Interviews, Blogs, and Podcasts
6. Okstate News Interview - OSU philosophy professor studying how much empathy is too much
5. Philosophy of Brains - 5-part symposium on How We Understand Others
4. New Books in Philosophy podcast - How We Understand Others
3. Imperfect Cognitions blog - How We Understand Others
2. Imperfect Cognitions blog - Conceptual Centrality and Implicit Bias
1. Philosophy of Brains blog - Symposium on "Conceptual Centrality and Implicit Bias." Commentary from Bryce Huebner (Georgetown), Edouard Machery (Pittsburgh), Eric Mandelbaum (CUNY), Steven Sloman (Brown), and Ema Sullivan-Bissett (Birmingham).
1. Philosophy of Brains - discussion of symposium on relationship between the humanities and science
Honors and Awards
President’s Fellows Faculty Research Award (2022)
$20,000 award for groundbreaking research at Oklahoma State University. Funds awarded to study motivated empathy.
Grant – Summer Seminars in Neuroscience and Philosophy (2019)
Honoraria to travel to Duke University and present interdisciplinary research on the nature of empathy for an anthology on neuroscience and philosophy, published in MIT Press.
Distinguished Early Career Faculty Award (2019)
Oklahoma State University honor for scholarly excellence, awarded to one recently tenured professor in each college.
Grant - Summer Seminars in Neuroscience and Philosophy (2018)
$30,000 grant to study the development and neural basis of empathy in children and adults, with Rita Svetlova, Rosa Li, Hannah Read, and Thomas Nadelhoffer. (Funds diverted to study empathy and covid mitigation strategies in summer 2020.)
Arts & Sciences Junior Faculty Award (2016)
Oklahoma State University College of Arts and Sciences award for scholarly excellence from a junior faculty member.
Sophia Lecture (2015)
George Washington University endowed lectureship that aims to recognize and publicize the excellent scholarship of younger women and minority members of the profession. The recipient of the honor gives a public lecture at George Washington University.
Arts and Sciences Summer Research Program (2014)
Oklahoma State University Arts & Sciences grant that provides one month's summer salary and additional supplementary funding to conduct research during the summer.
Richard M. Griffith Award (2014)
The Southern Society for Philosophy and Psychology evaluates SSPP conference submissions from young scholars. On the basis of the written paper and the oral presentation, the committee selects the most outstanding philosophy paper and psychology paper from the conference. Awarded for "Imagination, Desire, and Rationality."
Spring Travel Grant (2014)
Oklahoma State University Arts & Sciences grant that provides assistance for travel to academic conferences.
Dean’s Incentive Grant (2013 and 2014)
Oklahoma State University Arts & Sciences grant that provides assistance and promotes scholarship for early-career Assistant Professors.
Richard W. McHugh Summer Dissertation Fellowship (2010)
The Wisconsin Philosophy Department annually evaluates dissertation proposals and selects the most promising proposals for this award.
Oliver Prize (2008)
Annual award for an essay judged by the UW philosophy faculty to be the best among those written by a graduate student in each academic year. Awarded for “Embodied Cognition and Mindreading.”
Professional Service
Professional Leadership
Head Program Chair for joint meeting of the Society for Philosophy and Psychology and the European Society of Philosophy and Psychology in Milan, Italy (2021-2022)
American Philosophical Association, Executive Committee, Central Division (2018 – 2021)
American Philosophical Association, Committee on Lectures, Publications, and Research (2016 – 2019)
Southern Society for Philosophy and Psychology, Council Member (2014 – 2017)
Committee for Richard M. Griffith Award for Southern Society for Philosophy and Psychology (2015, 2017)
Refereeing and Editorial Work
Editorial Work: Associate editor at Ergo (2017 – present), Editor for PhilPapers' Theory of Mind and Folk Psychology category (July 2015 – present), guest editor for a special issue on embodied social cognition in Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences (2012), guest editor for special issue in Synthese (2019).
Journals: Analysis, Australasian Journal of Philosophy, British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, Cognitive Systems Research, Episteme, Ergo, Journal of Philosophy, Mind, Mind & Language, Minds & Machines, Nous, Pacific Philosophical Quarterly, Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences, Philosophers’ Imprint, Philosophical Explorations, Philosophical Psychology, Philosophical Quarterly, Philosophical Studies, Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, Philosophy of Science, Review of Philosophy and Psychology, Synthese, Theory and Psychology.
Conferences: Cognitive Science Society, Normative Folk Psychology workshop, Philosophy of Imagination conference, Society for Philosophy and Psychology, Southern Society for Philosophy and Psychology.
Grants: Danish Council for Independent Research, Oklahoma State University Spring 2013 Travel Program.
Book Proposals: Oxford University Press, Routledge Press, Versita Press.
Commentating
Comments on “Focal and Ambient Processing of Architecture” by Lester Loschky, Conference on the Aesthetics of Architecture and Design, Manhattan, KS (March 2016)
Comments on "The Paradox of Fiction: An Irrational Solution” by Simon Fokt, American Society for Aesthetics (November 2015)
Comments on “Chimpanzee Mindreading and the Value of Parsimonious Mental Models” by Hayley Clatterbuck, Mind & Language Symposium, Philosophy of Brains (September 2015)
Comments on “Talking about Minds: Social Experience, Pragmatic Development, and the False Belief Task” by Evan Westra, Minds Online Conference, Philosophy of Brains (September 2015)
Comments on “Two Faces of Caring” by Jennifer Morton, Midsummer Philosophy Workshop, University of Cambridge (July 2014)
Comments on "How to Construct a Minimal Theory of Mind" by Stephen Butterfill and Ian Apperly, Mind & Language Symposium, Philosophy of Brains (November 2013)
Comments on “Is Scientific Inference Holistic in Any Sense that Matters for Cognitive Science?” by Timothy Fuller and Richard Samuels, American Philosophical Association, Central Division (February 2012)
Comments on “Theory of Mind, Computational Tractability and Mindshaping” by Tad Zawidzki, Southern Society for Philosophy and Psychology (April 2010)
Teaching
Great Philosophers
Historically oriented introductory course with a focus on the most important texts in the history of Western philosophy. Philosophers studied included Plato, Aristotle, Descartes, Hume, and Kant.
Introduction to Philosophy
Introductory course with an emphasis on introducing students to a variety of philosophical topics in the analytic tradition. Topics included epistemology, philosophy of religion, metaphysics, philosophy of mind, ethics, and political philosophy.
Contemporary Moral Issues
Course targeted to non-majors with an emphasis on applied ethics. Topics included abortion, animal ethics, capital punishment, famine relief, and licensing parents.
Imagination
Graduate seminar in philosophy of mind. Topics include the nature of imagination, pretense, imaginative resistance, the paradox of fiction, and imagination and possibility.
Other Minds
Upper-level undergraduate/graduate course in philosophy of mind. The focus of the course is social cognition, our ability to understand and engage in social interactions. Topics included nativism, modularity of the mind, Dennett’s intentional stance, animal minds, and autism.
Moral Psychology
Graduate seminar on evolution of morality, innateness, moral intuitions, moral disagreement, situationism, moral virtues, and happiness.
Empathy
Graduate seminar on the nature of empathy, its connection to moral development/motivation/judgment, criticisms of empathy, gender differences in empathy, and the connection to autism and psychopathy.
Philosophy of Mind
Upper-level undergraduate survey of philosophy of mind. Topics include consciousness, physicalism, mind-body relation, self and agency, animal minds, artificial intelligence.
Philosophy of Psychology
Upper-level undergraduate survey of philosophy of psychology. Topics include the nature of psychology, inter-theoretic reduction of psychology, cognitive architecture, innate vs. learned cognitive capacities, perception and action, embodied cognition, consciousness, social cognition, and the effects of language on cognition.
Philosophy of Science
Upper-level undergraduate/graduate survey in philosophy of science. Topics included demarcating science from pseudoscience, values and objectivity in science, underdetermination, the problem of induction, models of explanation, laws of nature, reductionism, and scientific realism.