Teaching

Below are courses for which I am (or was) the instructor of record. Currently, I teach one course a semester in the Neuroscience Program and two courses in Philosophy. My philosophy teaching primarily focuses on Philosophy of Mind and Philosophy of Science and my neuroscience teaching focuses on Theoretical/Computational neuroscience and the history of neuroscience.

Providence College, Providence, RI

PHL 310: Philosophy of Science Spring 2023

*Survey of themes in philosophy of science covering the structure of scientific theories, Bayesian confirmation theory, realism, and explanation with applications to issues in quantum theory, statistical mechanics, natural selection, deep learning, and mental representations.

PHL 105: Introduction to Philosophy Spring 2023

*General overview of contemporary philosophical work with applications to virtual reality, polarization, philosophy of religion, free will, and the development of modern science.

PHL 210: General Ethics Fall 2022

*A survey of ethical theories with a focus on the evolutionary basis of morality and recent cross-cultural research. Fulfills a core philosophy requirement.

Duke University, Durham, NC

NEURO 493: Independent Study in Neuroscience Fall 2020

*Supervised undergraduate major on an independent study using dream induction techniques and EOG methods to study gaze features during NREM and early-stage sleep.

University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC

BIOL 86: First Year Seminar (Genes & Determinism) Fall 2020

*Freshman writing-intensive seminar. The seminars are meant to be interdisciplinary, with an emphasis on bridging humanistic and scientific disciplines.

University of Notre Dame, South Bend, IN

PHIL/BIOL 20646: Philosophy of Neuroscience Fall 2018

*I designed and implemented this course, which was the first philosophy and cognitive science course offered in the department in the past 20 years. The course was later accepted as counting for credit under the newly developed Neuroscience and Behavior program in the Notre Dame College of Science.

Westville Correctional Facility, Westville, IN

PHIL 100: Introduction to Philosophy Fall 2018

*A required introductory philosophy course for students in the Moreau College Initiative at Westville Correctional Facility. The course covered basic problems in philosophy of mind, personal identity, philosophy of religion, and an ethics unit focused on the ethics of eating.

PHIL 403: Metaphysics (Personal Identity) Fall 2018

* An intensive personal reading section on the metaphysics and ethics of personal identity. Readings included George Mead, Derek Parfit, Charles Taylor, and Mark Johnston. The student produced a research paper that became part of an application to graduate school.

Saint Louis University, St. Louis, MO

PHIL 105: Introduction to Philosophy Fall 2013-Spring 2014

*A required historical introduction to philosophy that covered Plato’s Republic, Aristotle’s Nicomachean ethics, Bacon’s New organon, and Nietzsche’s Gay Science.

PHIL 205: Ethics Spring 2015

*A required topics-based introduction to ethics that covered abortion, sexuality, pornography, business ethics, criminal punishment, animal ethics, and charity.

COURSES IN DEVELOPMENT:

Philosophy/Neuroscience 362: Neuroethics

Philosophy/Neuroscience 220: Philosophy of Neuroscience

Neuroscience 411: Representations in neural systems

Neuroscience 255: Principles of computational neuroscience

Development of Western Civilization 202: Finding the mind in the brain: Themes in the history of neuroscience