[Selective]
A current PDF copy of my CV (excluding references and personal information) can be downloaded here.
EDUCATION
Ph.D. University of Edinburgh, expected 2012 (History)
Dissecting the Soul: Medical Theorists and the Development of a 'science of Man' in the Scottish Enlightenment
Principal Supervisor: Dr. Thomas Ahnert
Assistant Supervisor: Dr. John Henry
M.A. University of California, Berkeley, 2008 (History) | GPA: 3.9/4.0
Primary Field: History of Science
Secondary Field: Late Modern Europe Since 1789
Advisors: Dr. Cathryn Carson and Dr. John Lesch
A.B. Princeton University, 2002 cum laude (Philosophy) | Major GPA: 3.7/4.0
Overall GPA: 3.6/4.0
Jumping Out of One's Own Skin: A Study of How We Might be Justified in Believing that Modus Ponens is a Valid Rule of Inference
Advisor: Dr. Gideon Rosen
FIELDS OF INTEREST
-Histories of the ‘human sciences’
-Science and medicine during the 17th & 18th centuries
-The Enlightenment, especially in Scotland and Germany
-Philosophy of science, especially scientific methodology and the mind-body problem
-Historiographical methods and theory
-History of higher education
AWARDS & FELLOWSHIPS
-Jenny Balston Scholarship from the School of History, Classics and Archaeology to pursue research studies at the University of Edinburgh (2009-12). The scholarship becomes available every three years, is tenable for a maximum of three years, and is only open to incoming PhD students. For 2009/10 entry, two awards were available for incoming history PhD students
-Center for German and European Studies (CGES) General Predissertation Fellowship for a project entitled, “A Re-Evaluation of Gustav Fechner & the Origins of Experimental Psychology” (summer 2007)
-UCB History Department Summer 2007 Dissertation Prospectus Fellowship
-Max Kade Summer Fellowship for intensive German language study in Germany (summer 2006)
-Ralph W. Church Fellowship in the philosophy department at UC Berkeley, which included payment of all tuition and fees and a one-year stipend (2004-05)
-Princeton's Dickinson Philosophy Prize for best senior thesis in logic or theory of knowledge (May 2002)
-National AP Scholar (1998): "Granted to students in the United States who receive an average grade of at least 4 on all AP Exams taken, and grades of 4 or higher on eight or more of these exams"
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
University of California, Berkeley, Department of History
Teaching Assistant [2006-08]
Science, Technology & Society since Newton [Dr. John Lesch - Spring 2008]
An introductory survey of the history of the sciences and the increasingly important place they have come to occupy in modern societies since 1700. We begin by looking at the legacy of the Scientific Revolution, the consolidation of classical physics and natural history in the Enlightenment, and popular science. We go on to consider Darwin and evolution, the organizational transformation of science in the nineteenth century, the emergence of chemistry as a science and source of new technologies, and the foundations of genetics around 1900. In the twentieth century we will emphasize the relations of science to technology, medicine, industry, government, and warfare.Nuclear Berkeley, Nuclear World [Dr. Cathryn Carson - Fall 2007]
This course uses a local angle to open up the history of the nuclear age. It starts from California, the San Francisco Bay Area, the city of Berkeley, and the University of California itself. Berkeley's nuclear history extends from launching and managing Los Alamos to sparking impassioned political protest, from maintaining a highly ranked nuclear engineering department to weighing in on problems of sustainability and waste. All these are part of a global nuclear history extending up to the present (and pre-shaping the future).The History of American Society, 1865-2007 [Dr. Leon Litwack - Spring 2007]
The study of American history is more than an exercise in self-congratulation and nostalgia. It is more than politics and diplomacy. It is more than a passive absorption of facts, dates, and names. This course focuses on the human consequences of the legislation, politics, policies, ideologies and wars (declared and undeclared) that comprise our history. The lectures and readings will expose students to a wide range of historical actors, dialogues, and experiences, examining in particular depth race relations, the laboring classes, reform movements, the interior of American lives, the changing conditions for success and survival in the culture Americans were shaping, and the emerging role of the United States as a world power.
University of California, Berkeley, Department of Philosophy
Teaching Assistant [2005-06]
Political Philosophy [Dr. Hans Sluga - Fall 2006]
The course will seek to examine fundamental features of politics by considering the basic concepts we employ for this purpose. It will focus, in particular, on the concept of the political and argue that our traditional understanding of that concept has now disintegrated and that we must endeavor to conceive of politics in new ways. In the course of this undertaking we will look at the writings of a number of political philosophers, including specifically Plato and Aristotle as well as Carl Schmitt, Hannah Arendt, and Michel Foucault.Existentialism in Literature & Film [Dr. Hubert Dreyfus - Spring 2006]
The course will be organized around various attempts to reinterpret the Judeo/Christian God, and to determine in what sense, if at all, such a God is still a living God. We will study Dostoyevsky's and Kierkegaard's attempts to preserve a non-theological version of the God of Christianity, as well as Nietzche's attempt to save us from belief in any version of God offered by our tradition. We will view and discuss three films that deal with related issues.Ancient Philosophy [Dr. Allan Silverman (visiting) - Fall 2005]
This course is an introduction to ancient Greek philosophy—and, for the uninitiated, to philosophy itself. We will spend almost all of our time on Socrates (469-399 BC), Plato (427-347 BC), and Aristotle (384-322 BC), with a passing glance at pre-Socratic and Hellenistic philosophers. Our primary goal will be to understand each philosopher's characteristic methods and views, and (more importantly) his reasons for holding these views.
LANGUAGES
English: Native (mother tongue)
German: Advanced (approximately CEF Level C1)
French: Reading knowledge
Latin: Reading knowledge
PUBLICATIONS
Kirp, David L., and Jeffrey Wolf, ”The Imprimatur of Science,” in The Sandbox Investment: The Preschool Movement and Kids-First Politics by David L. Kirp (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2007), 93-135.
PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS
-British Society for the History of Philosophy since Fall 2009
-British Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies (BSECS) since Fall 2009
-European Association for the History of Medicine and Health since Fall 2009
-British Society for the History of Science since Fall 2009
-History of Science Society since Spring 2008
CONFERENCES
-The Cultural Alchemy of the Exact Sciences: Revisiting the Forman Thesis (March 23-25, 2007). University of British Columbia. Vancouver, BC.
-History of Science Society Annual Meeting (Nov. 2-5, 2006). Hyatt Regency, Vancouver, BC.
PROFESSIONAL SERVICE
Co-Chair of the Graduate Social Club at UC Berkeley (2006-07)
Planned and managed social events for Berkeley's 10,000 graduate students
Elected-member of the Executive Board of the Graduate Assembly (2005-06)
The Graduate Assembly is UC Berkeley's graduate student government