Research
I examine what cognitive and epistemic systems reveal under pressure — whether the pressure comes from social marginalization, embodied transition, or AI integration. I work at the intersection of philosophy of mind, cognitive science, and social epistemology. My engineering background shapes how I think about systems — cognitive, social, and artificial.
Areas of Interest
- Philosophy of Mind & Cognitive Science
- Philosophy of AI
- Social Epistemology
- Feminist Philosophy
Research Lines
Unequal Costs of Disbelief
If belief is the cognitive default — if we must expend effort to reject what we hear — then people whose identities are routinely contested pay a cognitive tax that others don't. Unequal Costs of Disbelief draws on the Spinozan model of belief, testimony epistemology, and research on belief fragmentation to propose a mechanism underlying stereotype threat and minority stress: a structural asymmetry in cognitive architecture where marginalized people bear disproportionate costs to reject identity-threatening information.
Status: Under review (SPP 2026). Being polished for publication.
AI and Epistemic Infrastructure
What kind of cognitive system does AI create when it mediates how communities produce and validate knowledge? I distinguish functional organization — structural arrangements that route information and produce rational outputs — from cognitive integration — the spontaneous mutual availability of informational states within a single system. This distinction, developed through the group minds debate, provides a framework for asking what AI does at epistemic scale — whether it extends functional organization, approaches cognitive integration, or creates something the existing categories don't capture.
Status: Midterm draft submitted (CUNY Graduate Center, Spring 2026). Final paper in development.
Identity as Process
My thesis work, Gender Identity as Regulatory Self-Model, argues that gender identity is best understood as a dynamically stabilized regulatory process rather than a static property or social designation. Drawing on dynamical systems theory, I treat transgender embodiment as a high-information case that reveals how identity patterns can destabilize, reorganize, and cohere under affective and social perturbation.
Status: PhD writing sample. Full manuscript in development.
Research Output
I also lead technical research in human-robot interaction as architect of the Queer Robot Companion project at Hunter College's TIER Robotics Lab, where we build queer-affirming robot companions (HRI '26 full paper, 23.2% acceptance; interactivity demo).
For a complete list of publications and presentations, see my CV.