SFSU graduation with Dr. Anita Silvers, Dr. Justin Tiwald, and Jennifer Kanyuk, 2014.
I am an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Georgia Southern University where I study the various intersections of justice, health, technology, and embodied differences. I am also an affiliate member of the Institute for Health Logistics & Analytics, an affiliate member of the Disability Studies Program at the University of Washington, and faculty member of the Georgia Southern AI & the Humanity Research Network.
I write on a wide range of issues, including health and justice, disability and justice, and the ethics of enhancement. My research focus is on the body as an important site of justice given its centrality to agency, identity, human experience, how it shapes interpersonal and institutional responses based on how it is socially read, and the ways in which it is "weathered" by social inequalities and biases—like racism, sexism, xenophobia, and ableism (the social determinants of health). This raises a span of intriguing and important questions in the areas of health justice and the ethics of body-modifying technological interventions in broader contexts of injustice (like the production of specific kinds of embodiments through biotechnologies and neurotechnologies). I explore these questions through a critical disability lens that question prevailing presumptions and interpretations of certain human differences as deficiencies or pathologies.
I am also interested in the justice of transformative technologies that shape us and our social world, including the increased delegation of authority to AI to govern important arenas of social and economic life (like criminal justice, housing, and employment). I am interested in the ethics of social robots to address the concerning problems of social deprivation and public health, like carebots in response to the shortage of caretakers for the growing elderly population and companion bots in response to the loneliness epidemic.
Prior to Georgia Southern, I have also taught various undergraduate courses at San Francisco State University, University of Washington, Bellevue College, and the Washington Corrections Center for Women as part of the Freedom Education Project Puget Sound in-prison college program.
I was a Neuroethics Fellow at the Center for Neurotechnology in the University of Washington (2015 - 2021) and a Mellon Collaborative Fellow in Reaching New Publics in the Humanities at the Simpson Center for the Humanities (2018 - 2019). I was also a Mellon Collaborative Fellow for Public Projects in the Humanities (2019 - 2021) where I worked on projects that engage with incarcerated students at the Washington Corrections Center for Women on the role of prisons in philosophy.
Originally from San Diego, CA, I am a first-generation Filipino-American, the son of hard-working, working-class Filipino immigrants. I am also a first-generation college student. My academic history started out at a community college, where I found my passion for philosophy after taking an introductory course in ethics. I transferred to the University of California, San Diego, double-majoring in Philosophy and Cognitive Science. After graduation, I spent three years working at coffeeshops, volunteering with the International Rescue Committee as an after-school tutor and mentor, and completing a year-long Americorps service with READ/San Diego, the San Diego Public Library's Adult Literacy program. I joined the MA Philosophy program at San Francisco State University and studied under amazing professors, including cherished mentors that greatly influenced my philosophical trajectory -- Dr. Anita Silvers and Dr. Shelley Wilcox. After graduating with distinction, I entered the PhD Philosophy program at the University of Washington, where I completed my doctoral studies under the supervision of my supportive, lifelong mentors -- Dr. Sara Goering, Dr. Michael Blake, and Dr. Carina Fourie. I was awarded numerous awards and fellowships, including the UW Graduate School Medal for my socially-engaged academic scholarship and public philosophy work teaching in prisons and organizing ethics workshops in neurotechnology centers across the US.
I currently live in Savannah, GA.
I write on a wide range of issues, including health and justice, disability and justice, and the ethics of enhancement. My research focus is on the body as an important site of justice given its centrality to agency, identity, human experience, how it shapes interpersonal and institutional responses based on how it is socially read, and the ways in which it is "weathered" by social inequalities and biases—like racism, sexism, xenophobia, and ableism (the social determinants of health). This raises a span of intriguing and important questions in the areas of health justice and the ethics of body-modifying technological interventions in broader contexts of injustice (like the production of specific kinds of embodiments through biotechnologies and neurotechnologies). I explore these questions through a critical disability lens that question prevailing presumptions and interpretations of certain human differences as deficiencies or pathologies.
I am also interested in the justice of transformative technologies that shape us and our social world, including the increased delegation of authority to AI to govern important arenas of social and economic life (like criminal justice, housing, and employment). I am interested in the ethics of social robots to address the concerning problems of social deprivation and public health, like carebots in response to the shortage of caretakers for the growing elderly population and companion bots in response to the loneliness epidemic.
Prior to Georgia Southern, I have also taught various undergraduate courses at San Francisco State University, University of Washington, Bellevue College, and the Washington Corrections Center for Women as part of the Freedom Education Project Puget Sound in-prison college program.
I was a Neuroethics Fellow at the Center for Neurotechnology in the University of Washington (2015 - 2021) and a Mellon Collaborative Fellow in Reaching New Publics in the Humanities at the Simpson Center for the Humanities (2018 - 2019). I was also a Mellon Collaborative Fellow for Public Projects in the Humanities (2019 - 2021) where I worked on projects that engage with incarcerated students at the Washington Corrections Center for Women on the role of prisons in philosophy.
Originally from San Diego, CA, I am a first-generation Filipino-American, the son of hard-working, working-class Filipino immigrants. I am also a first-generation college student. My academic history started out at a community college, where I found my passion for philosophy after taking an introductory course in ethics. I transferred to the University of California, San Diego, double-majoring in Philosophy and Cognitive Science. After graduation, I spent three years working at coffeeshops, volunteering with the International Rescue Committee as an after-school tutor and mentor, and completing a year-long Americorps service with READ/San Diego, the San Diego Public Library's Adult Literacy program. I joined the MA Philosophy program at San Francisco State University and studied under amazing professors, including cherished mentors that greatly influenced my philosophical trajectory -- Dr. Anita Silvers and Dr. Shelley Wilcox. After graduating with distinction, I entered the PhD Philosophy program at the University of Washington, where I completed my doctoral studies under the supervision of my supportive, lifelong mentors -- Dr. Sara Goering, Dr. Michael Blake, and Dr. Carina Fourie. I was awarded numerous awards and fellowships, including the UW Graduate School Medal for my socially-engaged academic scholarship and public philosophy work teaching in prisons and organizing ethics workshops in neurotechnology centers across the US.
I currently live in Savannah, GA.
