Biography

I am a sociologist who studies the practices and politics of social science in laboratories, in the broader academy, and in society. I am currently a postdoctoral fellow working with Jacob Foster on a study of a new field of science called Diverse Intelligences. Diverse Intelligence brings together psychologists, neuroscientists, evolutionary biologists, information theorists, ethnologists, philosophers, and artificial intelligence researchers to map out both the complex dimensions of intelligence as well as the incredible variety of entities that act intelligently. In this project, which will have qualitative and quantitative components, we are hoping to better understand the possibilities of multiple disciplinary sciences at a time when such research is direly needed.

In a second project, funded by the Templeton World Charity Foundation, I am studying an experiment in scientific collaboration in which scientists who back competing theories about consciousness are brought together to create an experiment that could adjudicate between them. This “adversarial collaboration” model will shed new light on the nature of persistent scientific controversies.

My other areas of interest include metascience, the crisis of expertise, and the intersection of artificial intelligence and science.