Academic Positions

University of Pennsylvania

Presidential Penn Compact Associate Professor of Philosophy 2021-current

Secondary Appointment at the Graduate School of Education, 2021-current

Center for Ethics and Education, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Senior Faculty Fellow, 2015-Present.

University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

Associate Professor of Philosophy, 2020-2021

City College of New York—CUNY

Associate Professor of Philosophy, 2018-2019

Assistant Professor of Philosophy, 2011-2018

K. Irani Fellow in Philosophy, 2010-2011

Graduate Center—CUNY

Affiliated Associate Professor of Philosophy, 2018-2019

Princeton University Center for Human Values

Laurance S. Rockefeller Visiting Faculty Fellow, 2015-2016

Swarthmore College

Visiting Assistant Professor of Philosophy, 2008-2010

Grants, Fellowships, and Awards (Selected)

Guggenheim Fellowship [$60,000] (2023-2024)

Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences Faculty Fellowship at Stanford University [$81,000] (2023-2024)

Safra Center at Harvard Faculty Fellowship [declined to take CASBS Fellowship] (2023-2024)

Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study Fellowship [declined to take CASBS Fellowship] (2023-2024)

Grawemeyer Award in Education from the University of Louisville [$100,000] (2023).

University of Pennsylvania’s School of Arts and Sciences Conference Support Grant [$2,000] (2022).

University of Pennsylvania’s Research Foundation Grant [$3,000] (2022).

Association of American Colleges & Universities Frederic W. Ness Book Award (2021).

Philosopher’s Annual Best Paper Selection (2019).

Australasian Association of Philosophy’s Australasian Journal of Philosophy Best Paper Award (2018).

CUNY Book Completion Award (2018).

CCNY Rifkind Divisional Teaching Award (2017-2018).

Inaugural Israel Scheffler Philosophy of Education Prize, American Philosophical Society (2017).

Philosophy and Science of Self-Control Grant (with Sarah K. Paul), Templeton Foundation and Florida State University [$62,522] (2016-2017).

CUNY Gittell Junior Faculty Award (2016).

PSC-CUNY Research Award (2016-2017).

CUNY Scholar Incentive Award [25% of salary] (2015-2016).

Laurance S. Rockefeller Visiting Faculty Fellowship, Princeton University [50,000] (2015-2016).

Winner American Philosophical Association Public Philosophy Op-Ed Contest (2013).

Faculty Fellowship Publication Program, CUNY (2013).

Initiative on Philosophy in Educational Policy and Practice Research Grant, Spencer Foundation [$39,000] (2011-2012). NEH Summer Seminar Fellowship (2010).

Publications

Book

  1. Moving Up Without Losing Your Way: The Ethical Costs of Upward Mobility, Princeton University Press, 2019. (Selected as the Princeton Pre-Read for the class of 2025 by the office of President Eisgruber, Winner of the Association of American Colleges & Universities 2021 Frederic W. Ness Book Award)

Reviewed in Analysis, Teachers College Record, Harvard Education Review, The Philosopher’s Magazine, Public Books, Commentary Magazine, CHOICE: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries, Soundings: An Interdisciplinary Journal, Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning

Author Meets Critics Studies in Philosophy and Education

Featured in The Atlantic, The Nation, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Inside Higher Education, Princeton Alumni Weekly, Hidden Brain

Articles

  1. “Educational Case Studies and Speaking for Others,” Educational Theory (2024). https://doi-org.proxy.library.upenn.edu/10.1111/edth.12613
  2. “Inequality in Planning Capacity,” Journal of Applied Philosophy. (2023). https://doi-org.proxy.library.upenn.edu/10.1111/japp.12706
  3. Resisting Pessimism Traps: The Limits of Believing in Yourself,” Philosophy and Phenomenological Research (2022) https://doi-org.proxy.library.upenn.edu/10.1111/phpr.12809
  4. “Flourishing in the Academy: Complicity and Compromise,” Special Issue Reflections on Being a Low-Income and/or First-Generation Philosopher, APA Newsletter on Feminism and Philosophy (2021)
  5. “The Miseducation of the Elite,” Journal of Political Philosophy (2020) doi:10.1111/jopp.12208.
  6. “Mitigating Ethical Costs in the Classroom,” Daedalus Vol. 148 No. 4 (2019): pp.179-194.
  7. “Grit,” (With Sarah K. Paul) Ethics Vol. 129, No. 2, (2019): pp. 175-203. (Selected as one of the top ten philosophy papers of 2019 by the Philosopher’s Annual)
  8. “Believing in Others,” (With Sarah K. Paul) Philosophical Topics (Special Issue on ‘Can Beliefs Wrong?’) Vol. 46, No. 1, (2018): pp. 75-95.
  9.  “Reasoning Under Scarcity,” Australasian Journal of Philosophy Vol. 95, No. 3, (2017): pp. 543-559. (Winner of the Australasian Journal of Philosophy Best Paper Award.)
  10. “The Educator’s Dual Role: Expressing Ideals While Educating in Non-Ideal Conditions,” Educational Theory Vol. 66, No. 3, (2016): pp. 323-339.
  11. “Unequal Classrooms: Online Higher Education and Non-Cognitive Skills,” Philosophical Inquiry in Education Vol 23, No. 2, (2016): pp. 97-113.
  12.  “Molding Conscientious, Hard-Working, and Perseverant Students,” Social Philosophy and Policy Vol. 31, No. 2, (2014): pp. 60-80. [ Reprinted in Education: Ideals and Practices, David Schmidtz, ed. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, MA, 2014.]
  13.  “Cultural Code-Switching: Straddling the Achievement Gap,” The Journal of Political Philosophy, Vol. 22, No. 3, (2014): pp. 259-281.
  14. “Deliberating for Our Far Future Selves,” Ethical Theory and Moral Practice Vol. 16, No. 4, (2013): pp 809-828.
  15. “The Non-Cognitive Challenge to a Liberal Egalitarian Education,” Theory and Research in Education Vol. 9, No. 3, (2011): pp. 233-250.
  16. “Towards an Ecological Theory of the Norms of Practical Deliberation,” European Journal of Philosophy Vol. 19, No. 4, (2011): pp. 561-584.

Handbook Entries, Book Chapters, and Short Pieces

  1. “Upward Mobility and Higher Education,” Handbook of Philosophy of Education (Ed. Randall Curren). Taylor & Francis, 2022.
  2. “Institutional Inequality,” Academic Ethics Today: Problems, Policies, and Prospects for University Life, ed. Steven Cahn, Rowan & Littlefield, 2022.
  3. “The Moral Psychology of Poverty,” Oxford Handbook of Moral Psychology, Eds. Manuel Vargas and John Doris, Oxford University Press, 2022.
  4. “The Costs of Consciousness Raising: Comments on Sally Haslanger’s Kneller Lecture,” Philosophy of Education. 77 (2):232-238 (2021)
  5. “Response to Critics,” (Book Symposium for Moving Up Without Losing Your Way), Studies in Philosophy and Education Journal 40,649-651, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11217-021-09785-6
  6. “Reimagining the Higher Education Narrative,” (Dilemmas of Freedom and Inclusion in Higher Education: Cases and Commentaries, Eds. Rebecca Taylor and Ashley Kuntz, Harvard Education Press, 2021.
  7. “Practical Reasoning,” (Co-authored with Jules Salomone-Sehr) Handbook of Practical Reasoning, ed. Luca Ferrero, Routledge, 2021.
  8. “Norms of Practical Reasoning,” (Co-Authored with Sarah Paul), Routledge Handbook of Practical Reason, Eds. Ruth Chang and Kurt Sylvan, Routledge, 2020.
  9.  “Boston Public School Lottery: What Should We Take for Granted?” Dilemmas of Educational Justice: Cases and Commentaries (eds. Meira Levinson and Jacob Fay) Harvard Education Press, Cambridge, MA, (2016): pp. 160-164.
  10. “The Ethical Stakes of Collaborative Community-Based Social Science Research,” (Co-authored with Ronald David Glass, Joyce E. King, Patricia Krueger-Henney, Michele S. Moses, Sheeva Sabati, and Troy Richardson) Urban Education Vol. 53, No. 4, (2018): pp. 503-531.

Book Reviews

  1. Evidence-Based Policy: A Practical Guide to Doing It Better by Nancy Cartwright and Jeremy Hardie, Theory and Research in Education Vol. 13, No. 2, (2015): pp. 239-241.
  2. Review of Tough Choices: Structured Paternalism and the Landscape of Choice by Sigal Ben-Porath, Educational Theory, Vol. 64, No. 5, (2014): pp. 539-546.
  3. Rejoinder to Sigal Ben-Porath’s Response, Educational Theory, Vol. 64, No. 6, (2014): pp. 675-677.
  4. Review of Oxford Studies in Agency and Responsibility Vol. 1 edited by David Shoemaker, Ethics, Vol. 125, No. 1, (2014): pp. 288-292.

Popular Press

  1. “Wealthy colleges like Penn should pay taxes to address educational injustice,” Philadelphia Inquirer, Jan. 4, 2024.
  2. “We are all caught in a pessimism trap but there is a way out,” Psyche, June 8th, 2022.
  3. “Success at college is often accompanied by a painful sense of separation from family, friends and community,” Times Higher Education, December 29th, 2019.
  4. “The cost of college, beyond tuition: The people and communities strivers leave behind,” New York Daily News, September 18th, 2019.
  5. “I’m a Latina who went to an Elite Institution. Kavanaugh culture dominates,” VOX September 20, 2019.
  6. “The Worm at the Heart of Meritocracy,” The Chronicle of Higher Education Special Issue on Meritocracy, September 19, 2019.
  7. “Engines of Democracy,” Aeon, February 13th, 2019. (Republished in the Chronicle of Higher Education).
  8. “Reconsidering Idealization,” The Philosophers’ Magazine No. 72, 1st Quarter, 2016.
  9. “An Antidote to Injustice,” The Philosophers’ Magazine No. 69, 2nd Quarter, 2015.
  10. “Unequal Classrooms: What Online Education Cannot Teach,” The Conversation at The Chronicle of Higher Education, July 29th, 2013. (Winner APA Public Philosophy Op-Ed Prize).

Forthcoming

  1. Comments on Justin Driver’s “Civic Education, Students’ Rights, and the Supreme Court,” NOMOS (Annual yearbook of the American Society for Political and Legal Philosophy) (Ed. Melissa Schwartzberg and Eric Beerbohm).

Work in Progress

  1. Striving: Grit in the Face of Adversity (with Sarah Paul). Under contract with Oxford University Press.
  2. “Redefining Poverty” (Revise and Resubmit)
  3. “What Should a Teacher Believe?”

Lectures and Presentations

2023

  1. University of California—Santa Cruz
  2. Stanford Education & Humanities Workshop
  3. Wake Forest University
  4. Penn MindCore
  5. Mt. Holyoke College
  6. Sue Weinberg Lecture at CUNY Graduate Center 
  7. Keynote at Fellowships at Auschwitz for the Study of Professional Ethics Conference
  8. University of Vermont
  9. Jeremiah Project Conference Keynote
  10. Grawemeyer Award Lecture
  11. PennCap
  12. Princeton University’s Inclusive Academy Symposium

2022

  1. Brown Political Theory Colloquium
  2. Stanford University Political Theory Workshop
  3. Princeton University Political Theory Workshop
  4. University of Maryland-College Park Philosophy Colloquium
  5. Keynote at Central States Philosophical Association
  6. The American Society for Political and Legal Philosophy Conference
  7. Kegley Institute of Ethics at the California State University-Bakersfield
  8. Annual Climate Lecture at Rutgers-New Brunswick
  9. Temple University
  10. University of Illinois Chicago
  11. Princeton Old Guard
  12. University of Cincinnati Philosophy Colloquium
  13. Philosophy, Politics, and Economics Conference
  14. Keynote at FGLI Consortium Conference at the University of Notre Dame
  15. University of Mississippi
  16. Ohio State University.

2021

  1. Ness Book Award Keynote, American Association of Colleges and University Conference
  2. Philosophy Department, Ohio State
  3. Wharton Work In Progress Workshop
  4. Reasoning and Agency Conference, Tel Aviv University
  5. Philosophy Department, Brandeis University
  6. Philosophy Department, Duke University
  7. American Philosophical Association Eastern Conference
  8. University of Warwick’s Centre for Ethics, Law, and Public Affairs
  9. Philosophy Department, University of Reading
  10. UNC Faculty Work-in-Progress
  11. Philosophy Department, Georgia State
  12. Center for Freedom, University of Arizona
  13. Princeton’s STEM Graduate Student Leadership Council
  14. Philosophy of Education Society Meeting
  15. Concordia University’s Centre for the Study of Learning and Performance (CSLP) Speaker Series
  16. Princeton University Convocation for First-Year Students
  17. Firsts Celebration Day at the University of Pennsylvania
  18. CEPA at St. Andrews University
  19. Voices and Experiences of Poverty NEH Seminar at CUNY
  20. James Madison Program at Princeton University.

2020

  1. Boston University Learn More Public Lecture
  2. University of Buffalo School of Education
  3. The Narratives Project, Smith College
  4. Serie Teorema, Universidad Catolica del Peru
  5. CalPoly Pomona Public Lecture
  6. Keynote at the MIT/Michigan Social Philosophy Conference
  7. NHSEB Academy Live Town Hall
  8. Moderator for the Wesson Lectures at Stanford University
  9. Panel on Inequalities of Higher Education during COVID-19, Radcliffe Institute at Harvard University
  10. Panelist at The National Academy of Education.

2019

  1. McGraw Center for Teaching and Learning, Princeton University
  2. UCLA School of Education
  3. Swarthmore College
  4. Mahindra Seminar at the Graduate School of Education, Harvard University
  5. Rutgers University Philosophy Diversity Summer Institute
  6. Center for Ethics, University of Toronto
  7. North American Philosophy of Education Society
  8. Stanford University
  9. Center for Ethics at the University of Montreal.

2018

  1. Philosophy, Politics, and Economics Conference
  2. CIDE Mexico
  3. Keynote at Philosophy of Education Group
  4. American Educational Research Association Meeting
  5. PPE Program, UNC-Chapel Hill
  6. Kansas State
  7. University of Texas-El Paso
  8. John Jay College/CUNY
  9. Global Justice in Education Conference
  10. American University of Paris
  11. American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

2017

  1. PPE Program, UNC-Chapel Hill
  2. Philosophy in an Inclusive Key-Boston, MIT
  3. Summer Immersion Program in Philosophy, Brown University
  4. Forum for the Future of Higher Education, Aspen Institute
  5. Sophia Endowed Lecture, George Washington University
  6. Education, Pedagogies and Epistemologies in Flux, University of Illinois-Chicago.

2016

  1. Society for Applied Philosophy Meeting at the American Philosophical Association Eastern Meeting
  2. Philosophy of Education Society Meeting
  3. Workshop in Normative Philosophy, Princeton University
  4. Political Theory Workshop, Stanford University
  5. LSR Fellows Workshop, Princeton University
  6. Center for Ethics and Education Conference on Higher Education
  7. Topics in Global Justice
  8.  Agency, Power, and Policy, University of Birmingham
  9. Berkeley Workshop in Moral, Political and Legal Theory, University of California-Berkeley
  10. NYC Early Career Ethics Workshop
  11. NYU Abu Dhabi Moral Psychology Conference
  12. Borough of Manhattan Community College/CUNY
  13. Presidential Conversations, CCNY.

2015

  1. Social and Political Workshop, CUNY Graduate Center
  2. Moral Theory Group, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
  3. PPE Workshop, UNC—Chapel Hill
  4. Center for Ethics and Education Conference
  5. Life and Death Conference, San Diego State
  6. Moral Psychology Research Group, Dartmouth University
  7. NYC Early Career Ethics Workshop
  8. CUNY Graduate Cente
  9. Binghamton University
  10. Ethics and Epistemology Workshop, Fordham University
  11. The Mentoring Project for Pre-Tenure Women Faculty in Philosophy
  12. St. Louis Conference on Reasons and Rationality
  13. URBAN-American Educational Research Association Meeting.

2014

  1. Marist College
  2. Philosophy of Education Session at the American Philosophical Association Central Meeting
  3. University of Wisconsin—Madison
  4. Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study Workshop on “Justice in Schools”
  5. Midsummer Philosophy Conference, Cambridge University
  6. CUNY Junior Philosophy Faculty Research Group
  7. Commentator at the American Philosophical Association Central Meeting.

2013

  1. American Educational Research Association Annual Meeting
  2. Middle Atlantic States Philosophy of Education Society Conference and Annual Meeting
  3. American Philosophical Association Central Meeting
  4. Aims of Education Conference, University of San Diego
  5. Education
  6. Ideals and Practice Conference, Social Philosophy and Policy Center
  7. New York Society for Women in Philosophy Workshop
  8. Teacher’s College Philosophy of Education Colloquium, Columbia University.

2012

  1. Spencer Workshop, Stanford University
  2. Vassar Philosopher’s Holiday Colloquium
  3. New York Society for Women in Philosophy Workshop
  4. Summer Institute for Diversity in Philosophy, Rutgers.

2011

  1. Time and Agency Conference, George Washington University
  2. Race, Opportunity, and Education Conference, Harvard School of Education.

2010

  1. City College-City University of New York
  2. Work in Progress Series, University of Pennsylvania
  3. Bard College
  4. Swarthmore College.  

2009

  1. Workshop on Imagination, Mind, and Morality, Yale University.

2008

  1. Swarthmore College.

2007

  1. American Philosophical Association Pacific Meeting;
  2. Stanford University Work in Progress Workshop.

2004

  1. Stanford-Berkeley Graduate Student Conference, University of California Berkeley.

Public Philosophy

Podcasts/Radio

Philosophy Talk (July 2022) ž
Dialogues with Richard Reeves(June 2021) ž
NPR’s Hidden Brain (November 2020) ž
Bad with Money Podcast with Gaby Dunn (April 2020) ž
WNYC Pickle: A Philosophy Podcast for Kids (2017).

Interviews

Princeton Alumni Weekly (December 2019)
The Atlantic (September 2019)
The Nation (September 2019)
Inside Higher Education (September 2019)

Public Lectures

Philosophers in the Library Lecture, Brooklyn Public Library (October 2019)
Philosophy Night, Avenues: The World School (May 2018)
Tilt Philosophy for Kids Festival, Brooklyn Public Library, (March 2018)
Happier Hour: Philosophy to make your life suck less, Caveat Lounge (April 2018)
Gotham Philosophical Society, The Cornelia Street Café (September 2016).

Service (Selected)

Student Supervision

Ph.D. Dissertation Committee Chair: Tyler Re (Penn), Sara Purinton (Penn)

Ph.D. Dissertation Committee Member: Dustin Webster (Penn GSE), ž Vanessa Schipani (Penn), žMarie Barnett (Penn), Gary Mitchell (Harvard GSE), Pavel Nitchovski (UNC), ž Matthew Hernandez (UNC), ž Jules Salome (CUNY), ž Jonathan Kwan (CUNY), ž Nick Tanchuk (Columbia Teacher’s College).

M.A. Thesis Committee Director: Delaney Thull (UNC)

M.A. Thesis Committee Member: Audra Jensen (UNC) ž Gabriella Hulsey (UNC)

Dissertation Reader: Samantha Wakil (UNC) ž Min Tang (UNC) ž Laura Kane (CUNY Grad Center) ž Carolyn Plunkett (CUNY Grad Center) ž Jose Tovar (Universidad Nacional de Colombia).

Mentoring: Athena Workshop for Women in Philosophy, Rutgers University (2022) ž Summer Program for the Advancement of Women in Philosophy, UC San Diego (2022).

American Philosophical Association

Program Committee, Eastern Division (2021-2022).

Member-at-Large of the American Philosophical Association Board of Officers (2021-2024).

Member of Committee on Hispanics in the Profession, (2019-2022).

Member of the Committee on Teaching (2014-2017).

Member of the Strategic Planning Taskforce (2012-2013).

Member of the Taskforce for Membership and Membership Services (2011-2012).

Co-editor, The Teaching Workshop at the APA Blog (2016-2017)

Journal Work

Journal Area Editor: Ergo, (2018-present) ž Philosophy Compass, (2019-present).

Journal Review Board: Educational Theory (2016-2020).

Journal Referee: American Philosophical Quarterly ž Australasian Journal of Philosophy ž Cambridge University Press ž Canadian Journal of Philosophy ž Educational Theory ž Erkenntnis ž Ethics ž Hypatia, Journal of the American Philosophical Association ž Journal of Philosophical Research ž Journal of Political Philosophy ž  Journal of Social Philosophy ž Mind ž Oxford University Press, ž Pacific Philosophical Quarterly ž Philosophical Studies ž Princeton University Press ž Public Affairs Quarterly ž Radical Philosophy ž Social Theory and Practice.

Grant Referee: Spencer Foundation ž  Dutch Council for the Humanities ž Center for Ethics and Education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

University/Department Service

Placement Committee: University of Pennsylvania (2021-current).

Hiring Committee: CCNY (2013, 2014) ž University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill (2020-2021), University of Pennsylvania (2021-2022).

Program Committee: Philosophy of Education Society Meeting (2017-2018).

University Committee: First-Gen Student Experience, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill (2020-2021).

Undergraduate Advisor: Department of Philosophy, CCNY (2014-2015).

Course and Learning Assessment Coordinator:  Department of Philosophy, CCNY (2010-2015).