Embedded Files
My research lies at the intersection of philosophy of mind, phenomenology, philosophy of psychiatry, and cognitive science. I investigate how embodied and affective processes structure our experience of ourselves and the world, and how these structures can vary or become disrupted. Much of my work approaches these questions through the study of psychopathology.
Fundamental dimensions of experience, such as our sense of reality, embodied agency, and relation to the world, typically operate implicitly and remain relatively stable. Their disturbances can therefore illuminate otherwise overlooked features of ordinary experience, both phenomenologically and through investigations of the underlying processes that contribute to them.
_______________________
My long-term project is developing a phenomenologically-informed account of psychiatric disorders, which reconceptualizes disorders as primarily disorders of experience (in the pre-reflective, embodied, agential sense of the word). In other words, psychiatric disorders are primarily self-disorders.
In service of that aim, I theorize about:
felt-reality of objects, which can be pre-perceptual and diffuse
the proto-noetic as a phenomenological level of carving out reality
anxiety as the felt-reality of threat
pre-reflective sense of self as the experiential core-self and underlying self-specifying processes
the disrupted experiential core-self (DEC) model of self-disorders
normativity in the enactive approach and dynamical systems
Additional projects/interests that I am working on:
anxiety in the contexts of climate change, social media, and activism
a pluralistic continuum theory of perception
affect, emotion, and the role of the 'self'
Dissertation
Dissertation
A New Framework for Self-Disorders: Anxiety as a Case Study (2025/03)
University of British Columbia – Vancouver, BC
Chris Mole (Co-supervisor)
Evan Thompson (Co-supervisor)
Fatema Amijee (Committee Member)
You can download my dissertation from PhilPapers (https://philpapers.org/rec/JEWANF).
Current Projects
Current Projects
For more information on my current projects and works in progress, please email me.
'perceptual' presence and the Felt-Reality of objects
anxiety disorders and the presence of threat
anxiety disorders as self-disorders (disorders of self- and world-experience)
prescriptive normativity in enactive accounts
Research Contributions
Research Contributions
(* refereed, ** invited)
Biological-Affective Norms and the Evaluation of Social Power: Toward an Enactive Account of Optimal Agency (talk*)
Power and Care: Enactive Approaches and Critical Social Philosophy (2026/05)
Mind & Life Europe – Barcelona, Spain
Commentary on Nicolas Bommarito, “Islamic and Buddhist Modesty in the Khache Phalu” (talk**)
Workshop on Modesty and Religion (2025/11)
University of British Columbia – Vancouver, BC
Anxiety Disorders, Self-Disorders, and Being-in-the-World (poster*)
Mind & Life Europe Summer Research Institute (2025/07)
Rangjung Yeshi Gomde – Scharnstein, Austria
The Presence of Non-Perceptual Objects (poster*)
American Philosophical Association Central Division Meeting (2025/02)
APA – Online
The Presence of Non-Perceptual Objects (talk**)
Graduate Research Workshop (2023/11)
University of British Columbia – Vancouver, BC
Effective Activism and the Enactive Approach: Situatedness as a Precondition of Care (poster*)
Mind & Life Europe Summer Research Institute (2023/08)
Lama Tzong Khapa Institute – Pomaia, Italy
What Phenomenological Pathology Can Teach Us About Anxiety Disorder: Anxiety Disorder as Self-Disorder with Disrupted Self-Specifying Processes (accepted talk*)
Faultlines of Experience in Social Transformations – German Society for Phenomenological Anthropology, Psychiatry, and Psychotherapy (2023/03)
University of Heidelberg – Heidelberg, Germany
Anxiety Disorder and Perceptual Presence (talk**)
Workshop on Attention and its Ethical Significance (2022/11)
University of British Columbia – Vancouver, BC
What Phenomenological Pathology Can Teach Us About Anxiety Disorder: Anxiety Disorder as Self-Disorder with Disrupted Self-Specifying Processes (talk*)
Engaged Phenomenology II – The British Society for Phenomenology Annual Conference (2022/08)
University of Exeter – UK
Anxiety Disorder a Self-Disorder? Making the Case for Applying a Phenomenological Lens to Our Descriptions of Anxiety Disorder (talk*)
International Society for Research on Emotion (2022/07)
University of Southern California – Los Angeles, CA
Anxiety Disorder as Self-Disorder: The Role of Disrupted Self-Specifying Processes (poster*)
Canadian Student Health Research Forum (CSHRF) (2022/06)
University of Manitoba – Winnipeg, MB
Uncovering a New Constraint within Spontaneous Thought: Semantic Salience and the DNSUB3 (poster*)
Mind & Life Contemplative Research Conference (2020/11)
Mind & Life – Online
A New Understanding of Our Mindreading Mechanisms: A Dual Type Theory Account (poster*)
Mind & Life Summer Research Institute (2018/06)
Mind & Life – Garrison, NY
An Investigation into the Missing Link Between Knowledge and Behavior in Regard to Protecting the Environment (poster**)
International Climate Change Conference: Inner and Outer Climate (2016/03)
Doon University and Tarab Ling – Dehradun, India
Organizational Contributions
Organizational Contributions
Co-organizer – Canadian Philosophical Association (2023/08 - 2023/09) University of British Columbia – Vancouver, BC
Graduate Assistantship
Researched and connected with philosophers across Canada and Western America to secure commentators and chairs for the Canadian Philosophical Association, a conference which occurred at UBC in Sept. 2023.
Co-organizer and Event Planner – Contemporary Philosophical Debates in the Islamic World (2023/03)
University of British Columbia – Vancouver, BC
Research Assistantship
Organized the logistics of a workshop on Islamic Philosophy and assisted Prof. Fatema Amijee in executing the workshop in March 2023.
Chair – Contemporary Philosophical Debates in the Islamic World (2023/03)
University of British Columbia – Vancouver, BC
“Proposing an Islamic Virtue Ethics Beyond the Situationist Debates” by Muhammad Velji
Chair – Canadian Philosophy Association Congress (2021/05)
University of Alberta - Edmonton, AB
“Symposium on Perceptual Bias” with Kevin Lande, Gabbrielle Johnson, Mohan Matthen, and Madeleine Ransom
Chair – Canadian Philosophy Association Congress (2019/06)
University of British Columbia - Vancouver, BC
“Cross-Cultural and Interdisciplinary Approaches to the Philosophy of Pain and Suffering” panel with Evan Thompson, Sean Smith, Cat Prueitt, and Murat Aydede
Other Contributions
Other Contributions
Mental Health and Climate Change Alliance Focus Group Member (2025/05, 2022/12)
Simon Fraser University – Vancouver, BC
Participated in nterdisciplinary work on mental health effects from climate change and climate change education.
Applied insights from doctoral research to climate change, climate anxiety, and climate education.
Accessible Active Learning Curriculum Resource Development (2024/07)
CTLT (UBC) – Vancouver, BC
Helped create an open access platform and content for modifying and redesigning active learning techniques to remove barriers to participation and accommodate learners with disabilities or mental health needs.
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse