Philosophy of Science  |  environmental philosophy

I teach philosophy at Connecticut College, in New London, CT, where I am also Associate Director of the Goodwin-Niering Center for the Environment. From January - May, 2017, I held the Fulbright Visiting Research Chair in Philosophy of Science at the University of Calgary, Canada. 
Favorite things to think about (at the moment):
  • How scientists reconstruct the deep past
  • Macroevolutionary theory (or the theory of evolution above the species level)
  • Historical contingency and historical counterfactuals
  • Species selection and extinction selectivity
  • How scientists document and explain patterns of evolutionary stasis
  • Living fossils
  • Connections between environmental aesthetics (especially sense of place) and paleontology
  • Connections between stasis in evolutionary contexts and stability in ecological and environmental contexts

​In the spring of 2008, I spent a sabbatical semester at the University of Pittsburgh's Center for Philosophy of Science. In the fall of 2015, I had a visiting sabbatical fellowship at the KLI in Klosterneuburg, Austria.

I live in the town of Haddam, CT, with my wife Michelle (who is an archaeologist) and our dog, Toby.

Other places I've called home in the past: Decatur, IL (where I grew up); Kassel, Germany; Washington, DC; Goettingen, Germany; and Nashville, TN. ​
Academic CV (updated February 2018)

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