Research

Research Interests

I have a general interest in the way background environments - whether institutional, social, or "natural" - mediate between the conditions that shape ethical judgments and the expression of those ethical judgments. This general interest motivates my work on environmental values and their expression in public policy; on the role of narrative in connecting individual motivation and public expression of value; on the nature of vulnerability, harm, and other salient normative concepts; on collective agency and responsibility; and on the particular brand of social practice-based indirect consequentialism that I advocate. These research foci form an arc connecting the normative interdependence of humans and their natural environment, conditions that shape value, the institutional structures through which we enact policy, and the social practices I take to shape and form much of our normative world. 

I have worked with a range of interdisciplinary collaborative projects and programs - including CSU's School of Global Environmental Sustainability, Center for Human Carnivore Coexistence, The Global Wildlife Survey project,  and (while at the University at Buffalo) a number of projects housed in Law and Engineering.  And I have been closely involved with climate change debates for the past several years; this has included attendance at several Conference of the Parties Meetings. 

For some of my published work see my philpapers page, my academia page, and my google scholar page.