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Martin E. FORTIER
PhD Candidate

Department of Philosophy and Social Sciences, École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences), Paris 

Institut Jean Nicod, Department of Cognitive Studies, École Normale Supérieure, Paris

ALIUS Research Group


         





Education and background
I hold a MPhil in philosophy (École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) and École Normale Supérieure (ENS)) as well as a MPhil in anthropology (EHESS).
I am currently doing a PhD in cognitive science at Institut Jean Nicod (Department of Cognitive Studies of ENS and Department of Philosophy and Social Sciences of EHESS).
In 2016 and 2017, I was a visiting student researcher at Stanford's Department of Anthropology, where I worked under the supervision of Tanya Luhrmann.

Lines of research
Situated at the intersection of cognitive science and anthropology, my research explores the interplay between cultural and neurobiological processes in hallucinogenic experiences – especially in the context of Amerindian shamanism – , categorization and reasoning among Amazonian indigenous groups, and the cultural and cognitive underpinning of supernatural thinking – with a special interest in animism. I employ both ethnographic participant observation and experimental methods in my research work.
I am mainly working with Shipibo-Konibo and Huni Kuin (Cashinahua) communities of the Peruvian Amazon. I am also interested in exploring the implications of these cross-cultural findings for the field of philosophy of mind. (Click here for more on my research work).

Personal note
I was supposed to defend my PhD dissertation in early April 2019 and start a post-doc at UC Berkeley in mid-April 2019, but health issues decided otherwise. I will be treated for cancer until late 2019. I hope to be able to resume research work after that date – until then, I will be working at a slow pace and will focus on my recovery.




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