Research

Most of my research is on philosophy of physics, driven and informed by questions from history of science and (feminist) philosophy of science more broadly, as well as theoretical and mathematical physics.

My main research area and the central question of my dissertation is: The quantum field theories (QFTs) underpinning our current framework of particle physics are celebrated as some of the most accurate theories in human history. But they’ve faced significant challenges throughout their history. Their consistency has been questioned, their most powerful predictive techniques were once considered ad hoc, and their mathematical backbone is still seen as unrigorous. Why are QFTs so successful, then? My dissertation consists of three different ways of answering this question, all of which highlight the importance of contextual and pragmatic considerations for answering why QFT works at all and why it works so well.

• In my first chapter, “The (beta-)decay of effective realism” (under review), I examine the answer we’d expect a scientific realist would provide—QFTs are so successful because they’re (approximately) true. In particular, I argue against the viability of a widely discussed form of scientific realism about QFT, “effective realism,” and highlight interpretive questions about QFTs that effective realism overlooks.

• In my second chapter, title TBD (in preparation), I draw from the efforts of those physicists who tried to make QFT work during its most turbulent times—the period between the debates about the consistency of quantum electrodynamics in the 1950s and the development of quantum chromodynamics (QCD) in the 1970s. In particular, I argue that epistemically significant attachments to approximation techniques, specifically perturbation theory, describe and partially explain the major developments in this period. This argument also contributes to charting the history of QCD as a QFT, which is largely undertheorized.

• In my third chapter, I plan to show how non-epistemic factors driving the practices of theorists led to epistemic payoffs. In particular, I want to argue for recognizing the presence of values in QFT and encourage embracing feminist values. Advocating for such values not only aligns science with liberatory social-political aims but also offers significant epistemic advantages, as highlighted by feminist science scholars.

My secondary research area within the philosophy of physics focuses on how the mathematical structures of quantum theories codify their physical content and explores more appropriate ways of doing so. You can find my papers in this area here.

Aside from philosophy and the history of physics, I've worked on:

• Early Greek science, particularly that practiced by the Presocratics and Hippocratic doctors. I’ve published a book chapter surveying early Greek science and its traces on Aristophanes’ Clouds, titled “El ‘Sócrates presocrático’ de Las Nubes de Aristófanes” [The ‘Presocratic Socrates’ of Aristophanes’ Clouds], as a commentary essay to a translation I did with my undergraduate Greek translation group back in Colombia.

• Inclusive pedagogies in and for philosophy, primarily in courses considered “technical” (e.g., formal methods, logic, and philosophy of physics). Thomas Colclough, Helen Meskhidze, and I designed and ran a study in two formal logic courses where we implemented interventions informed by inclusive pedagogies. Our paper, “Feminist and Trauma-Informed Approaches to Teaching Formal Philosophy,” is forthcoming in Hypatia. See also our “Changing the Way We Teach Formal Philosophy” for a summary of the project in the Women in Philosophy Series of the APA blog.