I am Associate Professor of Philosophy at Smith College, Northampton, MA, USA.
From August to December 2025, I will be Leverhulme Visiting Professor at the University of Glasgow, hosted by Bryan Pickel, Senior Lecturer in Philosophy.
My academic CV is available here.
At Smith, I teach in the philosophy department and advise philosophy majors, linguistics majors, and South Asian Studies minors.
About Me
I work on philosophy of language, with some interest in aesthetics, epistemology, and argumentation.
What do words mean? How do we understand metaphors and non-literal language? What can we know and how can we know it? What norms should govern our arguments with other people?
I think about these questions along with Sanskrit-language philosophers in the Indian subcontinent, primarily early Nyāya and Mīmāṃsā. Along the way, I make connections with contemporary analytic philosophy.
Books
Podcasts, Blogs and Videos
Articles and Anthology Contributions
"Debating with Fists and Fallacies: Vācaspati Miśra and Dharmakīrti on Norms of Argumentation" (2022). International Journal of Hindu Studies 26:1, pp. 63-87.
"Kumārila Bhaṭṭa and Pārthasārathi Miśra on First- and Higher-Order Knowing" Philosophy East and West. 72:2 (2022): 396-414. (formerly Knows-Knows in Mīmāṃsā: Pārthasārathi and Kumārila on svataḥ prāmāṇya)
"The Pragma-Dialectics of Dispassionate Discourse: Early Nyāya Argumentation Theory" (2021). Religions. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel12100875
"Metaphor or Delusion? A Mīmāṃsaka's Response to Conceptual Metaphor Theory." (2019). Philosophy East and West. doi: 10.1353/pew.0.0172
"(Close) the Door; the King (is Going): The Development of Elliptical Resolution in Bhāṭṭa Mīmāṃsā." (2017). Journal of Indian Philosophy 45:5, pp. 911-938.
"Metonymy and Metaphor as Verbal Postulation: The Epistemic Status of Non-Literal Speech in Indian Philosophy'.' (2017) Journal of World Philosophies 2:1.
"How Do We Gather Knowledge through Language?'' with Elisa Freschi. (2017). Journal of World Philosophies 2:1.
Thinking about Embedded Metaphors." (2015). Journal of Pragmatics 88, pp.19-26.
"The Cow is to Be Tied Up: Sort-Shifting in Classical Indian Philosophy." (2013). History of Philosophy Quarterly 30:4, pp.331-332.
"Mukulabhaṭṭa’s Defense of Lakṣaṇā: How We Use Words to Mean Something Else, but Not Everything Else." (2013). Journal of Indian Philosophy 41:4, pp. 439-461.
Encyclopedia Entries and Bibliographies
Pramāṇa. (2021). Invited contribution to The Encyclopedia of Philosophy of Religion, eds. Stewart Goetz and Charles Taliaferro, Wiley-Blackwell.
"The Literal/Non-Literal Distinction in Indian Philosophy," The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. (Winter 2016 Edition, Revised Winter 2020), Edward N. Zalta (ed.).
"Epistemology (Pramāṇas)" with Matthew R. Dasti. (2016). Oxford Bibliographies Online, Hinduism.
Book Reviews
ShashiPrabha Kumar, “Categories, Creation and Cognition in Vaiśeṣika Philosophy,” Journal of Comparative Literature and Aesthetics, Vol. 43, No. 1., 139-141.
Ethan Mills’ “Three Pillars of Skepticism in Classical India: Nāgārjuna, Jayarāśi, and Śrī Harṣa.” Journal of Dharma Studies (50). Published online 31 August 2019
Keya Maitra's “The Philosophy of the Bhagavad Gītā: Contemporary Introduction.” Philosophy East & West. 69(3). doi: 10.1353/pew.2019.0075
Roy Tzohar's “A Yogācāra Buddhist Theory of Metaphor.” Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews. August 2018.
Amber Carpenter’s “Indian Buddhist Philosophy.” Philosophy East & West. 65(4) October 2015.
Christopher G. Framarin's “Desire and Motivation in Indian Philosophy. Routledge Hindu Studies.” Journal of the American Oriental Society. 133(1)160-62.
Interviews and Blog Posts
Find me elsewhere online:
