I'm centrally focused on issues related to aesthetic value, judgment, and normativity.  At its core, my work aims to explore the nature of aesthetic value, and how it relates—or fails to relate—to other forms of value.  In particular, I want to develop my account in such a way that it can comfortably accommodate “difficult” cases of aesthetic value, where the value of the object comes intermingled with feelings of disgust, discomfort, and other negative experiences and judgments. Along this dimension, I have a particularly strong interest in the sublime, which I take to present us with our own limitations as cognitive and practical agents. In tackling these problems, I aim to work within a historically informed framework, drawing on key insights from historical thinkers and recasting their ideas into a more contemporary conceptual molding.

My historical interests usually find their nesting grounds in the 19th Century, though they occasionally flutter off into the surrounding territory. I am fortunate enough to have an immediate and unflinching answer to "Who's your favorite philosopher?"-type icebreaker questions: Schopenhauer! Far from being a mere supporting bridge between Kant and Nietzsche or only the arch-pessimist of Western philosophy, I find a highly original (and eminently quotable) thinker in Schopenhauer, offering novel approaches to everything from meta-philosophy to ethics. This novelty draws on an eclectic range of sources and has provided inspiration for a variety of thinkers from the suffragist-idealist May Sinclair to the novelist Andrei Bely. I find that I often enjoy puzzling over this rich fiber of connections. I also have a significant interest in a figure who philosophers rarely think of as a philosopher: Oscar Wilde. Engagement with his essays reveals a deep and original ways of thinking about normative domains and "the good life." My interests also extend to Kant and his disciples in the Romantic and post-Kantian idealist traditions.

When I stray outside of my usual perch between aesthetics and history, I find myself mostly interested in analyzing the concepts that make our social lives tick, such as individuality, "being interesting," and gossip.