I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Philosophy at the University of British Columbia.
My main research interests lie in Metaphysics, Modern Philosophy, Feminist Philosophy (particularly as it relates to Islam) and the History of Analytic Philosophy (esp. Frege, Russell, and early Wittgenstein). A primary focus of my work is the Principle of Sufficient Reason (roughly: 'Everything has an explanation'). The principle was a prime tenet of early modern rationalism, and thus much of my work in the history of early modern philosophy concerns metaphysical themes in Leibniz, Spinoza, Du Châtelet, and other early modern rationalists. I also spend a lot of my time thinking about the Principle of Sufficient Reason as a thesis within contemporary metaphysics. Questions I have investigated include: How should we understand the PSR, in light of recent developments in metaphysics? What is the best argument for the principle? And is a commitment to the PSR consistent with a commitment to a fundamental level of reality? I've also written and presented on a range of other topics, including: depatriarchalizing strategies in Quranic interpretation; Kant's transcendental idealism; norms for belief; the metaphysics of numerical identity; Russell's theory of knowledge; metaphysical emergence; and methodology in metaphysics. |