Graduate Students

Abdullah Al-Othman received his B.A. in Philosophy from Kuwait University and his M.A. in Philosophy from the University of Miami. His main interests are in epistemology, metaphysics, and philosophy of mind.

Alexandra Benitez, a Miami native, received her B.A. in philosophy from Florida International University, graduating with certificates in Law, Ethics, & Society and Ethics, Big Data, & Artificial Intelligence. In her time there, she became a tutor where a deep love of teaching philosophy quickly took root. Her enthusiasm for legal studies manifested itself as an opportunity to initiate a liaison position in the philosophy and pre-law departments to inform students and faculty about opportunities for the benefit of both. As an inaugural AVD fellow, her research with several communities of faith resulted in applying the importance of dialogue, disagreement, belief, and epistemic authority. Thus, her passion for epistemology began. Her campus engagement as a mentor and advisor cemented her desire to contribute to the creation of future professionals. Alex's education and work have thus far been extremely intersectional and an attempt to display not only what she has inherited from her mentors, but also what philosophy could become. Her areas of interest are social & applied epistemology, political philosophy, philosophy of feminism, and Latin American philosophy.

Email: adb278@miami.edu

Taekyung (Tae) Che received his B.A. and M.A from Yonsei University. His areas of interest are philosophy of science, metaphysics, epistemology, philosophy of physics, and philosophy of action.

Yukun Chen received his B.A. in Philosophy from East China Normal University and was an exchange student at University of Connecticut, Storrs. His primary area of interest lies in the Philosophy of Perception (especially in the problem of evaluative perception), with secondary interests in the Philosophy of Mind, Epistemology, and Cognitive Science. He dissertation aims to explore the concept of ‘affordance’ perception in both non-human animals and humans within the (quasi-)social environment.

Eun Sung Choi received his B.A and M.A in philosophy from Seoul National University. His primary interests are in metaphysics and the philosophy of mind. 

Email:  exc3053@miami.edu

Nick Cisneros  is a Ph.D. candidate in philosophy at the University of Miami. Nick earned his B.A. in both philosophy and psychology from the University of West Florida (2014) and his M.A. in philosophy from Florida State University (2019). His primary research interests center around ethical veganism, especially arguments for and against it and analyses of what it amounts to. Methodologically speaking, Nick is interested in squaring claims made by vegans who aren’t philosophers with claims made by vegans who are philosophers and solid philosophical argumentation and theory. His secondary research interests involve questions in applied ethics more generally and questions in ontology and metaontology.

Email:  ncisneros@miami.edu

Qian He received her B.A. from Peking University, and MLitt from the University of St. Andrews and Stirling Joint Program. Primary interests are in epistemology and philosophy of mind. has a second interest in decision theory, especially in the treatment of transformative experiences, uncertainty, risks, and regret attitudes.

Dan Hoogerhyde received a B.A. in Philosophy from The College of New Jersey and an M.S. in Philosophy from Florida State University. His primary interests are in value theory, well-being, consequentialism, and applied ethics.  

Wali Hussaini  received his BSc (Hons) in Political Science from the Lahore University of Management Sciences and his MA in Philosophy from Durham University. His primary interests are metaethics, political philosophy, and value theory (broadly construed). He is working to develop a pragmatist metaethics – inspired particularly by the work of C.S. Peirce – which can potentially resolve some fundamental issues in moral philosophy. He hopes to build upon this work in the future towards a pragmatist political philosophy. His philosophical interests also include the history of philosophy (especially ancient, 18 ^th and 19 ^th century), environmental ethics, and metaphysics.

Email: sxh1230@miami.edu

Daniel Jaques received his BA in philosophy from the University of Richmond, and MA in philosophy from Texas Tech University. His areas of interest are metaphysics and aesthetics. He has a special interest in color.

Yeun Kim received an MA in Philosophy from Yonsei University. His interests are in philosophy of religion and philosophy of mind. 

Email:  yxk275@miami.edu

Kenji Lota holds degrees in nursing, anthropology, and philosophy. He received his MA in Philosophy from Concordia University in Montreal. His main interests lie in epistemology, philosophy of language, and philosophy of action. He is particularly interested in inquiry. He is concerned with the underlying reasons for how and why we ask certain questions and how those questions get settled. 

Thomas Maher received his B.S. in Astronomy-Physics from the University of Virginia. He is interested in primarily in the metaphysics of science, particularly in the context of philosophy of physics. He has secondary interests in the philosophy of mathematics and philosophical logic. 

Luis Enrique Martinez Barboza received his B.A. in Philosophy from University of Florida and his M.A. in Philosophy from University of Miami. His main interests are Ethics of Technology and Artificial Intelligence, and Philosophy of Mind.

Rachel Meyer received her B.A. in Modern Thought and Literature from Stanford University, her M.A. in Liberal Studies from University of Miami, and her Doctorate in Veterinary Medicine from Cornell University.  Her main interests are in ethics, particularly animal ethics, philosophy of religion, and pragmatism. She has a special fondness for existentialism.

Email: crm225@miami.edu

Jon Odito is interested in Ethics, Ontology and the Philosophy of Mind. In particular, he is interested in the ethical dimensions of maturity: he is interested in studying maturity, not just as a developmental phenomenon, as they do in humanistic psychology, but also as a moral phenomenon, in particular, as a distinct virtue, just like the cardinal, canonical virtues of Justice and Temperance and Courage.

Email: johnodito@gmail.com
Website:   https://sites.google.com/view/johnodito/home

Audrey Rodriguez received a Bachelor’s of Arts (B.A.) in Philosophy and a B.A. in Honors English from the University of California, Santa Barbara. She is generally interested in metaphysics, applied ethics, feminist philosophy, the philosophy of love, the question of free will, metaphilosophy, legal philosophy, questions of personal identity, philosophy of film, and philosophy of literature. Ultimately, she loves to explore any and every theoretical aspect of life while continuing to experience it as well (hence the skydiving!)

Hwan Ryu received his B.A. and M.A. in Philosophy from Seoul National University. His interests are in metaphysics, philosophy of science, and philosophy of mathematics.

Email:  hwan.ryu@miami.edu

Julian Saccone received a B.A. in philosophy & linguistics and an M.A. in philosophy from the University of Tuebingen. He is primarily interested in the philosophy of mind and metaphysics, especially consciousness, pain, empathy, free will, and personal identity. He is also interested in manipulation, propaganda, political control, and totalitarianism. 

Changshuo Sun received his MPhil in Philosophy from Lingnan University and his BA in Philosophy from Wuhan University. His primary area of interest is epistemology. His MPhil thesis focused on radical skepticism, transcendental arguments, and hinge epistemology. Recently, he has developed an interest in the intersection of ethics and epistemology, particularly in the ethics of belief and the ethics of inquiry.

Katrina Torsoe is interested in topics at the intersection of motivation and epistemic practice, especially issues in philosophy of logic. She has secondary interests in a variety of issues including social epistemology, conceptual engineering, and normativity. She received her B.A. in philosophy from Hillsdale College in 2021.

Matthew Watts works in memory, mind, cognitive science, and (increasingly) technology, but he has broad philosophical interests ranging across the philosophical spectrum. Before graduate school, he received a B.S. in Philosophy from Portland State University. Prior to that he was a Certified Pipefitter/Welder and worked vineyard maintenance at the Hood's Wind Vineyard in Hood River, Oregon. 

Gedalyahu Wittow aka Ged received his  BA in Humanities from the Open University of Israel and an MA in Cognitive Science from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Main interests are in core philosophy topics, such as free will and agency, knowledge and truth, phil mind and metaphysics broadly construed. 

Personal bio: I grew up in a Yiddish speaking ultra-orthodox community in Jerusalem and studied Talmud and a variety of other Jewish topics in some of the well renowned Yeshivot in Israel. My untraditional entry to academia and interest in philosophy has been an opportunity to see issues such as truth, religion and meaning from a bridging perspective that I hope will encourage more dialog, communication, and better philosophy for more of us.