I am a PhD candidate in the Department of Political Science at the University of Toronto. I specialize in political theory, especially critical theory and the history of political thought.

My dissertation focuses on the relationship between freedom and recognition and explores how intersubjective recognition is vital for achieving freedom even as it has the potential to inculcate new forms of dependence. Through an engagement with Frederick Douglass, Frantz Fanon, Axel Honneth, and Judith Butler, the dissertation seeks to paint a more complex historical and theoretical picture of how the concept of recognition evolved to become an important modern category. Work from this project can be found in Political Theory and The American Journal of Political Science (forthcoming).

Beyond my engagements with debates on recognition, my interests in political theory extend to questions concerning the role of love in a life of human flourishing. I am currently working on a series of co-authored papers with Joshua D. Goldstein that wrestle with the political and philosophical perplexities posed by modern family life and its institutional boundaries, particularly through a critical engagement with G.W.F. Hegel’s political thought. The first of these articles can be found in The Review of Metaphysics.

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