Research Overview

My research fits into four categories: epistemology and ethics of AI, philosophy of biological and biomedical sciences, history of medicine, and feminist epistemology.

Epistemology and Ethics of AI

My dissertation research is on epistemological, ethical, and social questions that arise when using AI and automation in scientific practice. Recently, I have been working on a paper that explores the boundaries of epistemic diversity in multi-agent hypothesis generation systems like Google DeepMind’s CoScientist. I am presenting this work at the PAINT Workshop on Philosophy of AI and Science in September 2026 in Toronto.

I am also interested in assessing claims about the democratization of automated science and value-neutrality in closed-loop automated laboratory systems.

Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences

My research here concerns methodology, evidence, and values in the biological and biomedical sciences. In a recent project, I explore how methodologies and techniques are transported across research contexts from genomics to the emerging field of exposomics (defined as the comprehensive study of the “exposome”: the totality of environmental, lifestyle, and psychosocial exposures an individual experiences over a lifetime, and how these factors interact with genetics and biology to influence health and disease).

I have also written and presented on the diverse lines of evidence used to support the menstrual synchrony hypothesis from the 1970s until the early 2000s. Menstrual synchronization was ‘confirmed’ through observational studies in female groups around the world, anthropological studies of cave paintings, laboratory studies using hamsters, chimpanzees, rats, and Golden Lion Tamarins, and computer simulation models. I tell the story of how these studies give the appearance of robustness for menstrual synchronization as a phenomenon, but that they ultimately rely on a shared inferential bottleneck.

History of Medicine

Finally, I am deeply interested in the history of twentieth-century medicine. I have worked on the history of medical ideas in Aotearoa New Zealand, tracing how eugenic ideologies became embedded in Whānau Āwhina Plunket Society, a popular post-natal institution established in Dunedin (Ōtepoti) in 1907. I presented this work at the History of Science Society (HSS) Conference 2026 in Edinburgh, Scotland.

Feminist epistemology

I have a longstanding interest in feminist epistemology and philosophy of science. I am a part of an upcoming collected volume on the work and life of Helen Longino edited by Sarah Richardson, Michael Dietrich, Carla Fehr, and Heidi Grasswick, published by University of Pittsburgh Press. With Sloane Wesloh and Kyra Salomon, we conducted a longform interview with Helen Longino covering topics including her academic journey, intellectual interests, and hopes for the future of feminist inquiry.