About

I am a Lecturer in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Houston, a Fellow at the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics, and an International Research Associate at the University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM).

Previously, I was a Visiting Research Fellow at the Centre de Recherche en Éthique in Montréal (2020-21), a Lecturer of Philosophy in the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies at UDSM (2017-19), a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Johannesburg (2016-17), and an Adjunct Professor of Philosophy at Lone Star College–Tomball (2016).

I graduated from Rice University with a PhD in Philosophy in May 2016. I further hold Master’s degrees in Physics (Heidelberg University, 2009) and Philosophy (Rice University, 2014).

In my doctoral dissertation, which I wrote under the direction of Professor George Sher, I defend a novel account of the wrongness of killing, according to which it is no less seriously wrong to kill a non-human conscious animal than it is to kill you or me.

I am interested in all of philosophy, except the obscure kind. Particular interests include applied ethics, moral theory, social and political philosophy, metaphysics, epistemology, logic, and critical thinking.

I believe that philosophy has an important role to play in public life, and I regularly write columns for newspapers in the United States and a number of countries in Europe, Asia, and Africa.

Outside academia, I like to ride my motorcycle, take photos, and travel. It’s Khukie with whom I enjoy doing things most.

I grew up in the small Swabian village of Adelmannsfelden in Southwest Germany.