My name is Laura and I'm a first-year M.A. Student. After graduating from Santa Clara University with majors in Philosophy and Religious Studies I spent a year with the Jesuit Volunteer Corp in Portland, Maine working for an immigration legal nonprofit. This experience pushes me to understand more about questions in moral philosophy and psychology surrounding the nature of justice and moral reasoning, and the role of emotions in moral judgement.
My current philosophical inquiry centers around the relationship between selfhood and the body, where ontologically human value lies, and how such perceptions impact our ethical treatment of our own body and the bodies of others. My research questions examine what constitutes a body and how the self is related to and expressed through the body. In addition, I'm interested in ethical issues that intersect with the moral and ontological nature of bodies including issues in human and organ trafficking, immigration, the moral status of animals, the environment, and artificially intelligent beings, as well as overall bodily-based discrimination.
On campus I'm the Programming Director for the Graduate Student Association, which allows me to plan events and bring grad students together. I'm originally from rural Colorado and love hiking, paddle boarding, and travel!
