I am an Assistant Professor (tenure-track) at the Department of Philosophy (Faculty of Arts), University of Manitoba (Winnipeg, MB, Canada).
My areas of specialization are Philosophy of Mind and Language, and I am also very interested in Metaphysics, Epistemology and Feminist Philosophy.
In the academic year 2008-09, I am teaching Philosophy of Mind, Critical Thinking, and Mind and Body.
Background:
I did my undergraduate studies in philosophy at the University of Murcia (Spain) and the University of Hull (UK). In September 2001 I moved to the Department of Philosophy at the University of Sheffield (UK) to pursue the MA/Research Training Year in Philosophy (for which I got a "Best Performance" Prize), and later a PhD, which I started in October 2002. My PhD supervisors were Stephen Laurence (primary supervisor) and Rosanna Keefe (secondary supervisor); and also for a while, Dominic Gregory, who took over for one semester.
I received my doctorate in 2007. My PhD thesis was on "Consciousness, Conceivability and Concepts". The viva took place on the 4th of October 2007 (which I passed with no corrections). My examiners were Jennifer Saul (U. Sheffield) and Manuel García-Carpintero (Logos, UB). Whilst a graduate student, I did quite a bit of teaching in my Department, as a Teaching Assistant and also as a Teaching Fellow.
From March to June 2008 I was a Visitor at Logos - Logic, Language and Cognition Research Group (University of Barcelona, Spain). I moved to the University of Manitoba in July 2008.
Research:
The questions that first brought me to philosophy were mainly these: "What is the place of the mind in a natural world?" and "How do mind and language represent the world?". I am still pretty much interested in these issues. More specifically, my current research focuses on the following questions:
- What is the nature of consciousness? Is consciousness physical? Is physicalism true?
- What is the best theory of phenomenal concepts? Can we use this theory of phenomenal concepts in order to block anti-physicalist arguments?
- What is the role of conceptual analysis in philosophy, and especially in metaphysics?
- Is two-dimensional semantics any good?
- What is the meaning of ‘woman’? Can we make sense of the sex-gender distinction? What does it mean to say that a category is socially constructed? Are gender, race and sexual orientation socially constructed?
News: I have received a UM-URGP research grant for my research project "A Philosophical Account of Social Construction". Total amount: CAN$ 4,403. You can have a look at the research proposal here.
Selected Publications:
"Defending the Phenomenal Concept Strategy", Australasian Journal of Philosophy 86 (4), pp. 597-610, 2008.
"We are living in a material world (and I am a material girl)", Teorema 27 (3), pp. 85-101 (especial issue on Phenomenal Consciousness and Contemporary Naturalism), 2008.