Personal.  I was born in 1986 in northern Minnesota, a part of America that is virtually Canadian, and also the birthplace of Bob Dylan.  I moved states with my mom when I was 14, and attended public high school and college in Iowa City, a liberal sanctuary in the Midwest that voted overwhelmingly against Trump; to the right is a picture of me there as a high school senior in 2003.  As an undergraduate, I lived in the basement of a bookshop and showered at the recreation center, and I worked in several bookshops, the Iowa Law Library, a Procter & Gamble factory, and the Iowa Law, Health Policy, and Disability Center.  I then moved to New Brunswick, New Jersey in 2008 for graduate school at Rutgers, which gave me a great philosophical ancestry.  Whenever I wasn’t working on philosophy, I took the train to New York City.  Since 2014 I’ve lived in Southampton, England.

​​My brilliant and wonderful wife Kate Sylvan is a dual UK/American citizen who was born in Southampton.  In late September 2016 (before the world descended fully into lunacy), we were thrilled to bring home our child, Edward ('Teddy') Felix Sylvan.   Although Teddy instantly became the most beloved little fellow in the household, we have been trying our best to reassure our poor cat Seneca that he remains our favorite non-human animal.  

Stay tuned for updates and new pictures.  Teddy's vocabulary has grown quite extensive, though his pronunciation of some words is still a bit off --- e.g., 'duddle' for cuddle and 'wlala' for water.  His favorite things these days are bunnies, coloring (especially creating expressionist pieces that he claims involve bunnies), eating frozen berries, and trying to steal my glasses.
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