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Personal. I was born in 1986 in rural northern Minnesota, and moved to Iowa with my mom when I was 14. Around then I became obsessed with philosophy, which I learned about via David Bowie. I attended a public high school and state university in Iowa City; to the right is an amusing picture from high school. As an undergrad, I lived in the basement of a bookshop, and worked in several bookshops, the Iowa Law Library, a Procter & Gamble factory, and the Iowa Law, Health Policy, and Disability Center. I moved to New Brunswick, New Jersey in 2008 for graduate school at Rutgers. Since 2014 I’ve lived in Southampton, England. David Bowie continues to be a major non-academic fixation. Recently I've also enjoyed abstract art, the history of science and technology, cognitive neuroscience, and books about neurodiversity.
I have a late diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Condition (...I'd been previously diagnosed as a (pre)teen with OCD, an eating disorder, and depression and anxiety). For me, the most important positive side is special interests, which have been a strong principle of unity in my life since very early childhood; apart from anxieties about social interaction/communication, unwritten rules, emotions (partly due to alexithymia), and too much light and sound, the main difficulty for me is with executive function, especially getting unstuck from one task and moving to another, and doing more than one thing in one day (regardless of interest). My brilliant and wonderful partner Kate Sylvan is a dual UK/American citizen who enjoys producing and reading literature of all kinds and, lately, Formula 1. In 2016, we were thrilled to bring home our first kid, Edward ('Teddy'). He is now in primary school. At present, his favorite things are art, writing, mathematics, Legos, stories, and asking 'Why?' in many unconventional cases. In 2019, we had our second kid, Albert ('Bertie'). He is now 4! Lately he loves stories, rabbits, cleaning, counting, and building structures with Magna-Tiles. We also have an ageing cat (Seneca) from New Jersey and a young cat from England (Doris). These cats do not get along!
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