Sara J. Bernstein

Curriculum Vitae

(Download a .pdf)

Sara J. Bernstein

Philosophy Department
Social Sciences 130
University of Arizona
Tucson, AZ 85721

Phone:  (520) 621-5045


Email:  sjbern at u dot arizona dot edu

Areas of Specialization

Metaphysics, Philosophy of Mind

Areas of Competence

Cognitive Science, Philosophy of Science, Philosophy of Quantum Mechanics, History of Early Modern Philosophy, History of Nineteenth Century Philosophy             

Education

Ph.D Philosophy

University of Arizona
Dissertation: Overdetermination Problems
Director: L.A. Paul

2004-

Visiting Student

UNC-Chapel Hill

2009-2010

Visiting Student

Australian National University (RSSS)

June-July 2008

A.B. (Honors) Philosophy

University of Chicago

2000-2004

Works in Preparation

"The Problems of Overdetermination"

"Understanding Overdetermination"

"Moral Overdetermination"

"A New Strain of Nonreductive Physicalism"

"The Metaphysics of Moral Luck"

Presentations and Comments

August 2008. Comments on David Shoemaker's "What's Identity Got to Do With It?" at Rocky Mountain Ethics Congress, Boulder, CO.

August 2008. "Moral Overdetermination" (poster) at Rocky Mountain Ethics Congress, Boulder, CO.

July 2008. "Overdetermination Problems" at Philsoc Series, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia.

July 2008. "Moral Overdetermination" at Australasian Association of Philosophy, Melbourne, Australia.

April 2008. "Understanding Overdetermination" at Powers, Dispositions, and Singular Causation, Buffalo, New York.

March 2008. Comments on Achille Varzi's "Boundaries, Conventions, and Reality" at Inland Northwest Philosophy Conference: Carving Nature at its Joints, Pullman, Washington.

February 2008. "Understanding Overdetermination" at UCLA/ USC Graduate Conference, Los Angeles, CA.

October 2007. Comments on Alexander Skiles' "Ordinary Objects and Overdetermination" at Northwest Philosophy Conference, Portland, OR.

October 2007. "Understanding Overdetermination" at Northwest Philosophy Conference, Portland, OR.

September 2007. "Understanding Overdetermination" at Florida State Graduate Conference, Tallahassee, FL.

August 2007. Comments on Jason Turner's "Ontological Pluralism" at Bellingham Summer Philosophy Conference, Bellingham, WA.

Invited

January 2008. Invited Participant, Pittsburgh Causation Workshop, Pittsburgh Center for Philosophy of Science, Pittsburgh, PA.

December 2007. Invited Participant, Syracuse Mental Causation Workshop, Syracuse, NY.

Fellowships and Awards 

Arizona Department of Philosophy Award for Outstanding Teaching by a Graduate Student, 2007-2008.

Arizona Department of Philosophy Feinberg Dissertation Fellowship (merit-based), 2008.

Arizona Graduate Student Fellowship (merit-based), 2004-2005

Positions Held

Teaching

As Independent Instructor: 

Philosophy 264: Twentieth Century Philosophy (Spring 2008)

Philosophy 263: Nineteenth Century Philosophy (Fall 2007)

Philosophy 238: Philosophy in Literature (Spring 2007)

Philosophy 346: Minds, Brains, and Computers (Summer 2006)

As Teaching Assistant:

Traditions and Cultures 104: Science and Inquiry (Instructor: Shaughan Lavine)

Philosophy 340: Early Modern Philosophy (Instructor: David Owen)

As Grader:

Philosophy 471B: The British Empiricists (Instructor: David Owen)

Research

Fall 2006. Cognitive Science Research Assistant

2004-2005. Member, OSCAR Artificial Intelligence Lab (Director: John Pollock)

Service

To the Arizona Philosophy Department:

2008-2009. Conference organizer (with L.A. Paul), 2009 Arizona Ontology Conference

2007-2008. Conference organizer (with L.A. Paul), 2008 Arizona Ontology Conference

2006-2007. Graduate representative to the faculty

2006-2007. Committee on Graduate Placement

To the profession:

Referee:

Routledge Press

Inland Northwest Philosophy Conference

Philosophia

August 2008. Session Chair, "Lucky to be Rational" at Bellingham Summer Philosophy Conference, Bellingham, Washington.

April 2008. Session Chair, "Materialism/ Dualism" at Toward a Science of Consciousness, Tucson, AZ.

March 2008. Session Chair, Colloquium on "On the Supposed Advantage of Individualism about Overdetermination", Pacific APA, Pasadena, CA.

March 2007. Session Chair, Colloquium on "Perceptual Experience and Error", Pacific APA, San Francisco, CA.

Graduate Coursework

Metaphysics and Epistemology:

Independent Study: Causal Overdetermination (L.A. Paul)
Seminar: Truth (Joseph Tolliver)
Seminar: A Priori Knowledge (Terry Horgan)
Seminar: Metaphysics of Mind (L.A. Paul)
Seminar: Causation (L.A. Paul) (audit)   
Philosophy of Quantum Mechanics (Richard Healey)
Metaphysics of Experience (Houston Smit)

Philosophy of Mind:

Seminar: Representational Theories of Mind (Jenann Ismael and John Pollock)
Seminar: Computational Intelligence (Kobus Barnard, Sandiway Fong, Charles Higgins, John Pollock) (audit)
Seminar: Cognitive Science (Massimo Palmieri-Palmerini)
Philosophy and Psychology (Shaun Nichols)

History of Philosophy:

Seminar: Hume's Treatise on Human Nature (David Owen)   
The Empiricists (David Owen)

Value Theory:

Seminar: Moral Theorizing (David Schmidtz)
Seminar: Aesthetics (Keith Lehrer)
Seminar: Moral Phenomenology (Mark Timmons) 

Misc:

Proseminar: History of Analytic Philosophy (Marga Reimer)
Philosophy of Language (Shaughan Lavine)
Seminar: Research and Professionalization for Dissertation (Terry Horgan and Thomas Christiano)