I recently completed my Ph.D. in philosophy at the University of Memphis under the direction of Dr. Shaun Gallagher. I currently teach remotely for Stanford University and the University of Arizona Global Campus. I am a member of the Cognitive Computing Research Group (CCRG), developing the LIDA cognitive architecture. In 2019, I was a fellow of the Kavli Institute for Cognitive Neuroscience.
My research lies at the intersection between the philosophy of mind, cognitive science, and (continental) phenomenology. The core of my work can be described as ‘neurophenomenology,’ a term introduced by the neuroscientist and philosopher Francisco J. Varela. The aim of neurophenomenology is to understand how phenomenal structures as studied by phenomenologists are realized in neurophysiological systems. Put more simply, the goal is to understand how first-person phenomenal consciousness and neurocognitive structure are related.
I have several research projects that I am actively working on:
1. Culture and cognition.
- I have written on dual-process theory, expanding it into embodied domains and arguing for the cultural embeddedness of its processes.
- I have analyzed perceptual racial biases in a predictive processing framework.
- My dissertation, The Cultural Mind, explores the ways that agents develop sensorimotor attunement to cultural dimensions of the environment.
2. Artificial intelligence and consciousness.
- Since 2019, I have been working with the CCRG in developing LIDA (Learning Intelligent Decision Agent), an artificial intelligence model of the global workspace theory of consciousness (also implementing other cognitive theories). For example, I introduced the ‘body schema’ from the phenomenology of Maurice Merleau-Ponty to LIDA.
- I have recently published a relativistic theory of consciousness (i.e., based in relativistic physics) with Dr. Nir Lahav, a physicist at Bar-Ilan University.
3. Phenomenological psychiatry.
- Together with Dr. Shaun Gallagher, I have proposed a phenomenologically-inspired predictive processing framework for understanding the experience of time (Zeitbewusstsein) in depression.
- I am currently developing a phenomenology of mood or attunement (Befindlichkeit, Stimmung) for understanding the experience of trauma.
Feel free to connect with my work through my pages on the following sites:
Personal
What is this symbol that you keep seeing that looks like a QR code? It’s actually my name, written in Arabic in the Square Kufic Script.
