Introducing our 2023-24 Postdoctoral Fellows
The McCoy Family Center for Ethics in Society is pleased to introduce our incoming postdoctoral fellows for 2023-2024. Postdocs in the new cohort, spanning our different fellowship programs, will engage in a variety of activities including teaching, research, and mentoring, as well as participate in the Center's vibrant intellectual life.
This year's cohort includes Shannon Sylvie Abelson (Interdisciplinary Ethics Fellow in partnership with the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability), Moya Mapps (General Ethics Fellow), Veronica Rivera (Embedded Ethics Fellow), and Daniel Webber (Embedded Ethics Fellow). Learn more about our postdoctoral fellows program and the incoming scholars below.
Shannon completed her Ph.D. in Philosophy at Indiana University Bloomington, working on philosophy of astronomy and astrophysics. She received an M.A. from Virginia Tech in Philosophy and a B.A. in Philosophy from Stetson University. Her current research interests include philosophy of astronomy and astrophysics, environmental ethics, and space environmentalism. More specifically, Shannon’s research focuses on best practices and practical solutions to pressing ethical and policy issues in space exploration, including space debris mitigation, equitable access to Space, and the orbital and terrestrial environmental impacts of the space industry. Shannon will be an Interdisciplinary Ethics Fellow in partnership with the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability.
Moya graduated from Stanford in 2014 with a B.A. in Philosophy and a minor in Political Science. They are currently completing a Ph.D. in Philosophy at Yale. Moya’s research interests include ethics, feminist philosophy, and critical philosophy of race. Their dissertation explores the ways in philosophy can be enriched by experiential knowledge and personal writing. In future projects, they will grapple with the question of what we should do with the sexism and racism of influential philosophers like Kant. This fall, Moya will return to Stanford as a General Ethics Fellow.
Veronica completed her Ph.D. in Computational Media at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She was the recipient of the ARCS Foundation Scholarship and the Chancellor’s Graduate Fellowship. She was also a visiting student at the Max Planck Institute for Software Systems and holds a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science and Math from Harvey Mudd College. Veronica engages with the human-computer interaction and computer security research communities. Her research examines the safety and security harms people face while interacting via social computing systems and how to design tools that empower users in protecting against digital harm. Her doctoral research explored safety-related harms and users’ protective strategies in matching market platforms like online dating and gig work applications. At UCSC, Veronica also developed and taught the first technology ethics course for the human-computer interaction professional master’s program. Veronica will be an Embedded Ethics Fellow in partnership with HAI and the Computer Science department.
Daniel Webber
Daniel will receive his Ph.D. in Philosophy from the University of Pittsburgh this summer. His dissertation is on moral theory, and explores whether theories that evaluate moral principles counterfactually can make sense of the moral significance of our actual social practices and the actual effects of our actions on others. More generally, Daniel is interested in understanding the source of our moral obligations to others and the role that law and custom play in shaping those obligations. Prior to pursuing his Ph.D., Daniel earned a B.A. in Computer Science at Amherst College and had a short-lived career as a software developer. Daniel will join the Center as an Embedded Ethics Fellow in partnership with HAI and the Computer Science department.