Introducing our 2024-25 Postdoctoral Fellows

The McCoy Family Center for Ethics in Society is excited to welcome our incoming postdoctoral fellows for 2024-25. The new fellows, representing our diverse fellowship programs, will immerse themselves in various activities such as teaching, research, and mentoring. They will also actively participate in the Center's dynamic intellectual community.

This year's cohort includes Emma Ruth Duncan (Interdisciplinary Ethics Fellow in partnership with the Stanford d.school),  Wanheng Hu (Embedded Ethics Fellow in partnership with the Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence (HAI) and the Computer Science Department), and Ben Mylius (Interdisciplinary Ethics Fellow in partnership with the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability). Learn more about our postdoctoral fellows program and the incoming scholars below.

Emma Ruth Duncan

Emma Ruth Duncan completed her Ph.D. in Philosophy at UC San Diego, where her doctoral research focused on how relationships shape the norms of interpersonal influence. She received an M.A. in Philosophy from Northern Illinois University and B.A. degrees in Philosophy and Graphic Design from Portland State University. Emma's research interests include the normative dimensions of trust, the ethics of influence in public health initiatives, and the socio-affective structure of human-AI relationships. She is currently working on two projects: (i) understanding and addressing distrust as a driver of vaccine hesitancy and (ii) developing an ethical framework for assessing the integration of conversational AI into therapeutic relationships, particularly in mental healthcare contexts. Emma is an Interdisciplinary Ethics Fellow in partnership with the Stanford d.school.

Wanheng Hu

Wanheng Hu will receive his Ph.D. in Science and Technology Studies from Cornell University this summer, where he is also completing a minor in Media Studies and is part of the Artificial Intelligence, Policy, and Practice (AIPP) initiative. His research lies at the intersection of social studies of science, medicine, and technology; critical data/algorithm studies; and public engagement with science. His dissertation examines the cultivation of credible machine learning algorithms in complex expert practices, with an empirical focus on image-based diagnostics within the Chinese medical AI industry. Another line of his work reflects on the role of ordinary citizens in technoscientific affairs, particularly concerning AI development. Before Cornell, Wanheng studied at Peking University, where he obtained an M.Phil. in Philosophy of Science and Technology, a B.L. in Sociology, and a B.Sc. in Biomedical English. He is currently an affiliate at the Data & Society Research Institute. Wanheng will join the Center as an Embedded Ethics Fellow in partnership with the Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence (HAI) and the Computer Science Department.

Ben Mylius

Ben Mylius completed his Ph.D. in Environmental Political Theory at Columbia and his LLM at Yale Law School after his undergraduate studies in Australia. His work revolves around climate, storytelling, and imagination. At the McCoy Family Center for Ethics in Society, Ben will be working on a book-length project exploring different tools communities can use to imagine their own just, resilient, and dynamic climate futures. The project draws on his dissertation research (“On Human Separatism”) and his practical experience as founder of the Columbia Climate Imaginations Network. Ben is an Interdisciplinary Ethics Fellow in partnership with the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability.