Upcoming Presentations

The Society for Cognitive Studies of the Moving Image 2026 in Amsterdam, Netherlands, June 10-13

Title of talk: The Strange Phenomenon of Cause and Sound Effect

Overview: We are regularly presented with sight and sound in movies that produce a false impression of reality. Many of these false impressions are obvious to the viewer. For instance, the characters are performed by trained actors, and sets are built to appear as real homes or villages. When we consider the fiction and illusory nature of movies, it is easy to identify how we are being visually fooled. Even now, if I were to ask you to name an auditory false impression in the last film you saw, you would probably be hard-pressed to identify it. I can almost guarantee that there were many sounds introduced or augmented in post-production. It’s just hard to notice them without knowing what you are looking for—or rather, listening for. In this presentation, I will explore the false impression of sound in cinema. 

5 Key References

  • Chion, Michel. Sound: An Acoulogical Treatise. Duke University Press, (1998), 2016. Print. 

  • Chion, Michel. Audio-Vision: Sound on Screen. New York: Columbia University Press, (1994), 2019. Online.

  • Perry R. Cook (editor), Music, Cognition, and Computerized Sound: An Introduction to Psychoacoustics. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2001. 

  • Reber R, Schwarz N, Winkielman P. Processing fluency and aesthetic pleasure: is beauty in the perceiver's processing experience? Pers Soc Psychol Rev. 2004;8(4):364-82.

  • Costa, M., & Corazza, L. (2006). Aesthetic phenomena as supernormal stimuli: The case of eye, lip, and lower-face size and roundness in artistic portraits. Perception, 35(2), 229–246

courses Taught

Philosophy of Design (Spring 2026)- Illinois Institute of Technology

This course will focus on the philosophy behind different forms of design. We will begin the course with an introduction to design theory, focusing on everyday objects, nature, and the mind. The second section of the course will focus on design theory and practice within media platforms. Here we will study design methods in social media, acoustics, and audio design, as well as computer game design. The course will end with an examination of the philosophy of technology design, starting off with general theories of technology design and ending with a three-week focus on the philosophy of architecture.

Ethics of Technology: Mind and Media (Fall 2025)- Illinois Institute of Technology

​​This course will focus on the ethics of Artificial Intelligence through three distinct units that build on each other. Unit One, AI Minds: In this unit, students will develop an introductory understanding of the contemporary controversies surrounding the mental capacities of artificial intelligence systems. Unit Two, Generative AI: This unit will explore the various moral, political, and existential issues facing humanity with the development of generative AI, such as Chat-GPT and other Large Language Models. These include political propaganda, job insecurity, racial representation, mental health, the impact on human creativity, and the impact on the environment. Unit Three, Artificial Media: This final section will consider the ethical implications that algorithms have on the use of media and social media platforms (Netflix, Amazon, X, Instagram, etc.).

African American Philosophy (Spring 2025)- CUNY Hunter College

“African American Philosophy” is the new term that has been coined to designate philosophy written by and or about the Black American. This philosophy has been fundamentally shaped by the experience of transnational racial subordination: racial chattel slavery in the Atlantic world, colonialism, and then continuing diasporic racial oppression in nominally post-slavery and post-colonial America. As such, Black philosophers have played a crucial role in pioneering what is now known as Critical Philosophy of Race: the philosophical examination of race from a “critical,” anti-racist perspective. This course will focus on modern African American Philosophy, as it has developed over the past few hundred years, looking at classic figures from the past (Frederick Douglass, W.E.B. Du Bois, Alain LeRoy Locke, and others) as well as contemporary thinkers of the present ( such as James Baldwin, Anthony Appiah, Paul Taylor and Myisha Cherry) as they have grappled with both traditional and non-traditional philosophical questions arising from the challenge of understanding modern society’s actual social ontology, dealing with existential trauma, developing an emancipatory political theory, and formulating appropriate epistemologies, ethics, and aesthetics for a racialized world.

Philosophy of  Film and Photography (Fall 2024)- CUNY Baruch College

This course investigates a set of philosophical problems concerning visual representation through photography and our experiences of it. Such problems include: What is the real purpose of a photograph? How does sound design impact a narrative? Can a documentary or a photograph capture the truth? How does a film use sight and sound to influence the viewer's cognition? What are the ethical ramifications of the film?  How has cinema contributed to critical race theory?

Major Issues In Philosophy/ Introduction to Philosophy (spring 2024)- CUNY Baruch College

Philosophy is about some of the deepest questions people can ask. These include questions about what reality is like, questions about the nature of knowledge, and questions about what is beautiful and right and wrong. Philosophers typically try to answer these questions by using reasoning and common sense rather than faith or science. Philosophy helps to make us better at critical reasoning, it helps us appreciate the diverse perspectives on these questions, and it helps us to come up with our own thoughts about them.

Aesthetics (spring 2023)- CUNY Hunter College

What is art? When is an object just an object, and when is it a work of art? Who gets to decide this, and how do we know if the work of art is any good? These kinds of questions concerning beauty, value, and taste are the central focus when philosophers embark on studies in Aesthetics. This course will offer an introduction to these concerns through an exploration of the philosophy of art, including paintings, sculpture, film, music, and landscapes. It will consider such topics as the emotional components of art, the ethics of art, the balance between nature and mechanical, and reality versus fiction.