Education
As an undergraduate at Texas Tech
University, I slowly drifted from mainstream computer
science into artificial intelligence. Once there,
I began asking a number of pesky questions to which my
computer science professors did not have easy answers, and
I eventually found myself with enough philosophy credits
to declare a second major. In May 2004, I received
a BS in Computer Science and a BA in Philosophy,
graduating with highest honors. After graduation,
I was accepted into the PhD program at Indiana
University Bloomington, where I am currently pursuing a
doctorate in Philosophy with a minor in Cognitive
Science.
Research Interests
I have worked on many
problems in my coursework, but I am focusing on
the intersection of the following issues:
The
psychology of human intuitive judgment
Animal
cognition
The role of
rationality in cognitive science
The connectionism/classicism debate
Comparative
psychology
Heuristics
(both Heuristics & Biases and Simple Heuristics schools)
The cognitive science of concepts: prototypes,
exemplars, and non-conceptual content
Formal knowledge representation and reasoning,
especially non-monotonic reasoning, formal ontologies,
and answer set programming
Awards
I have won a few awards during my graduate career for which I am
very grateful:
Award for Graduate Academic Excellence, IUB Philosophy Department, 2005-2006
academic year
Oscar R. Ewing Essay award, IUB Philosophy Department, May 2006
Assistant Instructor Stipend, IUB Philosophy Department, Fall 2004-Spring 2009
Nelson Dissertation Fellowship, IUB Department of Philosophy, Fall 2008-Spring 2009
College of Arts and Sciences Dissertation Year Fellowship, Indiana University, Fall 2009-Spring 2010
Representative Publications
Buckner, C., Niepert, M., & Allen, C. (Forthcoming). From encyclopedia to ontology: Toward dynamic representation of the discipline of philosophy. Forthcoming in Synthese. Link.
Weinberg, J., Gonnerman, C., Buckner, C., and Alexander, J. (Forthcoming). Are Philosophers Expert Intuiters? Forthcoming in Philosophical Psychology. (Author order reverse alphabetical). Link.
Buckner, C., Shriver, A., Crowley, S. & Allen, C. (2009). How ‘Weak’ Mindreaders Inherited the Earth. Commentary on Peter Carruthers article, How we know our own minds: The relationship between mindreading and metacognition. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 32 (2):140-141. Link.
Niepert, M., Buckner, C., and Allen, C. (2009). Working the Crowd: Design Principles and Early Lessons from the Social-Semantic Web. In Proceedings of the Workshop on Web 3.0: Merging Semantic Web and Social Web at ACM Hypertext, Turin, Italy, 2009. Link.
Niepert, M. Buckner, C. & Allen, C. (2008). Answer set programming on expert feedback to populate and extend dynamic ontologies. In Proceedings of 21st FLAIRS. AAAI Press; 500-505. Link.
(A full list of publications can be found on my CV)
Employment History
I have held (and currently hold) a
number of interesting jobs:
Research
Assistant at Pulsed Power and Power Electronics laboratory, Texas Tech
University, 2001-2004
Assistant
Instructor with Indiana University Bloomington Department of Philosophy,
2004-Present
Research
Assistant on IUB New Horizons in the Humanities grant, Indiana Philosophy Ontology (InPhO) project
with Colin Allen (PI) and Mathias Niepert, Summer 2006-Present
Exhibits Coordinator at
Association for Practical and Professional Ethics, Summer 2007-Present
Webmaster, 2007 IUB Conference on Agency and Responsibility
Webmaster, IUB Philosophy Department, 2007-
For my full resume,
click here.
I
have also taught computer studies courses at the high school
level in Savusavu Fiji for two summers. I served as a
volunteer teacher at Savusavu Secondary School and St. Bede's
Secondary School during the summers of 2004 and 2005. I also
helped organize the Rava Computer Club, and participated in a
number of other projects with the Savusavu Rotary Club.
Research has kept me busy the past two summers, but I hope
to return to continue my work in Fiji soon.
I also began volunteering with a great Bloomington organization, PALS, in May 2008. PALS (People and Animal Learning Services) is a non-profit equestrian therapy provider supplying therapeutic horseback riding to children and adults with cognitive, emotional, physical, and psychological disabilities.
You can check out the organization (and chip in) at their web site here.
Also, I started the World Turing Petition as a show of solidarity for Graham-Cumming's effort in the UK; it is for those of us who are not British citizens. Please sign and pass along!
World Turing Petition
UPDATE: No. 10 has responded to Graham-Cumming's petition!
Oh; and finally, I am a big fan of the hippocampus!
