About

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Drawing by Mary Leone Duffy

I am Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. My research interests are in phenomenology and philosophy of mind and language, broadly construed. I completed my doctoral studies in philosophy at Fordham University in New York City in 2020.

I am interested in how the meaning we find and make in language extends more basic bodily modes of sensemaking in perception, action, and preverbal communication. My approach to these topics is pluralistic, drawing from phenomenology, analytic philosophy, cognitive science, and empirical research. I also engage diverse historical and cultural traditions, including Indian and ancient Greek philosophy. My research has recently been featured in European Journal of Philosophy, Synthese, and Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences. Read more about my current research project, The Birth of Speech.

My academic and personal interests in phenomenology, embodied cognitive science, and Indian philosophy converge in my study and practice of yoga. Though yoga is currently known in the West primarily for its postural and meditative practices, it is also one of the ancient schools of Indian philosophy. With its careful studies of conscious bodily experience, yogic philosophy complements phenomenology. There are many as yet unexplored avenues for future research and mutual exchange between phenomenology and yoga. I am pursuing some of these themes in my current practice, study, and scholarship. The first fruits of my scholarly work in this area have recently been published in Philosophy East and West.

I also enjoy writing about philosophy and science for a general audience. My writing has recently appeared at aeon.co.

You can follow my work at academia.edu, ResearchGate, PhilPeople, and Google Scholar.

Email contact: hkee[at]cuhk.edu.hk