My primary research area is in the moral and political philosophy of marriage, personal relationships, and care. In Minimizing Marriage (Honorable Mention, American Philosophical Association Book Prize), I argue for radical marriage law reform to include friendship and group marriages. My new project is on intimate partner violence and interpersonal wrongs, including emotional abuse, stalking, and bullying.

A second ongoing area of research is disaster ethics. I've written on the state’s role in rebuilding after disasters and the ethics of price gouging.

Before joining Rice’s Philosophy Department in 2019, I held positions at Arizona State University and the University of Calgary. I received my PhD in Philosophy from the University of St. Andrews, Scotland, and a BA in Classics and English from Oxford University.

I’ve held Fellowships and visiting research positions at the University of British Columbia; Lund University, Sweden; the Warwick Institute for Advanced Study at the University of Warwick; the Center for Values and Social Policy at the University of Colorado at Boulder; the University of Umeå, Sweden; the Kennedy Institute of Ethics, Georgetown University; and the Murphy Institute at Tulane University. I co-directed a NEH Summer Institute on The Philosophy of Care with Tamara Metz, and I have held a Canadian Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Grant.

I typically teach courses in Philosophy of Love and Sex, Applied Ethics, Feminist Philosophy, Political Philosophy, History of Ethics, and Philosophy and Literature.

After completing a five-year term as the Editor of the Journal of Applied Philosophy, I joined Ethics as an Associate Editor in 2024.