Karim Nader

About Me

I am a Postdoctoral Associate in the Social and Ethical Responsibilities of Computing at MIT. I received my Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin in 2023.

My research focuses on the ways in which technology reflects and affects human values, so I am usually thinking about ethics, aesthetics, and epistemology. My dissertation was on the ethics of virtual actions. I am also interested in other issues at the intersection of ethics and aesthetics, the ethics of information and technology, algorithmic bias, and algorithmic decision making.

Before going into academic philosophy, I received a B.A. from Columbia University in philosophy and mathematics and briefly worked in the legal field. I grew up in Beirut, Lebanon.

Outside of philosophy, I practice judo, meditate regularly, and play video games.

knader [at] mit [dot] edu

Research Assistantships

Bad AI and Beyond: Exploring How Popular Media Shape the Perceived Opportunities and Threats of AI

I am currently working with a research team to study entertainment media's role in shaping the public's perception around artificial intelligence. The project is part of Good Systems, an initiative by the University of Texas at Austin to define, evaluate, and build “Good Systems.”

Human-AI Teaming for Big Data Analytics to Enhance Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic

At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, I started working with a research team who received a National Science Foundation RAPID/Collaborative grant to study the process of real-time decisions that digital volunteers make when quickly converting social media data into codes for machine learning. This will allow us to better the human-machine teaming process. Here is the link that gives all the details of the grant.

"Do we have a right to be swiped?" at the Arizona Feminist Philosophy Graduate Conference

"Virtual fictional actions: What we can learn from policies on video game violence" at the University of Glasgow's Center for the Study of Perceptual Experience

Compass

Compass is a workshop for undergraduates from historically underrepresented groups in philosophy. Ten to twelve undergraduates from all around Texas come to Austin for a weekend to participate each year. The workshop consists of discussion sections led by a graduate student on readings in feminist philosophy.

I organized the workshops listed below. Compass at UT was started by Emilie Pagano.

Compass 2023: Feminist Philosophy of Law

Smith, P. (1993). 'Law as a Patriarchal Institution.' Introduction to Feminist Jurisprudence, New York: Oxford University Press.
Mackinnon, C. (1989). 'Law as Male Power.' Excerpt from Toward a Feminist Theory of the State, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
Manne, K. (2017). 'Exonerating Men.' In Down Girl: The Logic of Misogyny. Oxford University Press.
Crenshaw, K. (1989). 'Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory and Antiracist Politics.' University of Chicago Legal Forum, Vol. 1989: Iss. 1, Article 8.
Boyd, S. (2013). 'Motherhood and Law: Constructing and Challenging Normativity.' In The ashgate research companion to feminist legal theory. Taylor & Francis Group.
Terwiel, A. (2019). 'What is Carceral Feminism?' Political Theory, Vol 48 (4).

Compass 2022: Feminist Philosophy of Language

Langton, R. (1993). 'Speech Acts and Unspeakable Acts.' Philosophy & Public Affairs, 22(4), 293–330.
Kukla, R. (2014). 'Performative Force, Convention, and Discursive Injustice.' Hypatia, 29(2), 440–457.
Maitra, I. (2012). 'Subordinating Speech.' In Speech and Harm. Oxford University Press.
Hom, C. (2008). 'The Semantics of Racial Epithets.' The Journal of Philosophy, 105(8), 416–440.
Saul, J. (2018). 'Dogwhistles, Political Manipulation, and Philosophy of Language.' In New Work on Speech Acts. Oxford University Press.

Compass 2021: Ethics and Aesthetics

Archer, A., & Ware, L. (2018). 'Beyond the Call of Beauty: Everyday Aesthetic Demands Under Patriarchy.' The Monist, 101(1), 114–127.
Bacharach, S. (2018). 'Finding Your Voice in the Streets: Street Art and Epistemic Injustice.' The Monist, 101(1), 31–43.
Devereaux, M. (1998). 'Beauty and evil: The case of Leni Riefenstahl’s Triumph of the Will.' In J. Levinson (Ed.), Aesthetics and Ethics: Essays at the Intersection (pp. 227–256). Cambridge University Press.
Goerger, M. (2017). 'Value, violence, and the ethics of gaming.' Ethics and Information Technology, 19(2), 95–105.
Neill, A., & Ridley, A. (2010). 'Religious Music for Godless Ears.' Mind, 119(476), 999–1023.
Rudinow, J. (1994). 'Race, Ethnicity, Expressive Authenticity: Can White People Sing the Blues?' The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 52, 127.

Meditation and Philosophy

I led the meditation and philosophy group at the University of Texas at Austin, which was founded by Kimberly Dill. The aim of the group is to practice and learn meditation together. We start each semester with a few sessions of guided meditation practices in the Vipassana tradition but everyone is encouraged to follow whatever practice is beneficial to them. We conclude each session by sharing tea and reflecting on our experience.