About Professor Gray

Professor Gray joined the department in 2017. He is also an affiliate faculty member of the Institute for Intelligent Systems. He received his PhD and MA from Harvard University and his BA from Columbia University. Gray’s areas of specialization include Philosophy of Race and Racism, Philosophy of Psychology, African American Philosophy and Philosophy of Mind. His current research focuses and theories of race and racism, Black Nationalism (especially, Du Bois, Fanon, and Malcolm X), philosophy of psychopathology, and cognitive phenomenology. Gray also has interests in philosophy of language, logic, cognitive science, and philosophy of science (general, evolutionary biology, and cognitive psychology).

Recent Publications

"Linguistic Disobedience" (with Ben Lennertz). Philosophers' Imprint. Vol. 20. August 2020.
"Racial Nonbeing" Symposium on Harfouch's Another Mind-Body Problem: A History of Racial Non-Being. Syndicate Philosophy. Summer 2020.
"Counting-ish Creatures and Conceptual Content," Mind. Vol. 123: 492. October 2014. 1141-1146.
"Failing to Self-Ascribe Thought and Motion: Towards a Three-Factor Account of Passivity Symptoms in Schizophrenia," Schizophrenia Research. 152: 1. January 2014. 28-32.
"Racial Norms: A Reinterpretation of Du Bois' 'The Conservation of Races'," The Southern Journal of Philosophy. 51: 4. December 2013. 465-487. William James Prize Essay, APA, 2012

Recent Presentations

"An Agentive Phenomenology that is a Cognitive Phenomenology"
     Recent Work on Phenomenal Intentionality, Eastern APA, January 8, 2020
"Pluralisms for Perjoratives: Prospects and Problems"
     Tennessee Philosophical Association, November 9, 2019
"Attempts to Appropriate Slurs and Grice's First Maxim of Quality"
     Post-Truth Workshop, German Linguistic Society (DGfS), March 6, 2019
"Racial Objects"
     Social Ontology Conference, Tufts University, August 25, 2018
     Race and Racism, Oxford University, June 28, 2016
"Linguistic Disobedience: Epithets, Appropriation, and Civil Disobedience"
     Keynote for University of Kansas Undergraduate Philosophy Conference, April 7, 2018
     Department of Philosophy, The University of Mississippi, November 30th, 2017.
     Tennessee Philosophical Association, October 28th, 2017
"Cognitive Architecture and Related Issues"
     Fed Ex Institute of Intelligent Systems, The University of Memphis, November 14th, 2017.
"Cognitive Phenomenology and the Ascription of Thought"
     Phenomenology of Cognitive Experiences, Dublin, Ireland, November 5-7, 2014.

Public Philosophy

"Racial Ontology: A guide for the Perplexed. Part I: General Problems." Video for WiPhi Open Access Philosophy. 
"Racial Ontology: A guide for the Perplexed. Part II: Naturalist Accounts of Race." Video for WiPhi Open Access Philosophy. 
"Racial Ontology: A guide for the Perplexed. Part IIIA: Socio-historical Accounts of Race: Artifacts and Naturally-based Kinds." Video for WiPhi Open Access Philosophy. 
"Racial Ontology: A guide for the Perplexed. Part IIIB: Socio-historical Accounts of Race: Socio-historical theories." Video for WiPhi Open Access Philosophy.
"Failing to Ascribe Thought and Motion: Part I" at Imperfect Cognitions 
"Failing to Ascribe Thought and Motion: Part II" at Imperfect Cognitions