My current research is directed at the works of Mary Douglas, focusing specifically on the cognitive theses to which she subscribed, their roots in Nelson Goodman's philosophy, and their contemporary relevance. As I see it, Douglas' work can be productively read as a socially situated, radically embodied theory of cognition, conversing well with enactivist, ecological, situated and distributed perspectives. I also develop a critique of how Douglas' oeuvre has been (mis-)represented within the field of cognitive science.
My earlier research focused on language comprehension. Jointly with Prof. Eileen Pfeiffer Flores (University of Brasília), I aimed at elaborating a conception of language comprehension and ways of assessing it that sees reading as a type of social interaction, dispensing with the assumption that comprehending a text implies its encoding in the form of a mental representation.
