Alexander TolbertAssistant Professor | Data & Decision Sciences
Biography
Alexander Williams Tolbert is Assistant Professor in the Department of Data and Decision Sciences at Emory University, with secondary appointments in Philosophy, Computer Science, and African American Studies. He serves as Faculty Fellow at the Emory Center for Ethics and Faculty Affiliate at the Emory Center for Mind, Brain, and Culture.
Dr. Tolbert's areas of specialization include Philosophy of Science, Moral & Political Philosophy, and Philosophy of AI, with technical expertise in Machine Learning and Causal Inference. His research has appeared in journals including Philosophy of Science, Synthese, Philosophy of the Social Sciences, Critical Philosophy of Race, and American Philosophical Quarterly, as well as venues such as the ACM Conference on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency (FAccT) and the Symposium on Foundations of Responsible Computing (FORC).
He earned his PhD in Philosophy from the University of Pennsylvania (2019-2023), where he was advised by Michael Kearns, Quayshawn Spencer, and Anita Allen, with committee members Samuel Freeman, Aaron Roth, and Scott Weinstein. He also holds an M.A. in Statistics from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, an M.S. in Biochemistry and M.A. in Philosophy from Virginia Tech, and a B.S. in Biology from the University of Mobile. During his doctoral studies, he served as a Visiting Graduate Scholar at the CUNY Graduate Center under the supervision of Charles Mills and was a Fontaine Fellow.
Education
- Ph.D., Philosophy, University of Pennsylvania, 2023
- M.A., Statistics, University of Pennsylvania, 2022
- M.S., Biochemistry, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 2019
- M.A., Philosophy, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 2019
- B.S., Biology, University of Mobile, 2013
