Ellen Fridland
Curriculum Vitae
King’s College London
Department of Philosophy
Strand
WC2R 2LS London
UK
ellen.fridland @kcl.ac.uk
[email protected]
http://ellenfridland.com
Professional Experience
Outpatient Clinician, The Brookline Center for Community Mental Health
June 2023-present
Clinical Mental Health Intern, Lasell University Counseling Center
September 2021-May 2022
Lecturer (USA equivalent of tenured assistant professor), King’s College London
September 2013-September 2020
Postdoctoral Researcher, Berlin School of Mind and Brain, Humboldt University of Berlin
August 2010- August 2013
Visiting Appointments:
Visiting Senior Research Fellow. King's College London, September 2020-present
Visiting Scholar, Harvard University, September 2018-2020
Visiting Fellow, Tufts University, Center for Cognitive Studies
September 2012-December 2013
Education
MA in Mental Health Counseling, Lesley University, May 2023
Ph.D., CUNY Graduate Center, March 2010
Infinity Scholar, University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2004-2005
M.A., CUNY Graduate Center, May 2004 (specialization in ethics in society)
B.A., Boston University, May 2000 (major in philosophy and religion)
AOS: Philosophy of Mind, Philosophical Psychology, Philosophy of Cognitive Science
AOC: Epistemology, History of Philosophy
Publications
(2025) Emotional Self-Knowledge (with Matt Stichter), Elements in Epistemology (ed. S. Hetherington). Cambridge
University Press.
(2025) Can verbal instructions aimed at being more reflective reduce threat-induced impulsivity? (with Gladwin, T.
E.). Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1080/20445911.2025.2499192
(2022) An experimental test of integrating imagery with approach bias modification for alcohol: A cautionary tale (with
Wiers, C. E., Rinck, M., Becker, E. S., & Gladwin, T. E.). British Journal of Health Psychology.
(2021) Skill and strategic control. Synthese. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11229-021-03053-3
(2021) Adventures in Philosophy. Philosophy by Women: 23 Philosophers Reflect on
Philosophy and Its Value. E. Vintiadis (Ed.). Routledge.
(2021) Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of Skill and Expertise. Co-edited with Carlotta Pavese. Routledge.
(2021) Introduction to the Routledge Handbook of Skill and Expertise (with Carlotta Pavese).
(2021) The nature of skill: functions and control structures. The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of Skill and Expertise.
(2020) Skill’s psychological structures. Ethical Theory and Moral Practice.DOI: 10.1007/s10677-020-10132-w
(2020) It just feels right: an account of expert intuition (with Matt Stichter). Synthese. DOI: 10.1007/s11229-020-02796-9.
(2019) Intention at the Interface. Review of Philosophy and Psychology. DOI:10.1007/s13164-019-00452-x.
(2019) Longer, shorter, faster, smaller: on skills and intelligence. Philosophical Psychology.
https://doi.org/10.1080/09515089.2019.1607275
(2018) Do as I say and as I do: Imitation, pedagogy and cumulative culture. Mind & Language, 33(4), 355-377.
(2017) Motor Skill and Moral Virtue. Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplement, 80, 139-170.
(2017) Guest Editor (with Cameron Buckner) Special Issue on Cognition. Synthese.
(2017) Addiction and Embodiment (w/Corinde Wiers). Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences.
DOI: 10.1007/s11097-017-9508-0
(2016) Skill and Motor Control: Intelligence All the Way Down. Philosophical Studies, DOI: 10.1007/s11098-016-0771-7
(2015) Automatically Minded. Synthese. DOI 10.1007/s11229-014-0617-9
(2015) Skills, Propositions, and the Cognitive Penetrability of Perception. Journal of General Philosophy of Science, 46 (1), 105-120.
(2015) Learning the way to Intelligence: Reflections on Dennett and Appropriateness. In F. De Brigard and Carlos Munoz-
Suarez (Eds.), Content and Consciousness Revisited. Springer.
(2014) Imitation Reconsidered (with Richard Moore). Philosophical Psychology. DOI:10.1080/09515089.2014.942896
(2014) They’ve Lost Control: Reflections on Skill. Synthese, 91 (12), 2729-2750.
(2014) Skill Learning and Conceptual Thought: Making Our Way Through the Wilderness. In B. Bashour and H. Muller
(Eds.), Philosophical Naturalism and its Implications. Routledge.
(2013) Problems with Intellectualism. Philosophical Studies, 165 (3), 879-891.
(2013) Imitation, Skill Learning, and Conceptual Thought: An Embodied, Developmental Approach. In L. Swan (Ed.), The
Origins of Mind: Springer Book Series in Biosemantics. Springer.
(2013) Review of N. Gangopadhyay, M. Madary, and F. Spencer (Eds.), Perception, Action, and Consciousness:
Sensorimotor Dynamics and the Two Visual Systems. Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences,
12 (4), 899-906.
(2012) Knowledge-How: Problems and Considerations. European Journal of Philosophy. doi:10.1111/ejop.12000.
(2012) Philosophy of Learning (with Anna Strasser). In N.M. Seel (Ed.), Encyclopedia of the Sciences of Learning, New York: Springer.
(2011) The Case for Proprioception. Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences, 10(4), 521-540.
(2011) Reviewing the Logic of Self-Deception. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 34(1), 22-23. 1.
(2011) Review of C. Hill’s Consciousness. Philosophical Inquiry, 35(3-4), 112-114.
(2009) Empirical Consciousness (with Patricia Kitcher). (2009). In G. Mohr, J. Stolzenburg, and M. Willaschek (Eds.),
Kant-Lexikon. Berlin: De Gruyter.
Selected Talks and Conference Presentations
The Fundamental Forms of Trust and Distrust (w/ Jason D'Cruz)
1. Invited Speakers, BU Ethics Colloquium, Boston University, Boston, MA, October, 2023.
2. Invited Speakers, Workshop on the Philosophy of Trust, Union College, Schenectady, NY, May 2023.
A Relational Theory of Emotion, Invited Speaker, Interdisciplinary Workshop: The Puzzle of Addiction, London, UK, November 2022.
Skill, Action Schemas, and Strategic Control
1. Cambridge Philosophy of Science (CamPOS) Seminar Series, Cambridge, UK, March 2021.
2. Intelligence and Ability Workshop, Science of Intelligence and Abilities joint cluster workshop, Berlin, Germany, March, 2021.
Skilled Control in Mental Disorder and Mental Health, Southern Society for Philosophy and Psychology (SSPP), Invited Symposium: Mental Illness and Mental Agency, online, December, 2020.
A Theory of Skill
- Invited Speaker, SWIP-Analytic, NY, NY, September 2019.
- London Mind Group, London, UK, October 2019.
Rethinking Practical Intentions, Invited Speaker, G.E.M. Anscombe Archive Conference on Mind & Action, University of Pennsylvania, April 2019.
Skill and Strategic Control
- Invited Speaker, Philosophy Department Colloquium, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, March 2019.
- Invited Speaker, Philosophy Department Colloquium, Duke University, Durham, NC, February 2019.
- Invited speaker, Philosophy Department Colloquium, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, October 2018.
- Workshop presentation, Talk Shop, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, October 2018.
- Invited speaker, Philosophy Department Colloquium, University of Carleton, Ottowa, Canada, September 2018.
Beyond the Nature/Nurture Controversy: Moral Autonomy and Social Change through Active Learning, co-presented with Peter
Railton, Short Course, Oxford Department for Continuing Education, Oxford, May 2018.
Skill in Action
- Staff Seminar, King’s College London, January 2018.
- Invited Speaker, Senior Seminar, University of Glasgow, April 2018.
Skill and Agency, Invited Speaker, Workshop on Agency and Control, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark, September 2017.
Whenever the Twain Shall Meet: The many joints of skilled action
- Invited Conference Speaker, Conference on Skilled Action Control, Institute Jean Nicod, Paris, France, May, 2017.
- Invited Speaker, Workshop on Know How, King’s College London, London, UK, May 2017.
- Invited Panel Presentation, American Philosophical Association Pacific Division Meeting, Seattle, USA, April 2017.
- Staff Seminar Presentation, King’s College London, London, UK, May 2017.
- Invited Speaker, London Mind Group, London, UK, May, 2017.
- Invited Speaker, University of Warwick, Coventry, UK, June, 2017.
Do as I say and as I do: imitation, pedagogy, and cumulative culture
1. Naturalistic Approaches to Mind Reading Group, King's College London, December 2016.
2. Invited Speaker, University of Edinburgh, PPIG colloquium, Scotland, January 2017.
3. Invited Conference Speaker, The Distributed Cognitive Ecologies of Collaborative Embodied Skill, Institute of Philosophy,
London, May 2017
Longer, Shorter, Faster, Stronger: On skill and complexity
- Invited speaker, Conference on Memory and Skill, Duke University, Chapel Hill, NC, April 2016.
- Invited speaker, Cognitive Science Colloquium, CUNY, New York, NY, May 2016.
- Invited Conference Speaker, Workshop on Skill and Skilled Action, University of New South Wales, Australia, August 2016.
- Invited speaker, Philosophy Colloquium, University of Stirling, Scotland, September 2016.
Motor Skill and Moral Virtue
a. Invited Conference Presentation, The Nature and Origins of Human Cognition, Berlin, June
2015.
b. Invited Speaker, Philosophy Department Colloquium, Boston University, Boston, MA,
September 2015.
c. Invited Speaker, Philosophy Department Colloquium, CUNY, New York, NY, December, 2015
d. Invited Speaker, Royal Institute of Philosophy, London, UK, January 2016
e. Invited Speaker, Normativity and Rationality Seminar, King’s College London, London, UK
March 2016.
Motor Control: Handling Conditions Vary
a. Conference Panel Participant, Automaticity, Control & Skill, European Society for
Philosophy and Psychology, Noto, Italy, September 2014.
b. Invited Speaker, Università degli Studi di Milano, Cognition in Action Lecture Series, Milan,
Italy, October 2014.
c. Invited Speaker, University of York, Philosophy Department Colloquium, York, UK, November
2014.
d. Invited Speaker, University of East Anglia, Philosophy Society Seminar, Norwich, UK,
December 2014.
Automatically Minded
a. Naturalistic Approaches to Mind Reading Group, King's College London, London, UK, May
2014.
b. Conference presentation, British Society for the Philosophy of Science, Cambridge, UK,
June 2014.
Practice, Skill & Control, Invited speaker, Symposium on Skill, Yale University, April, 2014.
They’ve Lost Control: Reflections on Skill
a. Invited speaker, Language and Cognition Seminar, King’s College London, October, 2013.
b. Invited speaker, Central European University, Budapest, Hungary, October, 2013.
c. Invited speaker, MindNet Meeting, Oxford, UK, March, 2014.
d. Invited speaker, Philosophy Department Colloquium, University of Sussex, Brighton, UK,
March, 2014.
The Two Visual Streams, Cognitive Penetrability and Skill, Invited Lecture, Abilities in
Perception Conference, Geneva, Switzerland, November, 2013.
Invited commentary, Conscious Thought and Thought about Consciousness Conference,
University of Mississippi, Oxford, MI, April 2014.
Invited commentary on Ruth Millikan’s “Dispensing with Concepts,” What is Cognition?
Conference, Ruhr University, Bochum, June 2013.
Invited commentary on James Shaw’s “The Combinatorics of Conscious Experience,”
Midsummer Philosopher’s Conference, Edinburgh, Scotland, June, 2013.
Learning and Intelligence, Conference Presentation, Midsouth Philosophy Conference,
Memphis, TN, February 2013.
Problems with Intellectualism
a. Invited speaker, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Las Vegas, NV, November 2012.
b. Invited panelist, Symposium on Know How, American Philosophical Association Central
Division Meeting, New Orleans, LA, February 2013.
c. Invited speaker, University of Mississippi, Oxford, MI, February 2013.
d. Invited speaker, King’s College London, May, 2013.
Imitation, Skill Learning, and Conceptual Thought: An Embodied, Developmental Approach
a. Invited speaker, Institute of Philosophy, London, England, June 2012.
b. Invited speaker, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany,
July 2012.
c. Invited speaker, CUNY Cognitive Science Symposium, New York, NY, August 2012.
d. Conference presentation, International Krakow Conference in Cognitive Science, Krakow,
Poland, September 2012.
e. Invited speaker, Center for Subjectivity Research, Copenhagen, Denmark, October 2012.
Skillful Means, Participant presentation, NEH Summer Institute: Investigating
Consciousness, Charleston, SC, May 2012.
Invited commentary on Glenn Carruthers and Elizabeth Schier, “Dissolving the Hard
Problem of Consciousness,” Online Consciousness Conference 4.0, January 2012.
A Middle Ground: Ability Acquisition, Skill Refinement, and Conceptual Thought, Invited
speaker, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, January 2012.
Skill Learning and Conceptual Thought: Making a Way Through the Wilderness
a. Invited speaker, Metaphysics of Evolutionary Naturalism, Beirut,
Lebanon, April 2011.
b. Invited speaker, Marist College, Poughkeepsie, NY, September 2011.
Skills and Concepts, Philosophy Colloquium, Berlin School of Mind and Brain, Berlin,
Germany, April 2011.
Perception, Skill, and Cognitive Penetrability, Conference presentation, The Theory-
ladenness of Experience, Duesseldorf, Germany, December 2011.
Philosophy of Learning (with Anna Strasser), Philosophy colloquium, Berlin School of Mind
and Brain, Berlin, Germany, 2010.
Thoughts without Concepts
a. Invited speaker, Berlin School of Mind and Brain, Berlin, Germany, June 2010.
b. Invited speaker, Hamilton College, Clinton, NY, May 2010.
Skill, Workshop presentation, Enaction Summer School, Tipperary, Ireland, July 2010.
Early Perceptual Processing and the Nature of Cognition, Conference presentation, Mid-
South Philosophy Conference, Memphis, TN, February 2010.
Action, Perception, and Representation, Conference presentation, Long Island
Philosophical Society Meeting, Brooklyn, NY, 2009.
The Case for Proprioception
a. Invited speaker, Bard College, Anandale on the Hudson, February 2010.
b. Conference presentation, University of South Florida Graduate Student Philosophy
Conference, Tampa, FL, 2009.
c. Conference presentation, Phenomenology and Philosophy of Mind, Postgraduate
Philosophy Conference, Durham, England, June 2008.
Three Failed Arguments: Dretske, Fodor, and Pylyshyn
a. Poster presentation, Towards a Science of Consciousness Conference, Tuscon, AZ, April
2008.
b. CUNY Graduate Student Colloquium, New York, NY, 2008.
Jackie O or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love my Chanel, Invited lecture,
University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, HI, 2007.
Knowing How to Perceive, Conference presentation, East-West Graduate Student
Conference, Honolulu, HI, 2005.
Honors, Fellowships, and Grants
Human Abilities: Centre for Advanced Studies in the Humanities, Fellow, Berlin, Germany, Summer 2025
Templeton World Charity Foundation, “Diverse Intelligences” Grant, Principle Investigator, May 2018- April 2021.
Mind and Life Summer Research Institute, Research Fellow, June, 2013.
National Endowment for the Humanities, Summer Scholar, 2012.
CUNY Graduate Center, Program in Philosophy, Dissertation Honors, 2010.
CUNY Graduate Center, Program in Philosophy, Dissertation Defense Honors, 2010.
CUNY Graduate Center, Writing Fellowship, 2007, 2009.
CUNY Graduate Center, Student Travel Award, 2005, 2008.
CUNY Graduate Center, Tuition Award, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006.
Infinity Foundation Scholar, 2004.
Professional Activity and Service
Mind and Language, Editor, October 2017-September 2020.
Diversity and Inclusiveness Committee Chair, King's College London, January 2016- September 2018.
Department Representative BPA/SWIP, King's College London, January 2016- September 2018.
Panel Participant, Minorities and Philosophy Event, KCL Philosophy Society, 2015.
Certificate of Professional Development, Introduction to Technology Enhanced Learning
ESPP Panel Organizer (with Joshua Shepherd), Control, Skill, and Automaticity, 2014.
KCL Reading Group in Naturalistic Approaches to the Mind, Organizer, 2014-present
“London Philosothon” Judge, Philosophy Foundation, London, 2014.
News and Social Media Officer, King’s College London, 2013-present.
KCL Staff Representative, Annual HU/KCL Grad Student Conference, Berlin, DE, May 2014.
“What is Cognition?” Berlin School of Mind and Brain and Ruhr University,
Bochum, DFG-sponsored workshop, Co-Organizer, June 2013.
Issues in Philosophy and Neuroscience, Venice Retreat, Berlin School of Mind
and Brain/LMU Munich, Faculty Participant, April 2013.
Berlin School of Mind and Brain, Philosophy Colloquium Coordinator, 2012.
Know How: Meisterkurs with Jason Stanley, Berlin School of Mind and Brain and Humboldt
Universität zu Berlin, Co-organizer, 2012.
Berlin School of Mind and Brain, Research Committee, 2012.
Berlin School of Mind and Brain, Renewal Application Presentation Team, 2012.
Issues in Philosophy and Neuroscience, Venice Retreat, Berlin School of Mind
and Brain/LMU Munich, Organizational Committee, 2011.
CILS' Social Cognition Reading Group, Co-organizer, 2010-2011.
Courses Taught
Neuroscience and the Mind
Animal Cognition (co-taught with Richard Moore)
Daniel Dennett’s Philosophy of Mind
Ability, Skill, and Intelligent Action
Aristotle’s Ethics
The Cognitive Penetrability of Perception
John Dewey’s Philosophy of Mind
Knowing-how and Knowing-that
Situated Cognition
Theories of Perception
Rationality and Cognition
Bertrand Russell: The Problems of Philosophy
Logical Reasoning
Introduction to Philosophy
Intermediate-Level Survey of Philosophical Issues: The Rational Animal
Faculty Workshops
(Conducted as part of New York City College of Technology’s Faculty Development Program)
Avoiding Plagiarism
Crafting Effective Writing Assignments Across the Disciplines
Thinking, Writing, and Learning in Groups
Active Learning: Teaching Strategies for a Dynamic Classroom
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