Research
Research Interests
My philosophical research is at the intersection of the Philosophy of Science, Law, Applied Ethics, and Social Philosophy. I am concerned about the far-reaching effects of neuroscience and psychiatry, particularly in cases where this data may be misapplied (especially in a court of law). Further,
I am interested in developing scholarship in the philosophical analysis of the field of forensic science.
Awards
My paper "‘Mental Health Advance Directives in Psychiatry: Cultivating Autonomy in Mature Pediatric Patients" won the Academic Essay Contest held by the International Neuroethics Society (2023).
My paper "Less Than Whole: Implications of Reduced Agency" received an honorable mention for the Karl Jaspers Award from the Association for the Advancement of Psychiatry and Philosophy (2023).
Current Projects
Mental Illness as a Life Sentence: The (Mis) Treatment of Psychiatric Disorders in the Courtroom and Beyond
From a philosophical standpoint, there are serious ethical, epistemic, and pragmatic consequences to the characterizations of individuals with mental illness. Philosophical, clinical, legal, and lay understandings of mental illness have historically converged on stigmatizing grounds—characterizing those with mental illness as being "less than fully agential" and epistemically irrational.
It is the aim of my dissertation to draw on work from the philosophy of psychiatry, neuroscience, and law to demonstrate the epistemic injustices concerning the treatment of individuals with mental illness in the clinic, in the courtroom, and in the greater public. It is my hope to provide an overview of how to best navigate these concerns, as well as provide a brief framework for moving towards a more just conception of individuals with mental illness.
I was selected to be 1 of 12 Summer 2022 Research Interns at the Baylor Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy out of around 600 applicants. I spent my internship working on the BRAINShare Project, which is a branch under the larger NIH Brain Initiative, focusing on innovation in neuroscience research. The BRAINShare Project is focused on data sharing in the neurosciences by engaging stakeholders to identify challenges and concerns related to sharing brain data. The aim is to generate strategies to improve data sharing and inform policy decisions surrounding the use of neuroscience data.
My involvement entailed assisting with generating challenge statements for further interviews, analyzing past data collected through interviews, and literature search focusing on a way to coalesce concerns that key stakeholders and researchers have when it comes to data sharing.
I am also currently working on a draft with my mentors on my research aimed at clinicians and researchers working with brain data.
Moral Psychology/X-Phi
In collaboration with moral psychologist Dr. Jesse Graham, I am currently working on collecting data for a moral psychology/x-phi project titled "Folk Intuitions Regarding Psychiatric Diagnosis, Responsibility, and Punishment." You can check out the pre-registration here
Publications
Petrozzo, K. (forthcoming). Excited Delirium: The Self-Fulfilling Prophecy of Police Brutality. Commentary in Philosophy, Psychiatry, and Psychology.
Santana, C., Smith, A.C., Petrozzo, K., & Halm, D. (2022). “The Irrationality of Stand Your Ground: Game Theory on Self-Defense.” Moral Philosophy and Politics. https://doi.org/10.1515/mopp-2022-0007
Petrozzo, K. (2017). "Free Will and Responsibility in the Neuroscientific Age." compos mentis: Undergraduate Journal of Cognition and Neuroethics 5 (2): 83–100.