philosophher - About me

Hi, I’m Shadi (/ʃɑːˈdiː/) Heidarifar. My name means “happiness” in Persian. I was born and raised in Tehran, Iran, where I earned my undergraduate degree in Philosophy from the University of Tehran. During those years, I became fascinated by philosophy of mind, especially questions about the phenomenal structure of consciousness. I remember reading David Chalmers’s The Conscious Mind and feeling like Alice entering Wonderland, as though I had discovered a magical world in which the most ordinary features of conscious experience had become philosophically mysterious.

In 2016, I applied to pursue graduate study abroad, hoping to continue my education in the United States. Those plans were interrupted by the Muslim Ban in January 2017, which eventually prevented me from beginning my studies there at that time. I instead began a new chapter in Canada, where I earned my MA in Philosophy from the University of Western Ontario in 2018 under the supervision of Samantha Brennan. During my time there, I developed a deeper interest in normative philosophy, especially feminist philosophy. This was when I began going by Sophie as well. I initially experimented with a few different names before choosing the one inspired by what had brought me there in the first place: philo-sophy.

Although I was not able to pursue my dream at the time, my story became part of the broader effort to document and challenge the effects of the Muslim Ban. My experience was cited in Congress and before the Supreme Court, contributing to the broader effort that preceded the exclusion of student visas from the ban. My role was only one small part of that much larger effort, but I remain grateful that sharing my story may have helped preserve a path for many other students to pursue their own dreams.

After student visas were excluded from the ban, I moved to the United States in 2019. I earned my PhD in Philosophy from the University of Florida in 2024, along with graduate certificates in Women’s Studies and the Ethics of Technology. My early doctoral training was shaped by work in normative philosophy, especially philosophy of education and character education under the supervision of Jaime Ahlberg and Jennifer Rothschild, as well as by work in philosophy of mind, embodied cognition, and affective embodiment under the supervision of Amber Ross and Arina Pismenny.

After completing my PhD, I joined Roseman University College of Medicine in Las Vegas, Nevada, as an Assistant Professor and founding faculty member. Currently, I live nearby in Henderson, Nevada, where I have become fascinated by the Hoover Dam and the retro signs that preserve incredibly diverse pieces of Las Vegas history. Working within a new medical school has allowed me to bring these different strands of my training into conversation through research, teaching, and curriculum development. I now work on a cluster of issues in bioethics, AI/data ethics, and neuroethics.

Outside of work, I enjoy stand-up comedy, traveling, and both kinds of football, although only one of them is allowed to keep the name without a qualifier. I refuse to call the other one the S-word. One of my fondest travel memories is a trip to Kenya a few months before the COVID-19 pandemic and my move to the United States. I have included a few photographs from that journey below.