I am a PhD candidate at the University of California, Irvine in the Department of Logic and Philosophy of Science.  My advisor is Jeremy Heis.  Previously, I earned BAs in Philosophy and History at the University of California, San Diego.

My research mostly focuses on the methods used in discussions of the relationship between religion and science.  This brings my work to the intersection of philosophy, history, and the social sciences (especially sociology and anthropology).  I'm interested in how methods originating in these fields intersect with different scholarly and public values which drive people to think about the relationship between religion and science in the first place.  

I also work in the history and/of philosophy of science (HA/OPOS) and on topics that might fall more under the umbrella of science and technology studies (STS).  On the HOPOS side, I'm interested in the divergence of philosophy and science and the role of hypotheses in early modern scientific methodology (especially in figures like Newton, DuChatelet, and LeSage).  On the philosophy of science side, I think about ``pseudoscience" and what lessons can be extracted from debates over that label for general philosophy of science concerns (like realism-anti-realism).  Relatedly, in the realm of STS, I focus on the epistemic prestige attached to the label ``science" and how conceptions of science get used (and abused) throughout various parts of society, from STEM education to new religious movements.

Outside of academia, I enjoy hiking, reading, and cooking---especially seafood desserts.  I am always open to requests.

I also volunteer at the Orange County Discovery Cube, an interactive children's science museum.

​You can contact me at achin6@uci.edu.  I like goats.

Photo credit: Cailin O'Connor