Meet the Team
Project Leader
Felipe De Brigard is the Fuchsberg-Levine Family Associate Professor of Philosophy, Associate Professor in Psychology & Neuroscience, and Core Faculty in the Duke Institute for Brain Sciences and Center for Cognitive Neuroscience at Duke University, where he also leads the Imagination and Modal Cognition Lab. He earned a bachelor's degree from the Universidad Nacional of Colombia, a masters degree from Tufts University, and a doctoral degree from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. He also trained as a post-doctoral fellow at Harvard University prior to joining Duke in 2013. He has published several articles in philosophy, psychology and neuroscientific venues, and has received a number of awards, including being named Rising Star by the American Psychological Association, and the Stanton Prize by the Society for Philosophy and Psychology. He works primarily in philosophy of mind with an emphasis in cognitive psychology and neuroscience. His research focuses on the nature of memory and its relations to other cognitive faculties, such as perception, imagination, attention and consciousness, and he is also interested in the philosophy of neuroscience and moral psychology.
Co-Investigators
Pablo Abitbol is a professor of New Political Economy, Big History, and Theories of Democracy and Development in the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities of the Technological University of Bolívar (UTB), where he also teaches graduate courses on institutions, democracy, human development and peace-building, and coordinates the Regional Historical Memory Group, the Peace Lectures, and the Cultural Evolution Workshop. He holds a BA in Political Science, MA in Philosophy, and PhD in economics. He develops basic and applied research projects (with emphasis on participative action research - PAR) about collective memory, social learning, behavioral transformation, cultural change, polycentric governance, market design (especially local & regional food systems), deliberative democracy, reconciliation and peacebuilding. He is a member of the Regional Peacebuilding Space of ​​Montes de María and columnist in El Universal, La Silla Vacía, and formerly in Las 2 Orillas.
Wilson López López is a professor at the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Editor of the journal Universitas Psychologica, and Leader of the research group "Social Ties and Cultures of Peace." He is a senior researcher in MInciencias, and among his lines of research are forgiveness and reconciliation, mediated discourses around conflict and peace, and scientific communication and scientometrics. He received his PhD in Basic and Social Psychology from the University of Santiago de Compostela, Spain. His research has earned him a number of prestigious awards, including the Inter-American Prize for Psychology, two Javeriano Research Awards, and the National Psychology Award. He has published more than 150 articles in journals included in Web of Science and SCOPUS, and serves as President-elect of the Division of Political Psychology of the International Association of Applied Psychology (IAAP).
Santiago Amaya is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Universidad de los Andes in Bogotá, where he co-directs the Moral Judgment and Emotion lab. He works mostly at the intersection of action theory and moral psychology, trying to understand the mechanisms subserve distinctively moral behavior and the social dynamics shape that its evaluation. His articles have appeared in Noûs, Philosophical Studies, Social Philosophy and Policy, Synthese, among other venues. He is currently co-director of two projects: “LATAM Free Will, Agency, and Responsibility” funded by the John Templeton Foundation and “Off The Rails, Moral Psychology Beyond Traditional Borders” funded by the James S. McDonnell Foundation. Santiago got his PhD from the Philosophy Neuroscience Psychology program at Washington University in St. Louis and was a Volkswagen Postdoctoral Fellow at the Berlin School of Mind and Brain.
Kevin S. LaBar is a Professor in the Departments of Psychology & Neuroscience and Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences at Duke University. He is also a core faculty member in the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience. He earned his Ph.D. at New York University and completed postdoctoral studies at Yale University. Dr. LaBar was an Instructor of Neurology at Northwestern University Medical School prior to joining the Duke faculty in 1999. His research seeks to understand how emotions are processed and regulated in the brain, and how they bias memory and other cognitive functions. He addresses these questions using behavioral, psychophysiological, and neuroimaging approaches in healthy adults and in psychiatric populations. His research has been supported by funding from the U.S. National Science Foundation and the U.S. National Institutes of Health.
Lucy Allais is a professor of philosophy who works partly on topics in the history of philosophy, with particular focus on the works of Immanuel Kant, and partly on topics in moral and political philosophy, with particular focus on forgiveness. She is jointly appointed at the University of the Witwatersrand and Johns Hopkins University. She is currently working on human freedom in Kant’s philosophy, in terms of its metaphysical, moral and political dimensions.
Graduate StudentS & Postdoctoral fellows
Gabriela Fernández earned her B.A. in Psychology from Universidad Javeriana and her M.A. from Universidad de los Andes (Bogotá, Colombia). Currently, she is a Psychology & Neuroscience Ph.D. student working with Felipe De Brigard and Kevin LaBar trying to disentangle the relationship between forgiveness and memory. Through her Ph.D. project, she hopes to gain a deep understanding of the interactions between forgiveness and memory, the cognitive and emotional processes leading to forgiveness, and the effect that forgiving/not forgiving has on our memories. She is also interested in the impact that the severity of the harm and the context have on forgiveness.
Samuel Murray earned a B.A. in Philosophy from Wake Forest University and a Ph.D. in Philosophy from the University of Notre Dame. Since receiving his PhD, he has been working as a postdoctoral fellow at Duke University and Universidad de los Andes (Bogotá, Colombia). His research focuses on issues of autonomy and morality, especially the dynamics of self-control and the experience of morality in everyday life.
Leonard Faul received a B.S. in Psychology and Biology from the University of Louisville in 2017, where he also worked as a research assistant in the Neuroimaging Laboratory of Cognitive, Affective, and Motoric Processes. He then completed his Ph.D. in Psychology and Neuroscience at Duke University with Kevin LaBar and Felipe De Brigard. Currently, Leonard is a postdoctoral fellow at Boston College working with Elizabeth Kensinger in the Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience lab. His research focuses on subjective biases in how emotional memories are remembered, as well as how our memories for past events change over time.
Shanna Slank joined the lab in August 2022. Prior to that she was an assistant professor of philosophy at Kansas State University. She received her PhD from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2019, her MA from Georgia State University in 2012, and her BA from Boston University in 2008. From 2016-2018, she was a visiting student at the Ludwig Maximillian University in Munich.
Research Assistants
María José Martínez is a psychologist, researcher and activist. She coordinates the Historic Memory Research Group at Universidad Tecnológica de Bolívar. She is interested in the study of social learning, cognitive sciences, reconciliation, and psychological attention to victims of the Colombian armed conflict.
Mario Fernández earned a B.A. in Political Science from the Universidad Nacional de Colombia, and a M.A. in Political Science from the Université Paris 8 Vincennes-Saint-Denis (Paris, France). Currently he's a Philosophy master student at the Universidad de los Andes, interested in the link between forgiveness and reconciliation. He has experience in the study of the Colombian armed conflict and in the implementation of Transitional Justice instruments in the country. He is currently a member of the Moral Judgment and Emotion Lab at Universidad de los Andes, and of the Memory and Forgiveness project.
Juan Diego Rodríguez is currently a senior student in Psychology at Universidad Javeriana. For the last two years, he has been working with Professor Wilson López in multiple research projects on social and political psychology. He is also the coordinator of the Evolution, Behavior, and Culture Research Group at the same university, leading several projects in research training focusing on the Colombian context. With his work, he hopes to analyze and understand the social implications of peace, mainly, its relationship with the disposition to forgive and the construction of cultures of peace.
Alejandra Peñata is a psychologist and researcher at the Regional Historical Memory Group of the Universidad Tecnológica del Bolívar, where she also coordinates the Research Seedbed of Memory. She has experience working with victims of the armed conflict, as well as with girls, young and adult women in conditions of vulnerability. Her interests revolve around cognitive psychology, neurosciences, social psychology and historical memory.
Shelsey Álvarez is a senior double majoring in Political Science and International Relationships at the Universidad Tecnológica del Bolívar. Currently, she is doing an internship at the Regional Historical Memory Group and is part of the Research Seedbed of Memory of the same university. Her research interests focus on postconflict studies and peace processes, as well as gender studies, feminism at national and international levels, and memory and reconciliation processes in the context of the colombian armed conflict.
Anyela Villadiego is a senior double majoring in Political Science and International Relationships at the Universidad Tecnológica del Bolívar. She is doing an internship at the Regional Historical Memory Group and is part of the Research Seedbed of Memory as well. Her interests revolve around working in peace processes, conflict and postconflict, gender and feminism, international relationships, and memory and reconciliation processes with victims of the armed conflict in Colombia.
Daniela Valdelamar is a psychologist and researcher at the Regional Historical Memory Group of the Universidad Tecnológica del Bolívar. Her research interests are related to clinical psychology, historic memory, neurosciences, community work, and psychological attention to victims of the armed conflict in Colombia.
Kaylee Miceli is the lab manager of the Imagination and Modal Cognition Lab at Duke University, working under Felipe De Brigard. She earned her B.A. in Neuroscience, Philosophy, and Religion from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2021, where she worked as a research assistant in the Cognitive Neuroscience of Memory Laboratory under Kelly Giovanello. She is interested in episodic counterfactual thinking, the philosophy of neuroscience, and the interaction of memory and interpersonal relationships.
Anthony Salgado is a senior majoring in Neuroscience at Duke University. He is primarily interested in cognitive neuroscience, particularly memory and the physiological aspects of it. He is currently exploring different features of memory and its impact on forgiveness.
Caroline Howard is a junior majoring in Neuroscience. Within this field, she is especially excited about the complexities of memory and decision-making, with a focus on understanding how ethical principles and personal morals shape our choices. In lab, she is investigating the interplay between memory and forgiveness.
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Daniel Robelo is a sophomore studying Neuroscience and Philosophy at Duke University. He is interested in cognitive neuroscience and the epistemology of perception, particularly how perceptions of reality can differ from person to person, and what underlying biological and epistemological factors contribute to such differences.
Julia Simon is a freshman majoring in Neuroscience and Philosophy. She is interested in cognitive neuroscience, including the problem of consciousness and its implications for public policy. She is currently working with the Memory and Forgiveness project to gain a greater understanding of the relationship between forgiveness and forgetting.
Annika Socia is a junior majoring in Neuroscience with a minor in Chemistry and a Certificate in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics. Most interested in the intersection of neuroscience and philosophy, she explores the profound connections between these disciplines and their implications for language, religion, and moral decision-making. Her current work involves research on memory and forgiveness.