About

I am an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the University of Michigan. Before coming to Michigan, I completed my PhD at the University of Southern California,  and my BA at UNC Chapel Hill. For the academic year 2021-22, I will be a Harrington Faculty Research Fellow at the University of Texas, Austin. 

​I work mainly on issues in metaphysics and philosophical logic, particularly those that concern radically permissive ontologies. Many of my recent projects explore material plenitude: the view that there is a multitude of coincident objects wherever there is any material object. I also have interests in epistemology, philosophy of language, and aesthetics.

Research

For full abstracts and works in progress, check out my Research page.
  • Arbitrariness and the Long Road to Permissivism, Noûs (forthcoming).
  • Varieties of Plenitude, Philosophy Compass, 15 (3), 2020. doi: 10.1111/phc3.12654
  • The Barest Flutter of the Smallest Leaf: Understanding Material Plenitude, The Philosophical Review, 128 (2):143-178, 2019. doi: 10.1215/00318108-7374932 (selected for the Philosopher's Annual)
  • Against Conservatism in Metaphysics (with John Hawthorne), Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplement, 82: 45-75, 2018. doi: 10.1017/s1358246118000103
  • A Paradox of Matter and Form. Thought, 6:33-42,  2017. doi: 10.1002/tht3.230

Contact

mmfair@umich.edu
PhilPeople
she/they

Teaching

See my Teaching page for information about courses I'm teaching, as well as my UM Student Resources page, where I've compiled information about student support resources available at the University of Michigan.
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Current Courses
  • ​Intro Metaphysics: Art & Ontology
  • Modal Logic
Past Courses​
  • Honors Intro Logic (PHIL296)
  • ​Intro Philosophy (PHIL101)
  • Seminar on "Revisionary Ontology"