Hi! I am currently a postdoctoral researcher at the Interdisciplinary Center For Affective Science in Geneva, Switzerland. I completed my PhD jointly at the Institut Jean Nicod in Paris and at the University of Geneva, under the supervision of Jérôme Dokic and Fabrice Teroni. In 2019-2020 I was a Visiting Fellow at the New York University Philosophy department, hosted by Jane Friedman. In 2022-2024 I will be a postdoctoral researcher at City University of New York, hosted by Jesse Prinz, and subsequently at the University of Toronto, hosted by Jennifer Nagel.
I work at the intersection of philosophy of emotion, epistemology, and cognitive science. My dissertation, entitled "The Anxious Inquirer: Emotions and Epistemic Uncertainty", concerns the relation between the epistemic attitude of doubt and the emotion of anxiety. In this dissertation, I propose a model of the affective architecture of doubt inspired in part by research in psychiatry on the persistent and recurring doubt of patients with Obsessive-compulsive disorder. My dissertation work was part of the "Feel bad, Live well!" FNS Project on negative emotions led by Julien Deonna and Fabrice Teroni. My current project is entitled "How we feel the future: hope, anxiety, and hypothetical thinking" and concerns the emotion-cognition interactions at play in our apprehension of future possibilities and their value for us. It is financed by a solo "Postdoc Mobility" grant from the Swiss National Funds for Research.
Before starting my PhD, I held different positions in London (UK) and Boston (US). I was a Lecturer of French at Boston University (2015-2016), I conceived and organized conferences for professionals in London (2014-2015), and I was a bilingual editor for a media company in London (2013-2014). I completed a Master In Science in Philosophy of Psychiatry at King's College London (2012-2013), and a Master of Arts in History of Philosophy at Paris-Sorbonne IV (2010-2011).
PAPERS
Vazard, J. (2019). Passions et Psychopathologie, In Origgi, G. (ed.), Dictionnaire des Passions Sociales. Presses Universitaires de France.
Vazard, J. & Deonna, J. (2019). Darker Sides of Guilt, In Cokelet, B. & Maley, C. (eds.), Moral Psychology of Guilt. Rowman and Littlefield.
Vazard, J. (2018). Epistemic Anxiety, Adaptive Cognition, and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. Discipline Filosofiche: Philosophical Perspectives on Affective Experience and Psychopathology, 137.
Vazard, J. (2018). « Anxiété », version académique, In Kristanek, M. (ed.), l’Encyclopédie philosophique. URL: http://encyclo-philo.fr/anxiete-a/
SELECTED TALKS
Groupe de Recherche en Epistémologie, Collège de France – Paris, December 2020
Questioning one’s Mind: Epistemic Anxiety and the Virtue of Epistemic Cautiousness
Philosophy of Psychology Seminar, New York University – New York, February 2020
Am I wrong about this? Epistemic anxiety as an interrogative attitude
Western Michigan University Philosophy seminar – Kalamazoo, November 2019
Anxiety and Irrational Questioning
European Society for Philosophy & Psychology Annual Conference – Athens, September 2019
Feeling epistemic gaps: feeling confused and the benefits of deep inquiry
European Philosophical Society for the Study of Emotion (EPSSE) Annual Conference – Pisa, June 2019
Possible Threats and Open Questions: Active doubt as Interrogative attitude
Swiss Center for Affective Science, Workshop “Cultivating negative emotions” – Geneva, June 2019
What we do when we doubt: Open Questions and Epistemic Anxiety
University of Neuchâtel, Philosophy Research Seminar – March 2019
Is Doubt an Emotion?
Swiss Center for Affective Science Annual Research Forum – Geneva, February 2019
What is anxiety?
University of Geneva, Thumos Research Seminar – Nov. 2018
Unreasonable Doubt as a Failure of Affective Experience
University of Basel, Cognitive Irrationality Research Seminar – May 2018
Adaptive Cognition, Epistemic Anxiety, and OCD
British Society for the History of Philosophy Annual Conference – Durham, April 2018
From Habits to Compulsions: Losing control?
Agency Lab Seminar, Institut Jean Nicod, Ecole Normale Supérieure – Paris, September 2017
Metacognitive Feelings and the Sense of Control
WORKING PAPERS
Vazard, J. “Feeling the Unknown: Emotions of Uncertainty and their Valence” (under review)
Vazard, J. “The Doxastic Base of Emotions of Uncertainty” (under review)
Vazard, J. “Everyday Anxious Doubt: Epistemic Anxiety and the Virtue of Epistemic Cautiousness” (under review)
Vazard, J. “The Doxastic Profile of the Compulsive Re-checker” (under review)
Vazard, J., Humbert-Droz, S. “What Role for Imagination in Hope?” (in progress)
Vazard, J. "Desirable Futures: Episodic Future Thought, Hope, and Depression" (in progress)
Kurth, C. & Vazard, J. Introduction to the Synthese Topical Collection “Worry and Wellbeing: Understanding the Nature, Value, and Challenges of Anxiety” (in progress)
CONTACT
