Brian Epstein is an associate professor of Philosophy at Tufts. His research interests include philosophy of social science, metaphysics, and philosophy of language, focusing in particular on social ontology and the nature of social institutions. He also has interests in the ontology of law, the philosophy of music, and the philosophy of economics. He is the author of The Ant Trap: Rebuilding the Foundations of the Social Sciences, winner of the 2016 Lakatos Award and the 2016 Joseph B. Gittler Award, as well as many articles in the field, and is currently co-editing The Oxford Handbook of Social Ontology. 

Brian received his PhD in philosophy from Stanford University, his master’s in philosophy from Oxford University, and graduated summa cum laude with an AB in philosophy from Princeton University. Between degree programs, he worked at a number of technology startups and consulting firms. Brian is the immediate past president of the International Social Ontology Society, and is on the executive board of the International Network of Economic Methodology. He spends most of his free time playing batman and sipping imaginary tea with his children, or taking photos of wild turkeys in the back yard.