I'm part of the theoretical philosophy unit in the Department of Philosophy at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VU Amsterdam).
I grew up in rural Virginia but I was born in New Jersey. I graduated from VCU with a BA in Philosophy, and completed one year of undergraduate studies in the philosophy program at the University of Edinburgh as well, before attending their Ph.D. program. I was also a visiting Ph.D. student at the University of California, Berkeley. I'm a first-generation college graduate. I had no clue what philosophy was until I attended university and then I was hooked! In my first academic job, I was a post-doctoral fellow at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) in Mexico City. Later, I was awarded a grant from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. I did my project on deep disagreement at the University of Cologne, Germany, before taking up a post-doc within the Dutch Research Council (NWO) project Knowledgeable Democracy (PI Jeroen de Ridder). I then started a post-doc within the European Research Council (ERC) project Extreme Beliefs (PI Rik Peels) and a tenure track assistant professorship in philosophy at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam as well, where I was awarded tenure as a UD1 assistant professor in October 2023 (similar to a senior lecturer in the UK). I'm currently finishing a project on indoctrination. My book, The Philosophy of Indoctrination: Epistemology, Ethics, & Politics, is forthcoming with Routledge. I'm also co-editing a volume, Extreme Belief and Responsibility, with Oxford University Press (with Rik Peels and Naomi Kloosterboer). I just started a new book project with Duncan Pritchard, What is the Value of Truth? A Debate, where we stake out different positions on the epistemic and prudential value of truth. Finally, I'm working on a project which explores the ethics and normative significance of radical skepticism and its applications. My recent work on this topic includes "Is Radical Doubt Morally Wrong?", forthcoming in Erkenntnis, and "Weaponizing Conspiracy Theory", which focuses on how people use conspiracy theories to facilitate extreme doubt, provisionally forthcoming in Misinformation and Other Epistemic Pathologies (Cambridge University Press). I live in Amsterdam with my wife Karoline and our son Arthur. You can contact me at c.b.ranalli[at]vu[dot]nl |