Yafeng Wang

I’m a PhD student in the philosophy department working on topics in the philosophy of science. My primary interest is the methodology of a type of research sometimes called “event reconstruction research”, which involves the reconstruction of a past event based on the traces that are left from the event. For instance, by examining the failure investigation reports by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and the interviews of failure investigators, I study the style of reasoning that failure analysts and engineers used in reconstructing famous aviation accidents such the TWA 800 and USAir 427. In addition, I am also interested in the reasoning patterns used by forensic investigators to reconstruct a crime scene, as well the case study methods used by social scientists to reconstruct important historical events. I enjoy teaching logic and philosophy and am eager to learn more about effective pedagogical strategies that can be helpful to students from a variety of backgrounds.