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Chaz Firestone Associate Professor Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences Johns Hopkins University [email protected] CV  
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This page contains some information about me and my work, as well as some resources that you might find helpful if you are interested in working in our lab, contacting me, enrolling in one of my courses, etc. You may also want to visit our main lab webpage, or see a list of publications.
With Kevin Lande, I am a co-organizer of the phiVis workshop, a satellite meeting of the Vision Sciences Society that aims to promote interaction between philosophers of perception and vision scientists.
With E.J. Green and Barbara Landau, I co-direct Foundations of Mind, an affinity group of researchers here at Johns Hopkins spanning philosophy, psychological, neuroscientific, and computational approaches to understanding the mind.
Contact Me
Feel free to write to me with questions about research, courses, joining the lab, etc.:
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Research Opportunities
Interested in joining our lab group? We will consider applications for graduate students during the 2024-2025 application cycle (i.e., to begin in Fall 2025). You can learn more about all the positions available in our lab over at our opportunities page. You can also always feel free to send Chaz a note!
Teaching
I am the regular instructor for Introduction to Psychology (AS.200.101), which I began teaching here at Hopkins in Fall 2017. You can find more information at our course website, intropsych.jhu.edu. We take song requests. NB: After a break from teaching this course for a couple years, I will return to teaching it in Fall 2024.In Spring 2018, I taught Thought & Perception (AS.150.476 / AS.200.316), together with Prof. Steven Gross. The course was about philosophical and psychological consequences of "rational"/"optimal"/"Bayesian" approaches to modeling the mind. You can learn more at our course website, philpsych.jhu.edu. There is not currently an active plan to offer this course again with me as the instructor, but that may change!
As of Fall 2020, I am a member of the Curriculum Committee for the Krieger School of Arts & Sciences. If you would like to share any thoughts, ideas, or concerns about undergraduate teaching here at JHU, please do get in touch.
About Me
Academic
Before coming to Johns Hopkins, I earned my Ph.D. from the Department of Psychology at Yale, where I worked primarily with Brian Scholl and also collaborated with Frank Keil. Before that, I earned an M.A. from the Department of Philosophy at Brown, where I was advised by Christopher Hill. I was also an undergraduate at Brown, where I was a member of the final graduating class of the Department of Cognitive & Linguistic Sciences (which has since re-organized) and worked with Bill Warren in the Virtual Environment Navigation Lab. My H-index* is 1.
*H is for "Hammer"
Personal
I was born and raised in Toronto, Canada, an objectively wonderful city to grow up in despite its record-breakingly awful hockey team. I don't know any of the cast members of Degrassi, though Drake did go to high school around the block from my childhood home. I am not related to the tire-making Firestones; but since you asked, check out this video from 1963 of my grandmother singing on Canadian broadcast television in defiance of various sexist religious norms. (This is another nice photo, available through the Toronto Public Library.) This is a 3D print of my brain (at 1/8th scale by volume).I enjoy writing. These days, most of my writing is academic, but I used to work as a science journalist covering several different fields, with a focused stint in paleoclimatology. My stories have appeared in Nature, The Atlantic, Discover, and other publications. My first writing love will always be The Brown Daily Herald, where I got my start covering all sorts of topics on the "features" desk, including bug eating, meteor hunting, and pies in the face of Thomas Friedman.
One of my favorite hobbies is grappling. Here's what it looks like when very talented people grapple; here's what it looks like when I grapple. I enjoy visiting grappling gyms when I travel, and am a member of BJJ Globetrotters. If I'm ever in your town, let's roll!
My "home" gym is Guardian Baltimore, a non-profit run by Clavel Chef Carlos Raba. Here's a list of other gyms I've trained at:
- Atos HQ (San Diego, CA) — feat. multiple-time IBJJF and ADCC World Champion Andre Galvao!
- Balance Studios (Philadelphia, PA).
- Baltimore Kettlebell Club (Baltimore, MD), a group of very large people who also compete in 'strongman' competitions.
- Baltimore BJJ (Baltimore, MD).
- BJJ Globetrotters (3 Camps: 2015 New Hampshire, 2018 Maine, 2019 Maine).
- Carlson Gracie CT (New Haven, CT).
- Carlson Gracie Oxford (Oxford, United Kingdom).
- Colorado Brazilian Jiu Jitsu West (Denver, CO).
- Combat Room (Wellington, New Zealand).
- Form Jiu Jitsu (Baltimore, MD).
- Foundation Jiu Jitsu (Baltimore, MD).
- Gracie Academy (Torrance, CA), where I got to spar with Rener Gracie.
- Grapple Academy Martial Arts (Perry Hall, MD).
- Ground Control Hunt Valley (Sparks Glencoe, MD).
- Inside Control Academy (St Pete Beach, FL).
- Impact Zone Training Center (West Lafayette, IN).
- Johns Hopkins Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (Baltimore, MD), a surprisingly large and dedicated BJJ club here at JHU.
- Justin Halberda's living room, where my esteemed colleague and I once had a little sparring session...
- Lions MMA (Vancouver, Canada).
- Marcus Soares Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (Vancouver, Canada).
- Monroe Hall BJJ (Parkville, Maryland).
- New Breed Academy (Kauai, HI).
- Noel Smith Martial Arts (Glen Burnie, MD).
- Open Source Jiu Jitsu (Asheville, NC), with patriotic training partners.
- Openmat MMA (Toronto, Canada).
- Plainville Martial Arts (Plainville, CT).
- Ralph Gracie Jiu Jitsu (San Francisco, CA).
- Rio Grappling Club Firenze (Florence, Italy).
- Ronin BJJ (New Haven, CT).
- School BJJ (Arcadia, CA).
- Soulcraft BJJ (New Haven, CT); my original "home" gym in Connecticut, where I trained from white to purple under Brad Wolfson and was introduced to BJJ by Dan Greco.
- Standard Jiu Jitsu (Rockville, MD).
- Taiwan BJJ (Taipei, Taiwan).
- Taylor Biagi Jiu Jitsu (Chicago, IL).
- 10th Planet Las Vegas (Las Vegas, NV), in 104 degree heat!
- Toronto BJJ (Toronto, Canada).
- Tristar Gym (Montreal, Canada), where I got to train with Firas Zahabi and Georges St-Pierre!
- URSA Academy (Ann Arbor, MI).
- Unity Jiu Jitsu (New York, NY).
- Watson BJJ (St. Louis, MO).
- Zenyo Jiu Jitsu (Baltimore, MD).
In 2020, my wife and I welcomed into our family a beautiful baby boy, who was promptly adopted by bears. His little brother arrived in 2023.
