Valerie Bernard

Research interests

• Philosophy of Mind
• Perception and Imagination
• Continental Philosophy
• Phenomenology
• Philosophy of Dreaming

Current projects

• The Dream Model Debate and Theories of Perception (dissertation)
• Jean-Paul Sartre’s Disjunctivism (article)
• Toward a Relational Theory of Intentionality (article)

Biography

Prof. Bernard is a Doctoral Candidate in Philosophy at the University of Toronto, anticipating completion of her PhD in 2021. She was awarded the SSHRC-Vanier Scholarship in 2016. She received a BA in Philosophy from the University of New Brunswick in 2015, having returned to university as a mature student in 2013. She is now teaching at UNB as a Term Instructor for the 2021-22 school year.

Prof. Bernard specializes in the philosophy of perception. Her dissertation applies cognitive science research on dreaming to contemporary debates in theory of perception literature. She also studies Jean-Paul Sartre’s theory of intentionality from a contemporary philosophy of mind perspective.

2021-22 courses

• Ethics of Life and Death
• History of Postmodern Philosophy
• Philosophy of Dreaming
• Perception and Imagination in 17th and 18th Century Philosophy
• History of Philosophy
• Critical Thinking

Conferences and presentations

“Dreaming and Theories of Perception” Canadian Philosophical Association, June 2021

“What Dreams Can Tell Us About Perception and Imagination” Invited presentation at the University of New Brunswick, February 2020

“Dreams: Percepts or Images” Canadian Philosophical Association, June 2019

“Qualitative Distinctions of Worth: Charles Taylor and Gary Watson on Human Agency” What is Canadian Philosophy? University of New Brunswick, November 2017