Valerie Gray Hardcastle is Professor of Philosophy, Psychology, and Psychiatry & Behavioral Neuroscience at the University of Cincinnati; she is Scholar-in-Residence at the Weaver Institute of Law and Psychiatry and Acting Director of the Medicine,Health, and Society Program at the University of Cincinnati. As an internationally recognized scholar, Prof. Hardcastle is the author of five books and over 130 essays. She studies the nature and structure of interdisciplinary theories in the cognitive sciences and has focused primarily on developing a philosophical framework for understanding conscious phenomena responsive to neuroscientific, psychiatric, and psychological data. Currently, she is investigating the neuroscience of violence and its implications for both our understanding of human nature and the criminal justice system. She is also trying to figure out whether notions of embodied cognition help or hinder theorizing about consciousness. She received a bachelor's degree with a double major in philosophy and political science from the University of California, Berkeley, a master's degree in philosophy from the University of Houston, and an interdisciplinary PhD in cognitive science and philosophy from the University of California, San Diego. References: Valerie Hardcastle, 2001. The Myth of Pain, MIT Press. Valerie Hardcastle, 2008. Constructing the Self, John Benjamins Publishing Company.