Dr. Jesse Fitts received a BA in philosophy (with minors in political science and mathematics) from the University of Nevada Las Vegas in 2007 and an MA and PhD in philosophy from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 2012 and 2018, respectively. Dr. Fitts mainly researches representation in language and mind and has teaching interests in logic (informal and formal), applied ethics, and the philosophy of race and gender. Dr. Fitts has mentoring interests that focus on students from non-traditional backgrounds, mostly through the McNair Scholars Program, where Dr. Fitts was himself a mentee as an undergraduate, coming from a first-generation, low-income background.  Dr. Fitts is originally from Hawaii and grew up in Las Vegas, NV, which has a significant population of people from Hawaii (Las Vegas is known as the “Ninth Island”). Outside of philosophy, his interests include playing various musical instruments, chess, and cooking.