Brian Ball
Core Faculty
Brian Ball is the head of faculty and an associate professor of philosophy at London’s New College of the Humanities at Northeastern. He also serves as the chair of the NCH research committee.
His interdisciplinary social epistemology research uses computational methods to investigate group attitudes and collective ignorance. He’s also now delving into issues at the intersection of education and AI. In the past, Ball has explored AI and philosophy topics such as the theory of knowledge, the philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of language with funding from the British Academy, Royal Society, Royal Academy of Engineering, and the Leverhulme Trust.
Before joining Northeastern, Ball was a lecturer in philosophy at St. Anne’s College and Balliol College, both within the University of Oxford. As a senior fellow of the Higher Education Academy, he was instrumental in developing several interdisciplinary educational programs in philosophy, psychology, and data science. Those included a Bachelor of Arts in philosophy and cognitive science, a Master of Arts in philosophy and artificial intelligence, and the Master of Science in responsible AI.
He earned a Bachelor of Arts from McGill University with honors and received the Prince of Wales Medal in mental and moral philosophy. He later completed the Bachelor of Philosophy as a Marion Buck scholar and a doctorate in philosophy, both from the University of Oxford.