.jpg)
I was born and raised in Fort Wayne, Indiana, by David and Betty Shoemaker. I have two sisters and one brother.
In May of 2000, I graduated magna cum laude from Hope College in Holland, Michigan, with a bachelor's degree in philosophy and chemistry. I worked as a steel building assembler and a bicycle mechanic for about one year and then returned to academic work in 2001. I studied epistemology and philosophy of science at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, Michigan, and received my master's degree in 2003. After that, I moved east to Rochester, New York, and have been studying philosophy at the University of Rochester ever since.
My current areas of research are epistemology (especially topics relating to evidence) and other philosophical topics involving logic, mathematics and probability.
In the summer of 2005, I was married to Hyejung Oh, who is also a graduate student in the philosophy department at the University of Rochester. The picture above was taken on our honeymoon on Jeju island, South Korea.