Joel was appointed Honors Faculty Fellow of Barrett Honors College at Arizona State University in 2008. After taking an undergraduate degree in electrical engineering, he worked as an environmental consultant whilst undertaking graduate work in philosophy, which he completed with a dissertation on phenomenology and quantum physics. Joel’s primary research area concerns intersections in the practices and aims of science, philosophy and religion. His other areas of interest include the philosophy and sociology of technology, the history, culture and philosophy of utopias, and imaginative literature, in particular J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series, Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games series, and the work of J. R. R. Tolkien and the Inklings.