Charles is a Ph.D. candidate and Assistant Director of Undergraduate Studies in the Study of Religion. His work focuses on how philosophical and religious thought interesection in the modern West, and he is currently writing a dissertation on the role that Kant's conception of autonomy plays in his treatment of the relationship between ethics and religion. He is interested in historical and contemporary approaches to the relationship between religion, ethics, and politics, with special attention to the status of claims about autonomy and freedom, and he has taught a number of courses in these areas at Harvard as a junior tutorial instructor and teaching fellow. Charles grew up in Atlanta and came to Harvard after competing his Bachelor of Arts degree in philosophy at Yale and spending time living and working in the Netherlands.