Professor, Waterloo Chair in Social and Political Philosophy of Language
Areas of interest
Racist and sexist language, diversifying academia, implicit bias, pragmatics, deception
Areas of graduate supervision
- most areas of analytic feminist philosophy
- implicit bias
- philosophy of race
- pragmatics
- social and political
- philosophy of language
- deception
Current research
I'm currently mainly working on the pragmatics of racist, sexist, and deceptive speech, particularly focused on political discourse. (This keeps me very busy these days!). I'm also working on a joint project with the UK Statistics Authority on misleading use of statistics. I continue to be involved in various efforts to diversify academia, including ongoing involvement with the British Philosophical Association/Society for Women in Philosophy's Good Practice Scheme.
Selected publications:
- with Michael Brownstein, eds.) Implicit Bias and Philosophy Volume I: Metaphysics and Epistemology, Oxford University Press 2016.
- (with Michael Brownstein, eds.) Implicit Bias and Philosophy Volume II: Moral Responsibility, Structural Injustice, and Ethics, Oxford University Press 2016.
- Lying, Misleading, and What is Said: An Exploration in Philosophy of Language and in Ethics, Oxford University Press 2012.
- Simple Sentences, Substitution, and Intuitions, Oxford University Press 2007.
- Feminism: Issues and Arguments, Oxford University Press 2003.
- “What is Happening to our Norms Against Racist Speech?”, Aristotelian Society 93(1): 1-23. 2019.
- "Immigration in the Brexit Campaign: Protean Dogwhistles and Political Manipulation", in Fox, C, and Saunders, J., Media Ethics, Free Speech, and the Requirements of Democracy, Routledge. 2019.
- "(How) Should We Tell Implicit Bias Stories?", Disputatio 10 (50): 217-244. 2018.
- “Negligent Falsehood, White Ignorance, and False News”, in Elliott Michaelson and Andreas Stokke’s Lying: Language, Knowledge and Ethics (OUP). 2018.
- “Dogwhistles, Political Manipulation, and Philosophy of Language” in Daniel Fogal, Matt Cross and Daniel Harris’s New Work on Speech Acts volume (OUP). 2018.
Selected grants, fellowships, awards:
- Leverhulme International Network Grant (April 2011-June 2013): Implicit Bias and Philosophy Research Network
- Distinguished Woman Philosopher Award 2011
- Philip Leverhulme Prize 2003