Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Binghamton University, State University of New York. Prior to this, I completed my PhD in Philosophy at the University of Michigan. My research interests are primarily in the philosophy of language, social philosophy, feminist philosophy, and epistemology.
My research explores how power shapes what we do with words—specifically, speech acts such as promises, apologies, jokes, orders, threats, compliments. I argue that speakers can unintentionally perform certain speech acts (like orders and threats), that audience uptake can determine which speech act a speaker performs (in both just and unjust ways), an…
Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Binghamton University, State University of New York. Prior to this, I completed my PhD in Philosophy at the University of Michigan. My research interests are primarily in the philosophy of language, social philosophy, feminist philosophy, and epistemology.
My research explores how power shapes what we do with words—specifically, speech acts such as promises, apologies, jokes, orders, threats, compliments. I argue that speakers can unintentionally perform certain speech acts (like orders and threats), that audience uptake can determine which speech act a speaker performs (in both just and unjust ways), and that performing a speech act is a temporally extended process. More broadly, I'm interested in the ways oppression and power relations shape our agency as language users.
A second thread of my research is concerned with how power shapes our practices of knowing. I'm interested in whether, and under what conditions, suspending judgment is an appropriate epistemic response to a sexual violence claim and explore how participating in protests can transform how we think about what forms of social change are possible.
For more information, see my website: https://www.rebeccaeharrison.com/
