Bio

Dr. Emily McTernan

Associate Professor in Political Philosophy
Department of Political Science/School of Public Policy
University College London

I’m a political philosopher and ethicist of the social world. My work defends the pervasive significance of our social norms and social practices, which are often overlooked in favour of focusing on laws and institutions, or on one-off weighty ethical choices. I’ve written about these themes on topics including the nature of equality, microaggressions, taking offence and other social emotions, civic education, the value of encounters, and the ethics of humour. I'm just beginning my next project: an ethics of social interaction informed by Erving Goffman, rather than Immanuel Kant. 

I’ve published my work in twenty papers, including in Mind; Philosophy & Public Affairs; Political Philosophy and its predecessor, Journal of Political Philosophy; Politics, Philosophy & Economics; and Journal of Moral Philosophy, amongst other venues. I sometimes write about infertility and parenthood, including in Bioethics and Journal of Medical Ethics. My first book, On Taking Offence (OUP, 2023), offers a novel analysis, and a moral and political defence, of this much maligned emotion. Watch me talking about my book here 

I was awarded the Early Career Prize by the Britain and Ireland Association for Political Theory in 2021. My research has been supported by a Leverhulme Research Fellowship; research funding from the Templeton Religion Trust and from the ARC; and by event grants from the Society for Applied Philosophy and British Academy/Leverhume. I have held visiting appointments in Philosophy at ANU, and at ICREA, Pompeu Fabra University. 

I am the co-host of two podcasts, UCL Uncovering Politics and Philosophically Speaking; have been an Area Editor of Ergo; and am currently Associate Editor of Politics, Philosophy & Economics and on the Editorial Board of Res Publica.