My research focuses on the intersection between Philosophy of Language and Political Philosophy. I currently have three research projects:

1. Slurs: explaining slurs in terms of the speech acts of derogation
2. Ethics of Interpretation: When someone says something, which interpretation is fair?
3. Moral Psychology of Offense: exploring questions about the nature, the aptness, and the values of taking offense.

Publications

• 2022. “蔑称的言语行为理论” (A Speech Act Theory of Slurs). 现代哲学 (Modern Philosophy). (5), 75-81.
• 2021. “The Derogatory Force and the Offensiveness of Slurs“. Organon F. 28(3), 626–649. [download]
• 2021. “Toward a Theory of Offense: Should You Feel Offended?“. Philosophy. 96(4), 625-649. [download]
• 2021. “Slurs as Illocutionary Force Indicators“. Philosophia. 49(3), 1051-65.
• 2020. “Slurs and Register: A Case Study in Meaning Pluralism”. Mind and Language. 35(2), 156-182. with Justina Diaz-Legaspe & Robert J. Stainton.
• 2019. “Slurs and the Type-Token Distinction of Their Derogatory Force”. Rivista Italiana di Filosofia del Linguaggio. 13(2), 63-72.

Works in Progress

• Saving Descriptivism from Kripke (under review)
• Toward an Ethics of Interpretation (in preparation)
• A Psycholinguistic Account of Politically Loaded Words (in preparation)
• Two Arguments against Hybrid Theories (in preparation)

Research Grants

2022. Shanghai Philosophy and Social Sciences Planning Project, “Arguments against Descriptivism” (2022EZX001)

2022. Shanghai Jiao Tong University “Double First-Class” Starting Research Grant, (WH220509001)

2021. China Postdoctoral Science Foundation, Research Grant, “How Language Expresses Values” (2021M700265)

Dissertation

2019. Derogatory Words and Speech Acts: An Illocutionary Force Indicator Theory of Slurs. University of Western Ontario