Rachel McKinney, PhD

Education

• PhD, City University of New York
• MPhil, City University of New York
• BA, Albion College

Research and Creative Interests

Prof. Rachel McKinney works in speech act theory, at the intersection of philosophy of language and social/political philosophy. She brings insights from social and political theory to bear on some foundational issues in linguistic communication (and vice versa). She focuses on language in use — as strategic action, as resource, and as interactive symbolic structure. She is particularly interested in language as both cooperative and contentious, and aims to show how philosophy can learn from the ‘rough ground’ ─ that is, from the friction assumed away by idealized models of language and social action.

Teaching Philosophy

As a teacher, Prof. McKinney is dedicated to philosophy as the art of ‘thinking in slow motion.’ This involves active listening, trust, interpretive charity, empathy, good faith, sharing the floor, perspective-taking, cooperativity, fairness, and respect, but also careful attention to clarity, accuracy, precision, and consistency. Prof. McKinney teaches a variety of courses, including Truth, Lies, and BS; 20th Century Philosophy; Ethics and Civic Life; Social Ethics; Political Economy; Social and Political Philosophy; and Philosophy of Race and Gender.

Employment History

• Associate Professor and Program Director, Philosophy and Politics, Philosophy and Economics, Suffolk University (2025 - Present)
• Assistant Professor and Assistant Program Director, Philosophy and Politics, Philosophy, and Economics, Suffolk University (2018 - 2024)
• Postdoctoral Associate, Center for the Humanities, University of Pittsburgh (2017-2018)
• Postdoctoral Associate, Edmund J. Safra Center for Ethics, Harvard University (2016 - 2017)
• Postdoctoral Associate, Department of Linguistics and Philosophy, MIT (2015 - 2016)

Scholarly and Creative Contributions

• McKinney, R. (forthcoming). Constructing narratives, constructing social relations. In L. Schroeter & F. S. Schroeter (Eds.), Mind, language, and social hierarchy: Constructing a shared social world. Oxford University Press.
• McKinney, R., & Harris, D. (2021). Social political applications of speech act theory. In J. Khoo & R. Sterken (Eds.), Routledge handbook of political philosophy of language. Routledge.
• McKinney, R. (2019). Police and language. In M. Cherry (Ed.), Unmuted: Conversations on prejudice, oppression, and social justice. Oxford University Press.
• McKinney, R. (2018). Emancipatory political dissent in practice: Insights from social theory. In C. Johnson (Ed.), Voicing dissent: The ethics and epistemology of making disagreement public. Taylor & Francis.
• McKinney, R. (2016). Extracted speech. Social Theory and Practice, 42(2)