Lynne Tirrell, professor of philosophy at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, will become professor of philosophy at the University of Connecticut and have an affiliation with the university’s Human Rights Institute, effective this fall. 

Professor Tirrell work is in the intersection of philosophy of language and social and political philosophy. She has written on metaphor, hate speech, racist discourse, apology, storytelling, pornography, and other issues. Much of her current work concerns the role of language in the Rwandan genocide.

A statement posted at the University of Connecticut site says:

Lynne is a leading researcher in the area of socially applied yet technically adept philosophy of language. Indeed, she may be said to have founded this burgeoning sub-field. Her pathbreaking paper, “Genocidal Language Games” is taught all over the U.S. in philosophy graduate programs, undergraduate programs, and even in prisons. In an unprecedented way she has combined detailed, theoretical work on language with the human reality of monstrous events… Tirrell has done extensive service as the chair of the American Philosophical Association Committee on Public Philosophy. She is also an Associate Editor for the newly revitalized Journal of Philosophical Research.

For more information about Professor Tirrell’s work, see this profile or visit her Academia.edu page. You can follow her on Twitter, too: @LynneTirrell.