Dr Emily McTernan

Associate Professor in Political Theory
Room: 4.02, 29/30 Tavistock Square
Email: e.mcternan@ucl.ac.uk
Website

 

Biography

I am currently Associate Professor in Political Theory at UCL. Until 2019, I ran the Department’s MA in Legal and Political Theory. I have held visiting positions at the School of Philosophy, ANU, and Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona. I have been an Associate Editor of Res Publica and am currently an Area Editor at Ergo.

My research has been funded by a Leverhulme Research Fellowship, as well as a Templeton Religion Trust project grant (‘the beacon project’) and an ARC grant (‘political normativity and the feasibility constraint’). I won event funding from the Society of Applied Philosophy with Liam Shields, and a British Academy/Leverhulme Trust Small Grant to establish a network on social equality with Martin O’Neill, Christian Schemmel and Fabian Schuppert.

I earned my doctorate at the History and Philosophy of Science Department, University of Cambridge in 2013.

I am currently co-host of the UCL Uncovering Politics podcast.

Research

I defend the significance of social norms and social practices within political philosophy. I have argued for this while intervening in debates about how to conceptualise equality, microaggressions, and responsibility-sensitive egalitarianism; what kinds of fertility treatment should be provided; and how to inculcate civic virtues. This work has been published in Philosophy & Public Affairs; Journal of Political Philosophy; Political Studies; Journal of Applied Philosophy; Journal of Moral Philosophy; Bioethics; Philosophy, Politics & Economics; and the Oxford Handbook of Moral Psychology.

Most recently, my focus has been on offence and the construction of our social standing. My book, On Taking Offence, is forthcoming June 2023 with Oxford University Press. This book argues for the significance and positive social value of taking offence, not as a matter of having hurt feelings, but as a means of resisting unequal social relations. You can read my analysis of the emotion of offence or watch a short video on YouTube.

My next project explores freedom of association, the value of associations, and the spaces they require. Lockdowns highlighted the physicality of our associational lives: we require access to spaces, and that how these spaces are designed affects who we associate with, and how we do so. I ask: what does a rich associational life require of our online and offline spaces? Considering association promises to illuminate contemporary issues, from the ethics of content moderation to no platforming protests and the design of hospitals. You can read the first piece of this research, ‘Against Visitor Bans’, or learn about a new collaborative project with Professor Ben Colburn and Dr Jane Clossick: ‘Spaces of Birth and Death’.

Publications

Books

• McTernan, E. (forthcoming 2023) On Taking Offence. Oxford University Press.

Journal articles

• McTernan, E. (2023) ‘Against Visitor Bans: Freedom of Association, COVID-19 and the Hospital Ward’, Journal of Medical Ethics, 49, pp. 288–291.
• McTernan, E. (2021) ‘Taking Offense: An Emotion Reconsidered’, Philosophy & Public Affairs, 49(2), pp. 179–208.
• Barry, C. and McTernan, E. (2021) ‘A Puzzle of Enforceability: Why do Moral Duties Differ in their Enforceability?’, Journal of Moral Philosophy, 19, pp. 229–253
• McTernan, E. (2019) ‘Justice, Feasibility, and Social Science as it is’, Ethical Theory and Moral Practice, 22, pp. 27–40.
• McTernan, E. (2018) ‘Microaggressions, Equality, and Social Practices’, Journal of Political Philosophy, 26(3), pp. 261–281.
• McTernan, E. (2018) ‘Uterus Transplants and the Insufficient Value of Gestation’, Bioethics, 32, pp. 481– 488.
• McTernan, E. (2016) ‘How to be a Responsibility-sensitive Egalitarian: From Metaphysics to Social Practice’, Political Studies, 64(3), pp. 748–764.
• McTernan, E. (2015) ‘Should Fertility Treatment be State Funded?’, Journal of Applied Philosophy, 32, pp . 227–240.
• McTernan, E. (2014) ‘How to Make Citizens Behave: Social Psychology, Liberal Virtues, and Social Norms’, Journal of Political Philosophy, 22(1), pp. 84–104.
• McTernan, E. (2013) ‘The Inegalitarian Ethos: Incentives, Respect, and Self-Respect’, Politics, Philosophy & Economics, 12(1), pp. 93–111.

Book chapters

• McTernan, E. (2022) ‘Moral Character, Liberal States, and Civic Education’, in M. Vargas, and J. M. Doris (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Moral Psychology. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• McTernan, E. (2018) ‘Those Who Forget the Past: An Ethical Challenge from the History of Treating Deviance’, in D. Birks and T. Douglas (eds.)  Treatment for Crime: Philosophical Essays on Neurointerventions in Criminal Justice. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Other articles

• McTernan, E. (2022) ‘Why Hospitals Should Not Ban Visitors’, Blog: Journal of Medical Ethics.
• McTernan, E. (2020) ‘Why Offence is Good’, Institute of Art and Ideas.
• McTernan, E., O’Neill, M., Schemmel, C. and Schuppert, F. (2016) ‘If You Care About Social Equality, You Want a Big State’, Juncture, 23, pp. 138–144.
• McTernan, E. (2016) ‘Rescuing Responsibility for the Left’, Juncture, 22, pp. 298–303.
• McTernan, E. (2015) ‘Should the State Pay for you to Have Kids?’, Forum for European Philosophy Blog.

Teaching

I teach the postgraduate modules ‘Meanings of Liberty’ and ‘Contemporary Political Philosophy II’, and the undergraduate module ‘Philosophy, Values, and the Social Sciences’.

I am currently supervising PhD students working on social equality and dementia, and on republicanism. My supervision interests are: equality (particularly relational/social egalitarianism and distributive justice); responsibility; political emotions; social norms and social practices; civic virtue and citizenship; freedom of association; political theory and architecture; and fertility treatments.