Close
Dr Sarah Fisher
Biography
I joined UCL’s Department of Political Science as a Research Fellow in October 2022. I am part of a cross-disciplinary project on the ethics of content moderation on social media and the future of free speech online, headed up by Dr Jeffrey Howard and funded by UKRI.
I earned my PhD from the University of Reading, my MSc from the University of Edinburgh, and my BA from the University of Oxford. Before coming to UCL, I worked at the University of Vienna. I also have a decade of public policy experience in central government, local government, and social research.
Research
I conduct research in the philosophy of mind and language, with a particular focus on linguistic framing and contextual effects on meaning. I have published in various journals including Philosophy Compass, Synthese, Inquiry, and The Review of Philosophy and Psychology.
I am beginning to investigate the distinctive nature of online speech and how it can be harnessed for a healthy public discourse.
Publications
- Journal articles
2023
- Fisher, S. A. (2023) ‘Description Invariance: A Rational Principle for Human Agents’, Economics & Philosophy, first view, pp. 1–13.
2022
- Fisher, S. A. (2022) ‘Defining Preferences over Framed Outcomes does not Secure Agents’ Rationality’, Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 45.
- Fisher, S. A. (2022) ‘Critical Notice: Frames, Reasons, and Rationality’, International Journal of Philosophical Studies, 30(2), pp. 162–173.
- Fisher, S. A. (2022) ‘Framing Effects and Fuzzy Traces: ‘Some’ Observations’, Review of Philosophy and Psychology, 13, pp. 719–733.
- Fisher, S. A. (2022) ‘Meaning and Framing: The Semantic Implications of Psychological Framing Effects’, Inquiry, 65(8), pp. 967–990.
2021
- Borg, E., Fisher, S. A., Hansen, N., Harrison, R., Ravindran. D., Salomons, T. V. and Wilkinson, H. (2021) ‘Pain Priors, Polyeidism, and Predictive Power: A Preliminary Investigation into Individual Differences in Ordinary Thought about Pain’, Theor Med Bioeth, 42, pp. 113–135.
- Fisher, S. A. and Mandel, D. R. (2021) ‘Risky-choice Framing and Rational Decision-making’, Philosophy Compass, 16(8).
- Fisher, S. A. (2021) ‘Reassessing Truth-Evaluability in the Minimalism-Contextualism Debate’, Synthese, 198, pp. 2765–2782.
2020
- Fisher, S. (2020) ‘Rationalising Framing Effects: At Least One Task for Empirically Informed Philosophy’, Crítica: Revista Hispanoamericana De Filosofía, 52(156), pp. 5–30.
- Book chapters
- Borg, E. and Fisher, S. A. (2021) ‘Semantic Content and Utterance Context: A Spectrum of Approaches’, in P. Stalmaszczyk (ed.) The Cambridge Handbook of the Philosophy of Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 174–193.