Research Interests: Philosophy of Language, Social Philosophy, Philosophical Logic, Metaphysics, and Epistemology.

Professor Mark Richard joined the Department in the Fall of 2010; previously he was the Lenore Stern Professor in the Humanities and Social Sciences at Tufts University. He specializes in philosophy of language, social philosophy philosophical logic, metaphysics, and epistemology. He attended Hamilton College, the University of Freiburg in Germany and the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Richard has published several books (Propositional Attitudes [1990], Meaning [2002], When Truth Gives Out [2008], Meanings as Species [2019]) and numerous articles, some of which are collected in Meaning in Context I: Context and the Attitudes [2012] and Meaning and Context: Truth and Truth Bearers [2015], as well as articles on the semantics of particular constructions, vagueness, and linguistic pragmatics.

Besides foundational issues in semantics, Richard's current research focuses on questions about gender, racial, religious, and other social identities –how they are constructed and policed, what the possibilities for and limits on transforming their nature might be.

Richard has been the department’s Director of Graduate Studies since 2013 and is a member of its Climate Working Group. He is an avid hiker, a good cook, creates so-so collages, and is a mediocre woodworker.  His current dog’s name is Simone de Bauer.

For downloadable copies of his work in progress and recent publications, please visit his personal website.