Manuela Ungureanu

I graduated with a PhD degree from McGill University, Montreal, and wrote my doctoral thesis on Chomsky’s naturalistic challenge to philosophy of language. I was appointed Associate Professor by UBC Okanagan in 2005, and published mainly in philosophy of social sciences and philosophy of language, which are my areas of specialization.  I have a special interest in the debate surrounding the ontology of languages, or the apparently simple thesis that languages such as English or Romanian exist. My contribution to this debate is focused on bringing into the foreground a set of empirical data that has been neglected by philosophers and linguists alike, namely the psychological evidence from literacy studies. That type of evidence suggests that external languages ought to be construed as embodied in literate artifacts, where the latter’s properties are both determined and determining the cognitive capacities specific to linguistic competence. I also write at the interface between philosophy of language and political philosophy, engaging in the recent debates on the nature of propaganda, or broader, the limits of free speech or free expression.

Research Interests

Philosophy of social sciences, philosophy of language, ontology of language.