On the evening of April 18th, 2024, the newly established Mizzou Philosophy Club (MPC) held its second event, a book talk and signing of Dangerous Jokes by resident feminist philosopher of language, Dr. Claire Horisk. Dangerous Jokes is Dr. Horisk’s first book, exploring how derogatory jokes function and how such humor delivers harmful messages about marginalized groups. 

The book signing also marked the beginning of the MU Philosophy department’s participation in the realm of public philosophy. Dangerous Jokes was written with a broad audience in mind, and the event drew a crowd of around 200 people from various disciplines across the university. Dr. Horisk gave a short presentation about the work and then spent the rest of the event taking questions from the audience. The MPC hopes this may be the start of many such public philosophy events. The host of the event was faculty sponsor and Assistant Teaching Professor of Philosophy Dr. Troy Hall, who remarked: “The turnout was simply fantastic. This sort of event is unprecedented for the department. We should support our faculty, while also showing non-philosophers just how timely and interesting philosophy can be.”

To join Mizzou Philosophy Club or simply to stay in the loop about our future events, make sure to follow the club’s engage page at https://engage.missouri.edu/MIZPhil/club_signup. 

            If you are interested in purchasing Dangerous Jokes, click on or scan the QR code above.

The crowd eagerly waits for Claire's presentation to begin.

Claire answers questions from the audience.

We're so proud of Claire's work! Well done, Dr. Horisk!