Zoe Walker

I am a Career Development Fellow in Philosophy at Trinity College, Oxford, working on various philosophical issues surrounding humour, comedy and joking. The majority of this work lies at the intersection of Aesthetics, Ethics and Mind, thinking about the ethics of the sense of humour, and how engaging with comedy shapes the attention. I am the recipient of the 2022 British Society of Aesthetics Essay Prize for my essay ‘A Sensibility of Humour’, and the 2023 American Society of Aesthetics Irene H. Chayes New Voices Award for my essay ‘Seeing the Funny Side: humour, attention and harm’.

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I am also interested in the concept of joking from a Philosophy of Language perspective, as a way of achieving plausible deniability on the cheap, and sneaking in ideas under the radar.

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Before starting at Trinity, I did my PhD in Philosophy at Pembroke College, Cambridge, and was Director of Studies in Philosophy at Magdalene College, Cambridge.

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​You can hear me talk about the relationship between philosophy and comedy on the Forum for Philosophy podcast, or read my brief discussion of Jimmy Carr and the ethics of humour for the Institute of Arts and Ideas.

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You can contact me at: zoe.walker[at]trinity.ox.ac.uk.