Meena Krishnamurthy is a political philosopher interested in race, democracy, social movements, and political psychology. Her research centers on the role that political emotions play in both self and structural transformation. She explores how civil rights activists—especially Martin Luther King Jr.—used protest, images, letters, and oratory to engage these emotions and to motivate transformative political action. Her book, The Emotions of Nonviolence: Revisiting Martin Luther King, Jr.’s ‘Letter from Birmingham Jail’ was recently published with Oxford Press (2025). She is currently writing the first book on the political thought and life of the Asian American activist and philosopher, Grace Lee Boggs for Bold Type Press. 

Krishnamurthy is a Full Professor at Queen’s University in the Department of Philosophy. She has held positions at the University of Michigan, the University of Manitoba, and Dalhousie University. She earned her Ph.D., under the supervision of Richard W. Miller, from Cornell University. Krishnamurthy’s scholarly work has appeared in the Journal of the American Philosophical Association, the Journal of Moral Philosophy, Political Theory, The Monist, the Canadian Journal of Philosophy, and Social Theory and Practice, as well as collected editions. She has also written for the Boston Review and the New Statesman.

Beyond research and teaching, Krishnamurthy is committed to making philosophy more inclusive. She created Philosopher, a blog highlighting underrepresented voices in the field, and launched the Inclusive Bibliography on Race, Gender, and Related Topics, a widely used resource for scholars and students. She also contributed to efforts to decolonize political theory and worked with programs like PIKSI Rock and the Summer Institute of the Canadian Philosophical Association, helping students from underrepresented backgrounds see themselves in philosophy.