best continental philosophy phd programs

PhD Program Overview

Academic mission.

The PhD Program in Philosophy offers an intensive course of study in preparation for a career as a scholar and teacher of philosophy. The program in particular consists of four major components. (1) Completing coursework in the three main areas of contemporary philosophy and in the history of philosophy. (2) Participating in a paper revision workshop, in which students significantly revise an essay originally written for a seminar in consultation with faculty and other students. (3) Defining an intellectual project and writing the PhD dissertation under the direction of a faculty committee. (4) Teaching as assistants in faculty-taught lecture courses and then as lecturers in stand-alone tutorials and small courses. In addition to these major components, students and faculty also participate in a variety of workshops and reading groups in which students present their own work for criticism by their peers and faculty. Throughout the PhD program, students and faculty join together in a continuous, rich philosophical dialogue. And faculty also support that dialogue and students’ intellectual work through advising, mentoring, ongoing academic evaluations, and canny career advice.

Note: The PhD Program in Philosophy is the only graduate program to which the Department of Philosophy admits students; those students interested in a masters degree can apply directly to the Masters of Arts Program in the Humanities ( MAPH ). This is a standalone program in the Division of Humanities within which students can take a number of graduate courses in philosophy. Elsewhere on this site we have a more thorough explanation of how our faculty interests serve our MAPH students.

Culture of the PhD Program

The PhD Program in Philosophy is intellectually inclusive, capacious in its research and teaching interests, and unusual in the extent and depth of the collective engagement with both the analytic and continental traditions. All programs now promote their interdisciplinarity, but we’ve been enjoying our wide range of philosophical interests for decades here at Chicago—thanks in part to the thorough integration of the interdisciplinary Council of Advanced Studies workshops into the PhD program and also to departmental colloquia, in which departmental and visiting faculty speak (and are challenged) on various philosophical issues. The department hums with free-flowing philosophical discussions among students and faculty occurring in seminars, workshops, colloquia, the hallways of Stuart Hall, and the Friday afternoon coffee hours in our Anscombe Library.

Socially, the department also tries to make sure that every student’s voice is heard in the running and shaping of the department and its PhD program. There are always two elected graduate student representatives who help keep channels of communication open and flowing in both directions between the departmental faculty and graduate student body, and faculty meet with students regularly about issues of concern. The department also has a faculty diversity liaison; a Diversity, Inclusivity, Climate, and Equity (DICE) Committee composed of departmental faculty and graduate students; and a graduate student outreach coordinator. We all work to ensure that the PhD program, courses, and the departmental culture feel welcome to students from all backgrounds. Here is  more information on DICE .

The Women in Philosophy (WIP) group organizes bi-quarterly social gatherings for graduate women in the department. Gatherings typically consist of dinners or brunches hosted at the home of one of our members. While the primary purpose of these gatherings has typically been that of socializing, they are also a space in which people should feel free to raise and discuss any issues pertaining to life in the department. These social events build solidarity and community for the women in our department, and in general there is a high level of cooperation and collaboration between graduate women in the department. Here is  more information on WIP .

The University of Chicago is situated in the heart of the South Side of Chicago, one of the country’s most culturally and intellectually rich cities . Life in Chicago is itself also inclusive: it’s a diverse, vibrant city with many social possibilities and livable—and strikingly affordable!—neighborhoods for students.

Graduate Program Overview

The PhD program in Rhetoric trains students in the skills of the academic profession and provides a framework to develop the expertise necessary to produce a doctoral dissertation that meets the highest standards of research excellence. Our diverse faculty investigate and teach a wide range of topics and discourses, with various theoretical approaches and research methodologies. We have particular strengths in the following areas of concentration: Ancient Thought and Rhetoric; Continental Philosophy and Critical Theory; Legal, Social and Political Thought; Gender and Sexuality; Literature, Text and Narrative; Colonial, Post-Colonial and Global Studies; Image, Performance and Sound; Science, Technology and Media Studies. The Rhetoric PhD program is best suited for students who wish to approach a specific area of academic inquiry, research objects or archive while working critically within and between academic disciplines in order to pose questions that transcend disciplinary divisions.

Areas of Study

Ancient thought and rhetoric.

  Faculty: Ramona Naddaff, James Porter, Mario Telò, Anthony Long (affiliated)

Colonial, Post-colonial, and Global Studies

The Rhetoric Department supports research on colonialism, postcoloniality, empire, nationalism, transnationalism, cosmopolitanism and globalization from the early modern period to the present. Our faculty work on topics such as colonial encounters and scientific practice, colonial law and post-colonial legalities and politics, freedom, decolonization, revolution, the question of the human, transnational human rights, global art and world literature from the disciplinary perspectives of history, literary studies, visual studies, law, and politics. Their research focuses on non-western traditions including the Islamic world, the Ottoman empire, Sinophone East Asia, Southeast Asia and Africa. Faculty: Pheng Cheah, Samera Esmeir, Fumi Okiji,  Winnie Wong, Sharad Chari (affiliated), Cori Hayden (affiliated)

Continental Philosophy and Critical Theory

The Rhetoric Department has strengths in contemporary French and German thought and the history of modern European continental philosophy and is especially interested in the pertinence of these intellectual traditions to fundamental problems of the contemporary world. The faculty work in fields such as aesthetics, psychoanalysis, ethics, phenomenology and philosophy and literature. Major figures of special interest include Kant, Hegel, Marx, Heidegger, Arendt, Foucault, Derrida and Deleuze.    Faculty: Anthony Cascardi, Pheng Cheah, Marianne Constable, Samera Esmeir, Ramona Naddaff, Fumi Okiji, James Porter, Nasser Zakariya, Wendy Brown (affiliated), Judith Butler (affiliated), Hans Sluga (affiliated)

Gender and Sexuality

Our faculty work in diverse areas of study that include gender theory, transnational feminisms (French, Third World, US-of Color), feminist (de)aesthetics, feminist cultural politics, representations of race, gender and sexuality, and the history of sexuality (ancient and modern). Faculty: Shannon Jackson, Pheng Cheah, Fumi Okiji, Mario Telò, Mel Y. Chen (affiliated).

Image, Performance and Sound

Several faculty members concentrate on the theoretical and cultural dimensions of images with a particular emphasis on the rhetoric of contemporary arts, media and digital technology. The fields we offer in this area include visual culture, film theory and criticism, film aesthetics, spectatorship, photography, and representations of race, gender and media. Faculty: Shannon Jackson, Michael Mascuch, Fumi Okiji, Winnie Wong, Mary Anne Doane (affiliated), Anton Kaes (affiliated), Damon Young (affiliated).

Legal, Social and Political Thought

The Rhetoric Department supports research and teaching in interdisciplinary approaches to the law and in social and political thought from classical antiquity to contemporary times. Faculty integrate theories and methods from the humanities and the social sciences to approach such issues as justice, language, violence, revolution, personhood, evidence, technology, post-coloniality, nationalism, cosmopolitanism and human rights, in various legal traditions and their histories. They work in canonical political and social theory as well as critiquing it. Faculty: David Bates, Pheng Cheah, Marianne Constable, Samera Esmeir, Wendy Brown (affiliated), Stefan-Ludwig Hoffman (affiliated)

Literature, Text and Narrative

With faculty working in literary and other discursive traditions that span the ancient, early modern, modern, and contemporary world, Rhetoric supports research that emphasizes textuality, interdisciplinary theoretical approaches, poetics, narratological, and historical and cultural studies. In particular, we support work in fields such as literature and philosophy, law and literature, post-colonial literatures, autobiography, and social and political dimensions of literature. Faculty: Anthony Cascardi, Pheng Cheah, Marianne Constable, Michael Mascuch, Ramona Naddaff, Fumi Okiji, James Porter, Nasser Zakariya, Judith Butler (affiliated), Donna Jones (affiliated), Colleen Lye (affiliated).

Science, Technology and Media Studies 

Several of our faculty members have research interests in different aspects of science and technology studies and media theory and practice. Their work and that of their students intersects with fields of study in history and philosophy of science and technology, anthropology of science, law and science, and new media, from the ancient world to the digital age. Faculty: David Bates, Marianne Constable, Michael Mascuch, Winnie Wong, Nasser Zakariya, Cori Hayden (affiliated). 

Program Timeline

An outline of the minimal requirements for completing the doctoral program in Rhetoric with a typical timeline follows.

A more detailed version can be found  here

• Rhetoric 200, 205, and 2 other seminars, at least one of which is a Rhetoric seminar
• Rhetoric 375 (Pedagogy) by the first semester of the first GSI appointment
• Rhetoric 220 (Proseminar, 2 units) is offered every other year for first- and second-year students; check with the GSAO to confirm which year it will be scheduled.  
• Year 1 Review (early in the 1st semester)
• Minimum of 4 seminars. By the end of Year 2, at least 3 elective seminars must be taken in Rhetoric
• Note: Rhetoric 220 will no longer be required starting in Fall 2024. 
• Rhetoric 375 (Pedagogy) by the first semester of the first GSI appointment (if not already taken in Year 1)
• Rhetoric 221 (Research Seminar, 2 units)
• Fulfillment of the foreign language requirement (ideally by the end of the 1st semester)
• Successfully pass the Qualifying Examinations (by the end of the 2nd semester) for advancement to candidacy

Years four—six

• Year four: File an approved dissertation prospectus (by the end of the 1st semester) 
• Years five and six:  Dissertation underway; annual Dissertation Candidacy Reviews; Prospectus and Dissertation Workshop (recommended)

Meet Faculty

Meet Students

Qualifying exams.

Dissertations

Graduate student instructors (gsis).

Each PhD student must serve as a teaching assistant or instructor for at least one year and complete the introductory pedagogy seminar (Rhetoric 375) prior to or during the semester of their first graduate teaching appointment. Students who meet the timetable requirements will be eligible  although not guaranteed appointment  as Graduate Student Instructors for four years.

For Graduate Division rules and regulations regarding GSIs, visit this page .

Guidelines and Best Practices for Students and Examiners 

The aim of the linked document (available  here ) is to set out some guidelines to help ensure that the expectations of students and examiners are mutually aligned with what the Rhetoric Department considers to be best practices for various milestones in the graduate program and with the requirements of the Graduate Division. The sections address: the assignment of GSIships; the foreign language examination; the QE exams (written and oral); the dissertation prospectus; and the doctoral dissertation. This document should be read alongside our  Program Guidelines and Timeline , to which it serves as an informal supplement and FAQ. If you need clarification or have suggestions, please contact the Head Graduate Adviser (HGA) or the Graduate Student Affairs Officer (GSAO).

Grants and Fellowships

The Ph.D. program in Rhetoric trains students in the skills of the academic profession and provides a framework to develop the expertise necessary to produce a doctoral dissertation that meets the highest standards of research excellence.

Contemporary Continental Philosophy

David Hills

• November 29, 2013

This article is an attempt at an analysis of the placement records of most leading graduate programs in Continental philosophy. I analyze trends, create rankings, and discuss the issues surrounding and importance of placement records for these programs. I also analyze placement rankings of schools that had hired graduates from either the analytic or continental traditions and how graduates from both of these types of programs fare in terms of landing a position in academic philosophy.

Other Reports

The summary.

Here are some of the highlights from this study

• Social and Political Philosophy is the top category for dissertations followed by History of Philosophy and the Ethics.

The Motive: Why Do this Study?

I received a lot of feedback on the initial PhD and MA placement reports . One main concern was that schools that did not appear in the Leiter Report , particularly Continental-oriented programs, were not included. I offer this report as an attempt to address that feedback. (Note: until this data is finalized, I will keep this as a separate report. Perhaps at a future date, depending on feedback about the benefits and drawbacks, this report will be combined with the other PhD report.)

I compiled a list of the “best” Continental Philosophy programs in the United States based on email feedback, and by looking at the SPEP site and Earlham College’s data . Since I do not come from the continental approach to philosophy (as I am trained in the analytic approach), I relied on these sources and feedback exclusively for determining the list. These schools (with year-range of data, and notes on the data) are:

• Notes: this data came from Boston College’s website and from a Philosophy Professor at BC.
• Notes: I left out Boston University as it is already included in the other PhD report.
• Notes: this data came entirely from DePaul University’s site .
• Notes: this data came entirely from Duquesne’s site .
• Notes: this data came entirely from Emory University’s site .
• Notes: this data came from Fordham’s site and from a Philosophy Professor at Fordham.
• Notes: this data came from Loyola’s philosophy department’s web site and from the Office Assistant, Philosophy Department, Loyola University, Chicago.
• Notes: I left out Northwestern University as it is already included in the other PhD report.
• Notes: this data came entirely from Penn State’s site . This data is a “summary of the placement record” for Penn State, and as such, it will be missing students. I am working on acquiring the full dataset.
• Southern Illinois University, Carbondale
• Notes: this data came entirely from Southern Illinois University, Carbondale’s website
• State University of New York, Binghamton
• Notes: this data came entirely from State University of New York, Binghamton’s website
• State University of New York, Stony Brook
• Notes: this data came from Stony Brook’s site and from a 2004 alumnus of the PhD philosophy program at State University of New York, Stony Brook.
• Texas A&M University (PhD)
• Notes: this data came entirely from Texas A&M’s website
• Notes: this data came entirely from University of Memphis’ website
• Notes: this data came entirely from University of New Mexico’s website
• Notes: this data came from University of Oregon’s website and from a Philosophy Professor at the University of Oregon.
• Notes: this data came entirely from Vanderbilt University’s website .
• Notes: this data came from Villanova’s site and from a staff member of the Philosophy department at Villanova University.

As noted before in other reports, there are many difficulties to gathering and assembling this data. Please see my explanation for more details.

The Meat: Results, Observations, and Conclusions

I gathered approximately 750 placement records since the year 2000 from these 16 schools. These students have been placed at approximately 220 different colleges and universities around the world. Here are some other results.

Approximately 70% of Continental graduates since 2000 are male, while 30% are female. This ratio has been fairly constant apart from a few spikes and dips.

Does one’s gender make a difference in terms of position placement? Perhaps a little. Initially, women place into tenure track or permanent positions at a higher rate than men do (about 10%). That it, if one is a woman, one is more likely to receive a tenure track or permanent position than if one is a man. Men are slightly more likely to end up in post-doc positions (or to already be tenured when graduating). Women are slightly more likely to not initially place into academic philosophy and to also initially be lecturers.

In terms of current placement, women are still more likely to be in tenure track or permanent positions than men are, although men have a slight edge in tenured positions. Men are almost twice as likely to currently be lecturers. Women are still very slightly more likely to not be in academic philosophy, and now are more likely to be in Post-doc/Researcher positions.

Rough conclusion? It seems that it is slightly advantageous in terms of career prospects to be a graduating woman in academic philosophy.

PhD School:

Here is a breakdown of the percentage of students for each school in the dataset. Since some schools did not have complete data from 2000-2013, this should not be taken as showing the exact percentage of graduates from each of these programs since 2000. This only shows how much each school is represented in the data set. Fordham University is represented the most with 12% and Texas A&M the least with 1%.

First Placement School:

Only three schools report having initially placed students back into their department. Loyola has initially placed 19% of its graduates back into its department, and Villanova has initially placed 13% of its graduates back into its department. University of Memphis is third with 11%. This doesn’t mean much, however, since most of the schools did not report initial placements, only current placements.

First Placement Type:

Since over half of the initial placement type is unknown, it is hard to make any good judgments about what is going on in initial placements. That being said , the largest type of Continental graduate initial placement seems to be into tenure track / permanent positions .

If we removed the unknown (58%) and looked at only what was known, then 48% of continental graduates from these schools that have a known initial placement receive a tenure track / permanent position. This is a little higher than the largely analytic schools (39%), but not by much. Lecturers are next at 32%, then non-academic employment at 13%.

Note: Keep in mind that this data is only from 16 schools (compared to 60 analytic schools) and these schools are considered to be the very best continental schools, excluding less well regarded programs that would increase the dataset. As such, any conclusions regarding analytic vs. continental school placement will be tentative until more data can be gathered.

Is this distribution changing over time? It seems so. The overall trend of Tenure Track/Permanent initial placements is downward, while Lecturer and Not in Academic Philosophy placements have risen overall. Post doc and tenured placements seem to be holding steady.

Again, given the large number of “Unknown” placements, these conclusions are tentative. However, when removing the “Unknown” values and focusing on what is known, these trends remain the same. Where once tenure track / permanent position initial placements were more common than lecturer or Not in Academic Philosophy placements, the reverse is now true. And as we might suspect, the change seems to have happened between 2007 and 2009 in the midst of the economic downturn. Will these trends continue? Only time will tell.

Now on to the rankings of schools by type of placement. Keep in mind, the data is still very tentative regarding initial placements.

Note: I am now only counting students that sought academic employment. A student that is not in academic philosophy AND did not seek academic employment does not count against that school’s academic placement record.

1. Tenure-Track/Permanent Initial Placements (for students that sought academic employment)

Which schools initially place the most students into Tenure-Track/Permanent positions? Of those schools which provided this data, we have (1) Stony Brook at 72% , (2) University of Memphis at 64%, and (3) Villanova at 44% initial TT/Permanent placements. Here is the full list:

Since 2011, we have (1) Stony Brook at 67% , (2) Vanderbilt at 57%, and (3) University of Oregon at 36% initial TT/Permanent placements. Here is the full list:

2. Post-doc/Researcher Initial Placements (for students that sought academic employment)

Which schools have the most initial placements in Post-doc/Researcher positions? Of those schools which provided this data, we have (1) Oregon at 9% , (2) Stony Brook at 8%, and (3) Villanova at 6% initial Post-doc/Researcher placements. Here is the full list:

Since 2011, we have (1) University of Oregon at 21%, (2) Binghamton at 14%, and (3) University of Memphis at 13% initial Post-doc/Researcher placements. Here is the full list:

3. Lecturer/Temporary Initial Placements (for students that sought academic employment)

Which schools initially place the most students into Lecturer/Temporary positions? Of those schools which provided this data, we have (1) Loyola University, Chicago at 77% , (2) Villanova at 53%, and (3) Texas A&M at 43% initial Lecturer/Temporary placements. Here is the full list:

Since 2011, we have (1) Loyola University, Chicago at 100% , (1) Texas A & M University at 100 %, and (3) Villanova at 67% initial Lecturer/Temporary placements. Here is the full list:

4. Not In Academic Philosophy Initial Placements (for students that sought academic employment)

Which schools initially place the most students into “Not In Academic Philosophy” positions? Of those schools which provided this data, we have (1) University of Oregon at 12% , (2) Stony Brook at 7%, and (3) Fordham University at 5% initial “Not In Academic Philosophy” placements. Here is the full list:

Since 2011, we have (1) University of Memphis at 13% and (2) University of Oregon at 7% initial “Not In Academic Philosophy” placements. Here is the full list:

5. Sought Academic Employment (or Unknown)

As I do not wish to punish schools for “Not in Academic Philosophy” placements where the student explicitly did not seek academic employment, I am adding this section to show which schools have the highest percentages of students seeking academic employment. Note: where it was unknown if a student sought academic employment, the student is counted as having sought academic employment. Only students that explicitly did not seek academic employment are left out. Of those schools which provided this data, the following list shows the ratio of all students that sought academic employment (or unknown) compared with all students from that school:

Current Placement Type:

Since 2000, approximately 38% of these Continental graduates are in Tenure track/permanent positions. 15% have received tenure, so overall, approximately 53% of Continental graduates are currently in permanent positions in academic philosophy. Unknowns still comprise 15% of the data.

If we remove the unknowns, tenure track/permanent positions comprise 45% of current placements and tenured positions comprise 18% of current placements. Thus, approximately 63% of current Continental graduates since 2000 have a permanent position in academic philosophy. This is slightly higher than largely analytic schools (54%). But as I stated earlier, this is a much smaller dataset from the top Continental schools, so comparisons should be made with caution. Lecturers comprise 24%, and post-docs 2% of current placements. As such, it appears that 89% of Continental graduates are employed in academic philosophy.

1. Tenure Track / Permanent / Tenured Current Placements (for students that sought academic employment)

Which schools have the most current placements in Tenure Track / Permanent / Tenured positions? Of those schools which provided this data, we have (1) Penn State at 96% (Note: see comment on this data above), (2) Boston College at 82%, and (3) Stony Brook at 75% current Tenure Track / Permanent / Tenured placements. Here is the full list:

Since 2011, we have (1) Penn State at 86% (Note: see comment on this data above), (2) Stony Brook at 67%, and (2) Boston College at 67% current Tenure Track / Permanent / Tenured placements. Here is the full list:

2. Post-Doc/Researcher Current Placements (for students that sought academic employment)

Which schools have the most current placements in Post-Doc/Researcher positions? Of those schools which provided this data, we have (1) State University of New York, Binghamton at 8% , (2) Fordham University at 5%, and (3) Fordham University at 4% current Post-Doc/Researcher placements. Here is the full list:

Since 2011, we have (1) Fordham University at 18% , (2) Villanova University at 17%, and (3) Emory University, Pennsylvania State University, State University of New York, Binghamton, and University of Oregon all at 14% current Post-Doc/Researcher placements. Here is the full list:

3. Lecturer/Temporary Current Placements (for students that sought academic employment)

Which schools have the most current placements in Lecturer/Temporary positions? Of those schools which provided this data, we have (1) Loyola University, Chicago at 68% , (2) Texas A & M University at 57%, and (3) Southern Illinois University, Carbondale at 38% current Lecturer/Temporary placements. Here is the full list:

Since 2011, we have (1) Texas A & M University at 100%, (2) Loyola University, Chicago at 92%, and (3) University of Memphis at 63% current Lecturer/Temporary placements. Here is the full list:

4. Not In Academic Philosophy Current Placements (for students that sought academic employment)

Which schools have the most current placements in “Not In Academic Philosophy” positions? Of those schools which provided this data, we have (1) University of New Mexico at 14% , (2) University of Oregon at 14%, and (3) Duquesne University at 12% current “Not In Academic Philosophy” placements. Here is the full list:

Since 2011, we have (1) University of Memphis at 13%, (2) University of Oregon at 7%, and (2) Duquesne University at 7% current “Not In Academic Philosophy” placements. Here is the full list:

Catholic School Placements:

I noticed in analyzing the data that many graduates were placed into with a Catholic heritage—much more so than in the analytic tradition. I’ll offer a brief theory for why this is. As I understand the history of philosophy in the 20th century, the analytic tradition was dominated by logical positivism from the early 1900s through the 1960s and 1970s. Since metaphysics, values, and theology were unverifiable by empirical methods, any discussion about them was regarded as meaningless. Consequently, the analytic tradition focused mainly on the more “scientific” and “empirical” sub-disciplines such as philosophy of mind, philosophy of language, and philosophy of science. Logical positivism has fallen out of favor (at least in the form it once took) and once more the analytic tradition has embraced these “unverifiable” sub-disciplines as meaningful topics of discussion. However, Continental schools still largely remain the home of Catholic philosophy, as they had been its refuge for 70 years.

Consequently, it is not surprising that so many Continental graduates (11%) are doing dissertations on Theology and Religion, Augustine, Aquinas, Levinas, and Kierkegaard (see below). Indeed, among these top Continental programs, Boston College, DePaul, Duquesne, Fordham, Loyola, and Villanova are all Catholic in origin. So it should not be surprising that many graduates do place into Catholic schools. How many? By my estimations, approximately 24% of all graduates are initially or currently placed in schools with a Catholic heritage. If we count only graduates from these 6 Catholic Continental programs, then this percentage increases to 31%! Thus, if you want to end up at a Catholic college or university, going to one of these Catholic schools is a great bet.

Analytic vs. Continental Hiring:

Based on a suggestion from one of our readers, I combined the list of schools that had hired graduates, both initially and currently, from either the analytic or continental traditions. This resulted in a list of 1,408 distinct names of schools that have hired a philosophy graduate since 2000 (Note: I have not cleaned up all of the names, so there will be some repeats based on misspellings, different naming conventions, etc.). Here are some interesting facts I discovered…

• 1080 schools have only hired from Analytic programs. That is about 77% of all schools that have hired a philosophy graduate since 2000. Since there are 1234 distinct schools that have hired Analytic graduates, that means that 88% of schools that have hired an Analytic graduate have hired only Analytic graduates.

Here are some charts to help visualize these percentages:

Based on this, it seems that schools that hire analytic graduates are much more likely to only hire analytic graduates, whereas schools that hire Continental graduates are much more likely to hire from both traditions. Consequently, it seems that there are less schools that are interested in Continental graduates as compared with those interested in graduates from Analytic programs. Whether this means that there are less “Continental positions” available in departments (because these Continental positions are already filled), or that more schools will not consider graduates from Continental programs (since there are no Continental positions in the department and perhaps a department is biased against Continental graduates), I do not know.

Of the schools which have hired from both traditions, which schools have hired the most Continental graduates as a percentage of their total hires since 2000? American University is first at 83%, Villanova University second at 80%, and California Polytechnic State University third at 75%. Here is the full list of schools that have a hiring ratio of Continental graduates greater than 0.50:

Of the schools which have hired from both traditions, which schools have hired the most Analytic graduates as a percentage of their total hires since 2000? Harvard University is first at 98%, (ironic, given what I have said about Catholic schools) the University of Notre Dame is second at 97%, and the University of Colorado, Boulder is third at 97%. Here is the full list of schools that have a hiring ratio of Analytic graduates greater than 0.50:

Which schools have hired the most Continental graduates? In terms of Current placement counts, (1) Fordham University and Emory University have 8 current Continental graduates, (3) Duquesne University has 7 current Continental graduates, and (4) Loyola University, Chicago has 5 current Continental graduates. Here is the full list of schools with counts of Continental graduates above 2:

Which schools have hired the most Analytic graduates? In terms of Current placement counts, (1) the University Toronto has 28 current Analytic graduates, (2) the University of Chicago has 19 Analytic graduates, and (3) Harvard University and Oxford University both have 18 current Analytic graduates. Here is the full list of schools with counts of Analytic graduates above 10:

What does this mean? The sample isn’t balanced between Continental and Analytic graduates (so a direct count comparison would not make sense, and these results are tentative), but it does seem clear that certain schools have a strong preference for Continental graduates and others have a strong preference for Analytic graduates. Also, it seems that most schools are more inclined to hire Analytic graduates than Continental graduates.

Primary Area of Study:

Being from the analytic tradition, I was not exactly sure how to classify primary areas of study as derived from dissertation titles. I did notice that many more dissertation titles in the Continental tradition reference a major historical philosopher. As such, I have first categorized dissertation titles by any major philosopher mentioned in the title (i.e., who is the primary historical figure this dissertation is engaging with?). Second, if there was no historical figure mentioned, or that historical figure was only mentioned once or twice in all of the dissertation titles, I tried to topically categorize the dissertation along common themes I saw. Here are the results:

(1) Social and Political Philosophy at 14%, (2) History of Philosophy at 8%, and (3) Ethics at 8%.

Moving Forward: What Next?

This report comes from a small number of schools, some of which do not have complete data. In moving this report forward, I’d like to:

1. Add more schools oriented towards Continental philosophy. If your school’s philosophy program is oriented towards Continental philosophy and you would like to see how it compares with the schools listed here, please send me a .csv file, using the same columns and meanings that I have given here and here . Or at least send me the name of the school and where I can get the data, and I will work on adding it as soon as possible.

In particular, the New School for Social Research has been recommended to me on several occasions. If you have a connection with this philosophy department and can provide some placement data, please let me know.

2. If you believe I have grossly misrepresented your school and would like me to correct it, please send me a .csv file, using the same columns and meanings that I have given here and here , with all of the corrected and complete information. I will update this article as often as necessary to keep the data current, correct, and fair.

3. I’d like to do a similar report for MA programs that are oriented towards continental philosophy. However, I have not been able to find much data on these programs and I have not received any data from them thus far. If you have access to this data, please send it along.

4. If you have any suggestions about how to make this report better, please send me an email.

Finally, if you know any students in or currently considering graduate school in Continental philosophy, please send them a link to this article. I know I would have benefited greatly from an article like this when I was weighing my decision to continue pursuing academic philosophy, and I am sure they will too.

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Ranking Continental Philosophy Programs

I just noticed Brian Leiter’s list of what he deems to be the top continental philosophy programs. Save for a few that obviously belong, the list is bizarre. The ones that seem most to belong here are those with asterisks or pound signs, meaning ones that had to be ad-hoc’d into the list.

Group 1 (1-3) (rounded mean of 4.0) (median, mode) Georgetown University (4, 4.5) University of California, Riverside (4, 4) University of Chicago (4, 5) Group 2 (4-10)  (rounded mean of 3.5) (median, mode) Cambridge University (3.75, 3) Columbia University (4, 4.25) #University at Stony Brook, State University of New York *University College Dublin #University of Essex University of Notre Dame (4, 4.5) University of Warwick (3.5, 4) Group 3 (11-31) (rounded mean of 3.0) (median, mode) *Boston College Boston University (3, 3) Harvard University (3, 3) *Loyola University, Chicago *New School University New York University (3, 3) Northwestern University (3, 3) Oxford University (3.5, 3) #Pennsylvania State University Stanford University (3, 3) Syracuse University (3.25, 3) University College London (3, 3) University of Auckland (3, 3) University of California, Berkeley (3, 3) University of California, Santa Cruz (3, 3.25) *University of Kentucky *University of New Mexico University of South Florida (3, 2) *University of Sussex University of Toronto (3, 3) *Vanderbilt University * inserted by Board # based on 2004 results, in some cases with modest adjustments by the Advisory Board to reflect changes in staff in the interim

It’s easy to understand why the list is so strange.  For years I have noted that the problem with Leiter’s methodology is that it is based on reputational rankings from a group of rankers he has self-selected.  Here is the list of rankers for this continental philosophy ranking:

Evaluators: Kenneth Baynes, James Bohman, Taylor Carman, David Dudrick, Gary Gutting, Beatrice Han-Pile, Pierre Keller, Sean Kelly, Michelle Kosch, Brian Leiter, Stephen Mulhall, Brian O’Connor, Peter Poellner, Bernard Reginster, Michael Rosen, Iain Thomson, Georgia Warnke, Robert Wicks, Mark Wrathall, Julian Young.

I have been involved in continental philosophy circles for over many  years, but I only recognize four of these philosophers as in any way qualified to assess continental philosophy overall. Others may be familiar enough with the field to recognize which programs have individuals doing work in continental philosophy (from a certain bent). But it would be a huge stretch to say that as a whole they are deeply familiar with what is going on in the field.

Objectively speaking, the best measures for success in any given area of philosophy are these: getting published in the major journals of the field and by the major publishing houses of that field, getting papers accepted at the major conferences in that field, and excelling at  job placement.  Data on the 3d point is lacking because of lack of will or coordination, but the first two are simple enough to assess.  For continental philosophy just look at the programs of the past years’ meetings of the major societies, e.g. SPEP, which is the second largest philosophical society in the U.S. and identify the leaders of these organizations, whose papers are getting accepted, and which doctoral programs are training emerging scholars. For publications, look to who is getting published in the leading journals in continental philosophy (such as Continental Philosophy Review, Philosophy Today, Constellations, and Philosophy and Social Criticism) and by the academic publishing houses that have lists in the field.

Any student serious about going into continental philosophy would be wise to dismiss this obviously biased ranking. Any reputational ranking has serious limitations, but at the very least a reputational ranking of a field should consult those who know the field well: for continental philosophy this would include the leaders of SPEP and other continental societies; the authors and editors of series published by Columbia, Indiana, SUNY, Routledge, Rowman & Littlefield; and the editors of the main journals in the field.

Otherwise the report just confirms the reporter’s preconceived ideas about what counts as philosophy. And if continental doesn’t count to him, despite the fact that continental philosophy is one of the most vibrant and innovative fields in the humanities today, then the results are bound to be twisted.

For what it’s worth, of U.S. doctoral programs in continental philosophy I’d easily recommend these to my students (in alphabetical order): CUNY grad program, DePaul, Emory, the New School, Penn State, Stonybrook, Vanderbilt, and perhaps Boston College, Boston University, Loyola, Memphis, Northwestern, and Syracuse. No doubt there are other good and emerging programs that I’ve missed, so please post a comment if you notice any such omission.

Edit: I’ve subsequently found that the reason so many continental programs aren’t ranked (at least without an asterisk or pound sign) is that they have opted out of the rankings by not submitting a list of faculty to the PGR. Nonetheless, the basic problem remains (and this may be why so many continental programs have opted out.)

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By Noelle McAfee

I am professor of philosophy at Emory University and editor of the Kettering Review. My latest book, Fear of Breakdown: Politics and Psychoanalysis, explores what is behind the upsurge of virulent nationalism and intransigent politics across the world today. My other writings include Democracy and the Political Unconscious; Habermas, Kristeva, and Citizenship; Julia Kristeva; and numerous articles and book chapters. Edited volumes include Standing with the Public: the Humanities and Democratic Practice and a special issue of the philosophy journal Hypatia on feminist engagements in democratic theory. I am also the author of the entry on feminist political philosophy in the online Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy and well into my next book project on democratic public life.

33 comments

You might be interested in this analysis of the 2009 overall rankings , which I wrote last Spring. I conclude, among other things, that excellence in Continental philosophy (as measured by its ranking) doesn’t contribute to its overall ranking. Though, perhaps, this is due to the problems with the Continental philosophy ranking that you point out.

Thanks. I will take a look at this.

Hi, Noelle. As a graduate of the Duquesne PhD, I would certainly nominate it as one of the top continental programs. The faculty and graduate students are vibrant and diverse, and many figures in the continental tradition are represented in their research, especially Kant and Hegel, Nietzsche, Husserl, Merleau-Ponty, Foucault, Habermas, and Deleuze. The program has just hired Michael Marder, who works on Heidegger, phenomenology, Carl Schmitt. Jessica Wiskus in the music department has published on papers on Merleau-Ponty and music; Bruce Fink in the psychology department is a leading figure on the psychoanalysis of Lacan. Duquesne also houses the Simon Silverman phenomenology center. It’s also a great place to study the history of philosophy. Here’s a link: http://www.duq.edu/philosophy/index.cfm

Thanks for considering endorsement of our program!

-Tom Sparrow

Tom — excellent addition. And of course Duquesne has Fred Evans — whose important new book I am commenting on at SPEP.

Of course! By the way, Leiter today re-posted, with no commentary, his piece on ‘party line continentalists’. It follows a, perhaps helpful, clarification about the Penn State program.

Thank you for sharing man

Americanists, too, have concerns (which I won’t reproduce here). I wonder if you think it would be a step in the right direction for him to put their Ph.D. school and their employment school after their name? Not that that would be the kind of fix you’re arguing is needed, but perhaps it would *at least* move the reader toward making a more informed judgment about the selection criteria at play in the Important List of Approved Continental Programs.

You write: “I have been involved in continental philosophy circles for over many years, but I only recognize four of these philosophers as in any way qualified to assess continental philosophy overall.”

It would be more accurate to say that you’ve been involved in SPEP circles for many years, but SPEP represents a decided minority of philosophers who work on Continental philosophy. And the breathtaking admission that you “only recognize four of these philosophers” who participated in the PGR evaluations as “qualified to assess continental philosophy” would support a reasonable inference that you are not competent to evaluate work in the field, since you’re apparently unfamiliar with many of the best scholars in the field.

On a factual point, evaluators are nominated sometimes by me, but more often by members of the Advisory Board.

The Good Dr. Leiter:

I think all this talk about rankings is a remarkable case of omphaloskeptic nonsense and unhelpful to anyone. Evidence of the navel-gazing is that you have just made the absurd argument that McAfee’s “breathtaking admission” that she only recognizes a few names on the list as proof that she is not competent. In other words: because *you* recognize the names on the list as “best scholars”, they are the “best scholars” and if someone else objects, this is prima facie evidence that they are incompetent to make such a judgment. It couldn’t be possible that it is you who are mistaken about who the “best scholars” are! (What does it even mean to be the best scholar? Is philosophy a popularity contest?)

Yes, this is the clear thinking, rigor and fidelity to argument we look for in Anglo-american philosophy.

Does it help philosophy to continually ghettoize excellent schools, like DePaul Duquesne or Emory, where smart people say intelligent things and publish good books? Even to rank them, as though you could quantify thinking, would be an insult. You do injustice to philosophy itself, you do injustice to those brave souls who dared throw their lives away in this decaying profession because they were rare enough to find thinking a virtue on its own and to commit themselves to thinking for its own sake. By insulting such people you do injustice to the truth. By instituting these rankings you help no-one, and only perpetuate the pettiness and parochialness of this absurd profession, which holds the reputation of one’s institution to be more valuable than the quality of one’s thought. You ought to be ashamed of yourself.

Please, just stop. Apologize to everyone, get rid of your rankings, and go back to the real work of philosophy: thinking and teaching others to do so.

–Anonymous, since I could only respect professional reprisal in the face of such pettiness.

I’m no great fan of rankings, but can we please admit they have uses and values for people who want to choose what to do? The reason I take it worth Noelle’s time to make her criticism is that she recognizes that there are many who need guidance and she recognizes that they are using the Report to get it. I take her critique as constructively motivated. It is, I think, just inevitable that there is personal friction involved in this debate, because we identify so closely with this vocation.

So, I confess: I have directed many students asking about graduate school toward Leiter’s report. Why? There’s not much else out there that competes. Yes, I have given them what caveats I feel are warranted (e.g. about the areas I have some countervailing knowledge), but I have always ended by telling students that whatever the charges of bias there are which stand up, there is simply a lot of data there, too, and that’s a *huge percentage* of what they need.

Rankings won’t go away because they’re too just too useful for decision making. In my view, it’s better not to curse the darkness; if you want to make an argument against rankings, make the argument against the whole enterprise of ranking; if you think that Leiter’s rankings are misdirecting people or misinforming them, write critiques, collect signature, or–better yet–create another set of rankings which will create more choice in the marketplace of rankings. That will take effort, but that’s what competition here entails.

Thank you, anonymous.

Brian Leiter, please substantiate your claim that “SPEP represents a decided minority of philosophers who work on Continental philosophy” in the face of the fact that it is the 2d largest philosophic society in the U.S. (next to the APA). At the moment I am in Montreal at the 49th annual meeting and there are gathered here about 684 philosophers working in this area. As anonymous asks, how on earth do you back up your claims that those you think are best are in fact best? This is the kind of circular thinking that we try to help our undergrad logic students see is so ridiculous.

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There are not 684 philosophers at the SPEP meeting, since as you know as well as I do, large contingents of participants at SPEP events are not philosophers (judging from typical programs, it looks like only 2/3rds are from philosophy departments). SPEP participants (faculty and grad students) come overwhelming from roughly a dozen philosophy departments, notably the ones you deem (surprise, surprise) to be the good places to study the Continental traditions in philosophy. I obviously was not maintaining that my deeming someone a strong scholar makes it so: my judgment is responsive to, not constitutive of, the relevant attributes. (Really, Noelle, did you make such an obvious mistake?) It also isn’t just my judgment, as you also well know. The justification for such a judgment turns on the evaluation of scholarship. Blog comments aren’t a particularly good forum for that, but I’ve done plenty of that work in print over the years.

Iny any case, when you comment on the PGR, try to get the facts right. And please also acknowledge that large numbers of scholars of Continental philosophy have nothing to do with, and want nothing to do with, the SPEP clique.

Brian, are you suggesting that we limit the name “philosophers” to those who teach in philosophy departments as opposed to, say, law schools?

Edit: Just to be clear, I would never want to limit the term “philosopher” to only those in philosophy departments!

Looking back over the SPEP program, I do indeed see faculty from many well known philosophy departments (some with grad programs, others not) including (in the order I find them on the program) the New School, DePaul, Clemson, Emory, Boston College, University of Alberta, Vassar, Penn State, Northwestern, Purdue, Duquesne, UCLA, Buffalo, Loyola Marymount, Stony Brook, Universidad de los Andes, Chicago, U of New South Wales, McGill, Rice, the London School of Economics, USD, U of Kentucky, Case Western, Ohio State, U of Montreal, Rutgers, Seattle U, Texas A&M, Villanova, American U, Miami U, Wisconsin, Toronto, Creighton, Le Moyne, Queen’s, Utrecht, UNC, U of Hong Kong, U of South Florida, U of San Francisco, Guelph, U of Dundee, U of Oregon, Fordham, U of Tokyo, Michigan State, U of Geneva, U of Calgary, Monash U, Williams College, U of Memphis, U of Copenhagen, SIU-Carbondale, Goucher College, Syracuse, Hunter/CUNY, Earlham, oh and so many more but I’m stopping now.

The point is that these meetings are anything but cliquish. If Brian were to come to these meetings he would see first-hand that they are a rich and vibrant intellectual community that the Philosophical Gourmet Report just doesn’t get..

So I hereby challenge Brian Leiter to actually attend a SPEP meeting so that he might have a clue about that of which he is so quick to judge.

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Calling SPEP a clique does not make it so. I recommend persons interested in Continental philosophy who are considering grad school, or emerging, read PGR so that they are aware of both the valuable data Leiter presents along with the biases, pettiness and prejudices they will face when they enter the field.

For anyone who has actually attended a conference, SPEP is anything but a clique. There is a large effort to welcome new members, unlike the APA. Second, all SPEP attendees have a real possibility of meeting and exchanging ideas with some of the most vibrant writers in the field. The conferences are vibrant, diverse and inspiring for anyone who likes to explore a broader range of topics in philosophy.

To be fair to Leiter those on the PGR list are fine philosophers, but not representative of the field as a whole. The fact that so many “mainstream” Continental philosophers are considered authorities while SPEP members are excluded is telling. McAfee’s points are well made and evidence of the “split” that threatens our field as a whole.

Can’t we all just get along? Smaller departments have much to offer and students shouldn’t make major life decisions based on rankings alone. There are many reasons to choose the life of the mind and the myriad possibilities for choosing a school are not represented solely by quantitative measures.

I’m a big fan of the PGR despite is complete failure to account for the kind of philosophy that I’m most interested in. It is a fantastic sociological experiment. We need more PGR’s. Once it gets a little bit of competition Leiter’s own biases as to what counts and what doesn’t count as good continental work will be neutralized.

Someone told me you were discussing SPEP on your website, and I’ve read your exchanges. I went to one SPEP conference, in Eugene, and never had any desire to go back due to the unworldly nature of the discussions. Example: I looked at the conference website for both last year and this year, and could not find a single talk on the current wars in Afghanistan or Iraq; nor could I find one on the current global economic crisis. I found endless talks on the “body”, sex, etc. You’ve said that you had a great time at the conference; it does not seem that this included talking about the problems of real people.

I’m not a Continental philosopher in any sense, but a look over SPEP’s most recent program (available at http://luciddesigns.brinkster.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/SPEP2010ProgramNoAds.pdf ) suggests plenty of talking about the problems of real people: * `Racism and sexual oppression in Anglo-America’ * `In the shadow of Du Bois: Afro-Modern political thought in America’ * `Quelle égalité aujourd’hui? Autour des travaux de Jean-Michel Salanskis’ * `Philosophical tensions: The ghettoization of feminist, race, and queer theory within the Cotinental tradition’ * `Communism without teleology: Marx and Continental philosophy’ * `Reassigning ambiguity: Critical perspectives on intersex’ * `Advocacy session: Continental philosophy as public philosophy’ * `Ethics and ecology in the thought of Elizabeth Gros’ * `Schmitt, the state and the new world order’ * `Eros and pornography in the thought of Judith Butler’ * `Rethinking violence: Foucault on terror and political spirituality’ * `Social justice’ * `Toward a political philosophy of race’

Perhaps some of these titles are somewhat misleading here — perhaps the Schmitt session dealt with some abstract issues in political theory rather than things like the war in Afghanistan, for example. Your criticism would still seem to be off.

In other words, there were no papers on the two wars and current global economic crisis.

This was in a conference that, as I estimate it, involved about 700 papers, totaling about 1400 hours, or 58 days of non-stop talking.

They did have time for the papers on intersex, eros, pornography that you mention, and on the Nazi apologist Schmitt.

Thanks, Cheyney, for visiting my blog. And thanks, Dan, for your reply to Cheyney, which I think is very helpful.

Cheyney, SPEP is clearly not to your taste, and that’s fine. But much of the discussion is not at all “other worldly,” certainly not the issue of intersex, which involves the very real harm (in my opinion) done to babies born with indeterminate genitalia when the doctor decides to “assign” the baby a sex by surgically changing altering the child’s genitals. This isn’t abstract, It’s very real and appalling. So the term “intersex” may sound like some pomo construct, but it’s a very real this-worldly issue taken up at this meeting.

Other sessions, I’m happy to skip, like any that involve Schmitt.

But the public philosophy session is right up my alley and I encourage you to check out the network that is forming around that: http://publicphilosophynetwork.ning.com/

I don’t think that regarding America’s wars and the current economic crisis as matters of great importance is a matter of “taste”. Reducing the issue to one of aesthetic preference strikes me as pomo thinking par excellence.

There is nothing wrong with talking about intersex. There is something unworldly about an organization that talks only about such issues, but has nothing to say about America’s two wars–the longest in our history–and a global economic crisis that is imposing untold economic hardship on much of the world.

By the way, the Radical Philosophy Organization recently devoted its whole meeting to these issues.

one’s different tastes.

To dismiss it as such is to trivialize the issue. Analytic philosophy is constantly criticized for ignoring the important issues;

I do think there is something unworldly about an organization that says nothing about these issues in its hundreds of hours of deliberation.

Cheyney, by “not to your taste” I meant the WAY these issues are talked about not WHAT the issues were. War and social justice are in fact discussed throughout the program– but not in the WAY that you like. For example, you probably wouldn’t like my last book, Democracy and the Political Unconscious, which was the subject of a book session last spring. I’m guessing you wouldn’t like it because it addresses the war on terror using ideas from psychoanalysis and critical theory. Maybe this is too speppy for you? Maybe not to your taste? ( Or maybe I’m wrong?) But if you read it I don’t think you could say for a minute that the book is not about real world issues.

I think you can make your point that SPEP does not address these issues head on as much as the RPA does without having to dismiss SPEP entirely as saying “nothing about these issues.” Cause that’s just not true.

In the recent dialogue there is an underlying assumption that SPEP *must* talk about contemporary moral problems to be a worthwhile enterprise. This kind of utilitarian assumption has good motives, but the way it is being asserted makes me worried.

Groups like SPEP, including those in Analytic and American philosophy and many others as well, are organizations devoted to discussion and debate about philosophical issues–and not all of these issues are “directly” relevant to moral problems. I think that’s fine. We don’t ask all physicists, musicians, poets, art historians, et al. to justify everything they do based on how relevant it is to immediate problems.

In other words, it’s part of being human to discuss the things that interest us just because they interest us. It’s human to “play” with ideas, and it’s not immoral to do so despite the fact that all problems haven’t been solved. Let’s give each other some space, shall we?

I have to say that when I read Cheyney’s first post, I was convinced it was an undergraduate student who checked out SPEP on the suggestion of a philosophy professor, simply out of curiosity or a budding interest in the profession, only to find that philosophy isn’t public policy research (which is not to say that the relation does not exist). This is because the comment was so pointed, so confident, and yet so short on subtlety. It read as a precise attack, rather than an attempt at dialogue. The follow up comments by the author, which insist on the ‘unworldly’ character of SPEP, sound utterly dismissive. The grand irony of this is that they are–if I’m right about the author–a philosopher’s comments!

Noelle and David sufficiently answer the charges by pointing out the obvious distinctions to be drawn between philosophy, politics, and policy, while at the same time suggesting some relevant literature.

I should qualify my comment about the hypothetical undergraduate student: I did not mean to suggest that undergraduates are not subtle thinkers. I was imagining a student attending their first academic conference with a certain impression of what philosophers of the SPEP variety do, but then finding out firsthand that social and political philosophy are not always as ‘concrete’ or ‘relevant’ as one might expect. I had in mind all of those students that attend talks by invited speakers on campus simply to earn extra credit. When a brave student from this lot dares to ask a question, it often very direct and sometimes bears a concern for ‘practical’ issues.

@plasticbodies: I think your comment didn’t impugn undergraduates at all. I took you as identifying–using one typical clue–a kind of “gotcha” comment that criticizes a position for not living up to the specific expectations of a reader. Part of that “gotcha” is a morally righteous tone, often found in undergraduates, but not restricted to them at all. One also finds it in highly educated folks, especially those who come from “top tier” places (which often have quite questionable investments in their portfolios, by the way).

I know Cheyney to be a very committed philosopher with a strong social conscience. And I think he expects the same of me. So I suspect he was surprised I like SPEP so much when he found it to be of little value. So let’s leave it at that. And have a great Thanksgiving, all!

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Jeeze, Brian, you sound like an angry little child.

I maintain a webpage called Philosophy Graduate Schools Friendly to Continental Philosophy ( http://legacy.earlham.edu/~guvenfe/gradsch.htm ). I have worked on what in the US is called “Continental Philosophy” which I find increasingly ridiculous as a label. What Americans call Continental Philosophy is simply philosophy and what is called Analytic Philosophy is equally a useless label. However, It is pretty obvious to me that SPEP is a clique. Just look at the names of the presenters over the years.

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College of Liberal Arts & Social Sciences > Academics > Philosophy > Graduate Program > Philosophy (MA and PhD)

Philosophy (MA/PhD)

Deepen your research and cultivate your teaching.

In the Philosophy PhD program, you’ll gain a foundational understanding of the discipline, grounded in continental European thought, through rigorous coursework and seminars. Through directed research, colloquia and the dissertation, you’ll also develop the expertise necessary to begin your academic career. In addition to your studies within the department, you’ll spend the spring of your second year abroad, engaged in immersive language study.

Whether you enter the program with a BA or an MA, we fund your entire doctoral program and ask you to complete it in six years or fewer. This means six years of complete tuition remission, a $22,000 stipend, a $3,000 supplement (to pay for extra expenses, such as health care), and travel funding to present your work at academic conferences.

Work closely with leading scholars in

• Contemporary continental thought
• German idealism
• Social and political theory
• History of philosophy and ethics
• Feminist philosophy
• Psychoanalytic thought
• Latin American philosophy

The department is committed to your success not only as a scholar but as a teacher. Our teaching practicum, taken over the second and third years of study, guides you in your transition from teaching assistant to teaching fellow to the academic job market, making you a strong candidate for tenure-track positions and postdocs.

There is a limitation of four years between admission to the doctoral program and admission to doctoral candidacy. The time between admission to candidacy and dissertation defense should be between eight months and two years.

Chicago: a city of broad shoulders and broad minds

In addition to its world-renowned museums, libraries, political think tanks and historic neighborhoods, Chicago is home to a vibrant community of scholars. As part of an independent study, attend a lecture or seminar at one of our many neighboring universities. Present your work at local conferences and in our departmental student-organized Frings Colloquium, and take part in events organized around Chicago by groups such as the Ancient Greek and Philosophy Workshop, or by the Chicago-Area Consortium in German Philosophy.

PhD Completion

Upon completion of the required quarter hours, given your track, you must also complete four core courses at the 600-level or higher for admission into PhD candidacy. You’ll need to demonstrate competence in two languages, usually French, German, Spanish, Latin or Greek. PhDs are awarded upon successful defense of your dissertation.

Application Deadline

Applications for Fall 2024 are due January 6, 2024.

Submit an online application, official transcripts, three letters of recommendation, a personal statement, and writing sample. A proof of English proficiency test is required for international students. GRE scores are not required and will not be considered.

Required Courses

Each student, whether entering with a BA or an MA, is required to take 28 courses (112 credit hours) over the course of four years.

of Philosophy graduates were employed, continuing their education or pursuing other goals within six months of graduation.

Learn from published scholars

At DePaul, you’ll learn directly from esteemed philosophers like Sean Kirkland, PhD, associate professor and director of graduate studies for philosophy. Kirkland has had numerous books, book chapters, articles, papers, and essays published. His most recent piece of work is a collection that came out with Northwestern University Press titled A Companion to Ancient Philosophy which is a collection of essays on a broad range of themes and figures spanning the entire period extending from the Pre-Socratics to Plato, Aristotle, and the Hellenistic thinkers.

“I joined the Philosophy program at DePaul because of the top-rated faculty in continental philosophy, the commitment to foreign-language acquisition and the opportunities to study abroad. Through weekly reading groups, I was able to improve my German significantly, which was of great help when I spent a semester abroad at the University of Freiburg in Germany. Later in my time at DePaul I applied for and received a Fulbright research fellowship to go back to Germany. The faculty in the philosophy department at DePaul were incredibly supportive and helpful during the process, no doubt because several of them had done research abroad on Fulbright fellowships as well.”

Ian (PhD ’16)

Philosophy faculty member, st. john’s college, santa fe, nm.

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Graduates of the Philosophy PhD program have gone on to positions at institutions such as Emory University, University of Pennsylvania, University of Memphis, Duquesne University, Whitman College, Luther College, Colby College and University of California, Berkeley. View Philosophy alumni placements and appointments .

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For more information about applying, contact The Office of Graduate Admission at (773) 325-7315 or [email protected] .

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Continental Philosophy

At Emory, “continental philosophy” is as much a set of philosophical orientations as it is an area of study wherein faculty members critically explore and assess figures and traditions that have emerged across Europe’s late 18th, 19th and 20th Centuries, at times in relation to other philosophical periods and traditions, including American philosophy as well as ancient philosophy.

Figures of ongoing concern include Kant, Hegel, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Cassirer, Adorno, Sartre, Merleau-Ponty, Arendt, Foucault, Deleuze, and Kristeva. (Our affiliated faculty also bring expertise in Benjamin, Derrida, Foucault, and Levinas.)

More broadly, faculty also work with traditions such as critical social theory, existentialism, French feminism, German idealism, German romanticism, phenomenology, post-structuralism, and psychoanalysis.

Selected Publications

Jeremy Bell  and Michael Nass, Eds.  Plato’s Animals: Gadflies, Horses, Swans, and Other Philosophical Beasts.  Indiana University Press, 2015.

Dilek Huseyinzadegan . “Between Necessity and Contingency: A Critical Philosophy of History in Adorno & Horkheimer’s  Dialectic of Enlightenment .”  Epoché.  2017.

Noëlle McAfee .  “Kristeva’s Latent Political Philosophy,”  Library of Living Philosophers: Julia Kristeva , Summer 2020.

Noëlle McAfee . “Inner Experience and Worldly Revolt: Arendt’s Bearings on Kristeva’s Project,”  Journal of French and Francophone Philosophy  2014, Vol. 22(2): 26-35.   Noëlle McAfee .  Democracy and the Political Unconscious,  Columbia University Press, 2008.   Andrew J. Mitchell . “Rethinking Thinking: Heidegger in the 1950s.”  Graduate Faculty Philosophy Journal  8: 1. 2017. 115–29.   Andrew J. Mitchell .  The Fourfold: Reading the Late Heidegger . Northwestern University Press, 2015.   John J. Stuhr . "Pragmatism and Difference:  What’s the Use of Calling Deleuze a Pragmatist?”  Deleuze and Pragmatism.  eds. P. Patton, S. Bagnall, and S. Bowden. Routledge, 2014.  

John J. Stuhr,  “Radical Empiricisms:  Deleuze and James,”  Contemporary Pragmatism , forthcoming 2022.

John J. Stuhr,   “Weatherlessness:  Affect, Mood, Temperament, the Death of the Will, and Politics,”   disClosure:  A Journal of Social Theory , vol. 28, 2020.  

George Yancy , "Forms of Spatial and Textual Alienation: The Lived Experience of Philosophy as Occlusion."  Graduate Faculty Philosophy Journal  35:1-2: 2014, 7-22

Rocío Zambrana , “Dialectics as Resistance: Hegel, Adorno, Benjamin,”  Hegel and Resistance , ed. Bart Zantvoort (London: Bloomsbury, 2018).

Rocío Zambrana , “Hegel, History, and Race,”  The   Oxford Handbook of Philosophy and Race , ed. Naomi Zack (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017).

Rocío Zambrana ,  Hegel's Theory of Intelligibility   (The University of Chicago Press, 2015).

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Thinking Worlds: The Moscow Conference on Philosophy, Politics, and Art Paperback – September 15, 2008

Purchase options and add-ons.

• Print length 210 pages
• Language English
• Publisher Sternberg Press / Interros Publishing Program
• Publication date September 15, 2008
• ISBN-10 1933128356
• ISBN-13 978-1933128351
• See all details

Product details

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Sternberg Press / Interros Publishing Program (September 15, 2008)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Paperback ‏ : ‎ 210 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1933128356
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1933128351
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 13.4 ounces

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Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy

University of Warwick

Warwick Philosophy is a world-leading philosophy department. It is particularly well-known for its support for diverse philosophical traditions, including both analytic and continental philosophy. Its research reputation is founded in consistent excellence across a range of philosophical fields, including post-Kantian European philosophy ; philosophy of mind and epistemology; moral, political, and legal philosophy; and aesthetics.

Warwick Philosophy ranked 1 st in the UK for the quality of research (“research outputs”) and 4 th overall in the most recent Research Excellence Framework ( REF 2014 ). Over 90% of the research published by its faculty during the assessment period rated either “internationally excellent” or “world leading”. It ranked 38 th in the world in the 2020 QS World University Ranking for Philosophy. The most recent Philosophical Gourmet Report ranks Warwick Philosophy 1 st in the UK and top-5 internationally in the areas of 19 th and 20 th century continental philosophy.

The Centre for Research in Post-Kantian European Philosophy at Warwick provides a unique forum for discussion and research in 19 th and 20 th century European philosophy, including interdisciplinary research with scholars across the humanities and social sciences. It organises regular seminars, workshops and conferences to promote innovative work in the field of post-Kantian European philosophy and provides a stimulating research environment for MA and PhD students, junior and senior faculty. As a complement to its research programme, the Centre is closely associated with the MA in Continental Philosophy at Warwick.

Full-time faculty include Keith Ansell-Pearson, Sameer Bajaj, Miguel Beistegui, Stephen Butterfill, Lucy Campbell, Quassim Cassam, Andrew Cooper, Diarmuid Costello, Thomas Crowther, Walter Dean, Naomi Eilan, Benjamin Ferguson, Christoph Hoerl, Stephen Houlgate, David James, Eileen John, Guy Longworth, Daniele Lorenzini, Richard Moore, Matthew Nudds, Fabienne Peter, Peter Poellner, Johannes Roessler, Karen Simecek, Tom Sorell, Patrick Tomlin, David Bather Woods. We have several postdoctoral fellows and more than 40 graduate students from many different countries.