Doctoral Placements

Past Dissertations & Placement of Graduates

Graduates of the doctoral program have written dissertations on a wide variety of topics. Almost all students who have received the Ph.D. in recent years have found employment teaching philosophy in a wide variety of settings. Some are working at a major research institution such as University of Pennsylvania, UCLA, University of Wisconsin, and CUNY.  Many are teaching at liberal arts colleges and at regional universities, such as Albion College, Kalazamoo College, Belmont University, Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville, and Loyola Unversity New Orleans. 

Doctorates Awarded

2024

2023

2022

2020

Ayanna De’Vante Spencer
Epistemologies of Criminalization: Tracking Epistemic Oppression in the Lives of Black Girl Survivors
Initial Position: Assistant Professor of Philosophy and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, University of Connecticut

Jared Talley
Radical Co-Laboration Across the Multiple American Wests: Imagining Place-Based Environmental Governance
Initial Position: Instructor, Boise State University
Current Position: Assistant Professor, Dept. of Environmental Studies, Boise State University

2019

Eric Berling
The Evolution of Morality: Toward an Interdisciplinary Explanation 
Initial Position: Postdoctoral fellow on The Scientific Virtues Project
Michigan State University
Current Position: STEAM Educator, East Lansing Public Library, East Lansing, MI

Julia Gibson
Climate Justice for the Dead and the Dying: Weaving Ethics of Palliation and Remembrance from Story and Practice
Initial Position: Queens University (in Canada)
Post-Doctoral Fellowship in Animal Studies

Youjin Kong
Reconceptualizing Women for Intersectional Feminism
Initial Position: University of Georgia, Assistant Professor
Current Position: Assistant Professor, tenured, Seoul National University

Monica List
The Role of Evidence in Animal Welfare Science and Standards: An Ethical Analysis
Initial Position: World Animal Protection (international non-profit), Global Farm Advisor
Current Position: Head of Research and Animal Welfare for Farming at World Animal Protection (an NGO); Assistant Professor, Center for Bioethics and Social Justice, Michigan State University

Shelbi Nahwilet Meissner Téelamal
Every Word in Our Language is a Little Prayer: Weaving Together Indigenous Philosophy of Language
Initial Position: Georgetown University, Assistant Professor, tenure stream
Current Position: Assistant Professor, tenure track, The Harriet Tubman Department of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

Aidan Sprague-Rice
A Critical Analysis of Habermas’ Qualified Defense of Strong Judicial Review
J.D., Michigan State College of Law, 2019
Initial Position: Instructor, Washtenaw Community College
Current Position:  Assistant Prosecutor, Clinton County, Michigan

Michael Brown
Composing Other Ways: Structuralism, Realism, and the Technics of Control and Resistance
Initial Position: Affiliated Faculty, Center for Science, Technology & Society, Drexel University
Current Position: University of Oregon, Instructor

2018

Terry Echterling
Diagramma as Proof and Diagram in Plato
Michigan State University, Instructor

Sophia Pavlos
Erotic Identities and the Politics of Sexualization
Initial Position: Jefferson University, Instructor
Current Position: Instructor, Department of Philosophy, Georg Mason University

Ezgi Sertler
Politics of Epistemic Dependence: An Epistemological Approach to Gender-Based Asylum
Initial Position: Butler University, Assistant Professor, tenure stream
Current Position: Utah Valley University, Assistant Professor, tenure stream

Andrea Walsh
In Search of Non-Identity: Adorno’s Critique of Heidegger
Michigan State University, College of Arts and Letters Managing Community Director of Public Philosophy Journal 

Chet McLeskey
Bioethics and Moral Expertise as a Collective Enterprise
Associate Director of the TDI Center, a new service center current run out of the Center for Interdisciplinarity at Michigan State University

2017

Ike Valentine Iyioke
Re-Conceptualizing Responsibility in Clinical Trials (An Insight with the African Notion of Self)
Initial Position: Alma College, Instructor
Current Position: Research Administrator, Alliance for African Partnerships, Michigan State University 

Dustin Byrd
The Frankfurt School and Religion: Determinate Negation, Translation, and the Rescue of Critical Religious Potentials
Olivet College Associate Professor of Humanities

Mladjo Ivanovic
Holding Hands with Death:  Ethical Promises and Political Failures of our Humanitarian Present
Initial Position: Assistant Professor, Northern Michigan University, tenure stream
Current Position: Associate Professor, Northern Michigan University, tenured 

Craig Merow
A Moral Framework for the Practice of Companion Canine Veterinary Medicine
Initial Position: Instructor, Germantown Academy,
Current Position: Instructor, Temple University

Alex Neitzke
Health Care Capital:  An Account of Health Care Production as a Critique of Health Care Ethics
Adelphi University, Assistant Professor, Tenure Track 

Zachary Piso
Social-Ecological Systems, Values, and the Science of “People Management”
Initial Position: University of Dayton, Department of Philosophy, Assistant Professor, Tenure Track
Current Position: Director of Facilitating Impactful Research at Hanley Sustainability Institute; Director of Rivers Institute; College of Arts and Sciences: Hanley Sustainability Institute, Philosophy, Fitz Center 

John Wallace
Contestation and Discursive Practice:  Issues for Participatory Democracy
Pastor at United Methodist Church in Columbus Ohio 
died: August 2024 (link)

2016 

Mark Balawender
Ethics, Power and the Possibility of Nonviolence
Delta College Instructor, Tenure-Stream

Daniel Beck
Naturalizing Moral Reasoning in Bioethics 

Hannah Giunta
Reconceptualizing the Ethics of Phase I Pediatric Clinical Trials in Oncology
Initial Position: Clinical Clerkship at Sparrow Hospital (completing dual-degree; Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine/Ph.D.)
Current Position: Physician, Pediatrics, Neonatology, Nationwide Children’s Hospitals 

Ali Kashani
The Question of Radical Generosity:  Ethics and Politics of Cosmopolitanism
San Francisco State University, Lecturer 

Jason Patrick Mask
Plato’s Confrontation with Parmenides
Michigan State University, Instructor 

Esme Murdock
Ecological Reconciliation:  Bridging Humanity and Nature for Justice
Initial position:  Morehouse College, Visiting Assistant Professor
Current position:  San Diego State University, Department of Philosophy Assistant Professor, Tenure Track 

Samantha Noll
Problematic Theories of Animal Minds:  Toward a Metaphysics of Caution
Initial position:  Haverford College, Program in Peace, Justice and Human Rights, Visiting Assistant Professor
Current position:  Associate Professor; Elma Ryan Bornander Honors Chair Professor; Associate Director; Undergraduate Studies Director; School of Politics, Philosophy, and Public Affairs, College of Arts and Sciences 

Steven B. Schoonover
Political Liberalism and Capability Entitlements
Wittenberg University, Visiting Assistant Professor

Meredith Verrochi
Uncooperative Engagement:  An Active Response to Hate Speech
Southwestern Illinois College, Instructor 

Ian Werkheiser
Community Epistemic Capacities for Epistemic Self-Determination in Environmental Justice and Food Sovereignty
Philosophy Department, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, Associate Professor, Tenured 

Lauren Woomer
A Unified Account of Moral Ignorance
Initial position: DePaul University, Instructor
Current position: Volunteer Relations Program Coordinator, Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Chicago 

2015

Matthew (Johnson) Ashman
Resoluteness and the Political:  From Heidegger’s Being and Time to Early Marcuse and Arendt’s Vita Activa
Clarke University, Instructor 

Jennifer Caseldine-Bracht
The Significance of Stories We Tell:  A Feminist Approach to Ethics and Development
Manchester University, Visiting Assistant Professor 

Ivan Guajardo
Imagination Redux:  A Phenomenological Investigation
Virginia Western Community College, Assistant Professor 

Anna Malavisi
Global Development and Its Discontents:  Rethinking the Theory and Practice
Initial Position: Western Connecticut State University, Assistant Professor, Tenure Track
Current Position: Western Connecticut State University, Professor & Chair, Tenured 

Elizabeth Mauritz
Moral Economy:  Claims for the Common Good 

Joseph Stramondo
Disabling Bioethics:  The Case for Disability Moral Psychology and Epistemology for Bioethics
Initial position: Drexel University, College of Nursing and Health Professions, Assistant Teaching Professor
Current position:  San Diego State UniversityAssistant Professor, Tenure Track

2014

Shannon Burns Proctor
Habitual Body and the Possibility of Becoming New:  A Phenomenological Approach to Thinking about Feminist Transformation
Initial Position: LaGuardia Community College, Assistant Professor, Tenure Track
Current Position: LaGuardia Community College, Professor, tenured 

Ari Schick
Lessons for the Future?  Prophecy and Policy in Speculative Bioethics
Initial position:  Yeshiva University, Center for Ethics, Research Scholar
Current position:  Tel Aviv University, Safra Center for Ethics, Post-Doctoral Fellowship 

Danielle Lake
Working With:  Expanding and Integrating the Pragmatic Method for a Wicked World
Grand Valley State University, Assistant Professor, Tenure Track 

Anthony Givhan
The Role of Values in Theory Choice:  Debating Biological Race
University of Michigan-Flint, Lecturer

2013

Ayesha Bhavsar
Respecting Human Dignity:  An Essential Principle of Bioethics?
Initial position:  University of California Los Angeles Health System Ethics Center, Clinical Ethics Fellowship
Current position:  Mount St. Mary’s University, Assistant Professor, Tenure Track

Yuanfang Dai
From Difference to Interference:  The Transcultural Approach as an Alternative to Feminist Multiculturalism
Initial Position: Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan
International Student Advisor/Program Coordinator
Current Position: Assistant Professor, tenure stream, Lyman Briggs College, Department of Writing and Rhetoric, Michigan State University

Karen Meagher
A Virtue Approach to Public Health Ethics
Initial Position: Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues in Washington, D.C.
Philosopher Research Analyst
Current Position; Assistant Professor in Bioethics at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester MN

2012

Michael Reno
Adorno and the Possibility of Practical Reason
Initial position:  Western Kentucky University, Visiting Assistant Professor
Current position:  Senior Lecturer of Philosophy in the Department of Art History, Anthropology, Classics, Philosophy, and Religious Studies, Mary Washington University.

Samuel Williams
From Oppression to Democracy 

2011

John Ouko
Human Rights as Ideology
Albion College

Alison Reiheld
Rightly or for Ill: The Ethics of Remembering and Forgetting                            
Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville, Department of Philosophy
Associate Professor, Tenured

Dominic Sisti
The Concept of Mental Disorder: A Pragmatic Proposal
University of Pennsylvania Senior Fellow, Center for Bioethics; Project Director, The Scattergood Program for the Applied Ethics of Behavioral Health

2009

Noel Boyle 
Physicalism and Qualitative Facts: A Critique of Frank Jackson 
Initial Position: Belmont University, Department of Philosophy
Nashville, Tennesee
Assistant Professor, tenure stream
Current Position: Belmont University, Department of Philosophy
Nashville, Tennesee
Associate Professor, Tenured 

Lisa Campo-Engelstein 
Contraceptive Responsibility: Trust, Gender, and Ideology 
Initial position:  Post-doctorate Fellow, Feinberg  School of Medicine, Northwestern University
Current position: Director of the Institute for Bioethics and Health Humanities, the Chair of the Department of Bioethics and Health Humanities, and the Harris L. Kempner Chair in the Humanities in Medicine Professor at the University of Texas Medical Branch

J. Eric Lambert 
Mutual Recognition and Social Conflict 
initial position:  Visisting Assistant Professor, Department of Philosophy, Kalamazoo College

Kwang-su Mok
Development Ethics as Recognition 
Initial position:  Konkuk University, South Korea
Current position:  Geosang National University (South Korea)
Assistant Professor, Tenure Track

2008

Anna Gotlib 
Identity, Illness and the Normativity of Stories 
Initial position:  Binghamton University (SUNY), Department of Philosophy, Assistant Professor, Tenure Track
Current position:  Brooklyn College (CUNY), Professor of Philosophy
Assistant Professor, Tenure Track 

Jennifer Swindell (Blumenthal-Barby)
Respecting Autonomy in Cases of Ambivalence Regarding End of Life Decisions 
Baylor College of Medicine
Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy
Houston, Texas
Assistant Professor, Tenure Track 

2007

Sonya Charles
The Limits of Autonomy for Feminist Theory
Cleveland State University, Department of Philosophy
Assistant Professor, tenure stream
Current Position: Professor, Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies, Cleveland State University,

Maya Goldenberg 
Advancing an Ethics of Evidence: A Critical Appraisal of Evidence Based Medicine and Feminist Theories of Evidence 
Initial Position: University of Guelph, Department of Philosophy Guelph, Ontario, Canada Assistant Professor, Tenure Track
Current Position: University of Guelph, Department of Philosophy, Guelph, Ontario, Canada
Professor, tenured

Rory Kraft
Virtuous Particularism
York College of Pennsylvania, Department of Philosophy
York, Pennsylvania
Assistant Professor, Tenure Track

Zahra Meghani
Are Medical Theories Objective
University of Rhode Island, Department of Philosophy
Kingston, Rhode Island
Associate Professor, Tenured

2006

Jennifer Benson
Towards a New Radical Feminist Vision: Navigating the Passage From Oppression to Freedom
Washington College, Department of Philosophy
Chestertown, Maryland
Assistant Professor, Tenure Track

Barry DeCoster
Towards a Pragmatic Theory of Medical Explanations of Disease
Initial Position: Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, Albany, New York, Assistant Professor, Tenure Track
Current Position: Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, Albany, New York, Professor, tenured 

2005

Christy Rentmeester
Jaded:  Institutional Oppression and Moral Damage in Healthcare
Initial Position: Creighton University, Center for Health Policy & Ethics
Omaha, Nebraska
Associate Professor, Tenured
Current Position: Adjunct Associate Professor at Loyola University, Chicago

2004

Robert Greenleaf Brice
Wittgenstein’s New Kind of Foundationalism
Initial Position: Loyola University New Orleans
New Orleans, Louisiana
Assistant Professor, Tenure Track
Current Position: Full-Time Lecturer, Philosophy Department, Northern Kentucky University

Kyungsuk Choi
Moral Reasoning and Justification in Medical Ethics
Catholic University
Seoul, Korea
Assistant Professor, Tenure Track

Heather Kendrick (Fieldhouse)
Reconsidering the Status of Animals in Kant’s Ethics
Initial Position: Central Michigan University, Department of Philosophy
Mt. Pleasant, Michigan
Lecturer
Current Position: Professor, Department of Philosophy, Anthropology, and Religion, CMU

Kenneth Parsons
An Alternative Account of Structural Violence
Initial Position: Avila University, Department of Philosophy
Kansas City, Missouri
Current Position: Director, Center for Global Studies & Social Justice, Associate Professor of Philosophy, Avila University

Allison Wolf
Beyond Justice Health Care
Simpson College, Department of Philosophy
Indianola, Iowa
Associate Professor, Tenured

2003

Julie Aultman
Framing the Clinical and Philosophical Dimensions of Mental Disease
Northeast Ohio Medical University
Rootstown, Ohio
Associate Professor, Tenured

Sarah Jones
Meanings, Manners, and Scepticism
Initial Position: Northern Michigan University, Department of Philosophy
Marquette, Michigan
Assistant Professor, Tenure Track
Current Position: Northern Michigan University, Department of Philosophy
Marquette, Michigan
Professor, tenured

Jason Matzke
A Pluralistic Humean Environmental Ethic:  Dealing with the Holistic-Individualistic Problem
Initial Position: University of Mary Washington, Department of Philosophy
Current Position: Professor, Department of Art History, Anthropology, Classics, Philosophy, and Religious Studies, University of Mary Washington