Community & Activities

Graduate Community

Our department supports the study of philosophy in a variety of ways. We regularly host colloquia and guest lectures. Faculty members are readily accessible; our graduate students take independent studies with individual faculty. There are reading groups. Last year students ran reading groups on Adorno/Kierkegaard, Marx’s Capital and Fanon’s Wretched of the Earth.

Annual Reports from the GradDirector

• 2022-23 Graduate Program Annual Report [pdf]
• 2023-24 Graduate Program Annual Report [pdf]
• 2024-25 Graduate Program Annual Report [pdf]

Governance

Our graduate students actively participate in Department governance. Each year they elect two spokespeople who serve on the Department’s Committee of the Whole. In addition, four graduate students serve on the Graduate Committee, one on the Advisory Committee, the Academic Environment Committee, and the Undergraduate Committee.

Conference Participation & Research

Graduate students in our department are active researchers and regularly participate in national and international conferences and workshops. 

For example, in 2023-24 Travel Funding Awards have been given to Jonah Branding (York University Graduate Conference on Animal Minds, an interdisciplinary conference on cognitive science and philosophy of mind, Toronto/Canada), Gabi Bussell (The International Summer School in Critical Theory 2024: Social Critique and Economics, Berlin/Germany), Reese Haller (Philosophy of the Black Experience Conference, Washington D.C.), Jonathan Hollingsworth and Ashley Krieger (Critical Theory Conference, Rome/Italy), Matt Kelley and Emily LaRosa (American  Philosophical  Association (APA) Pacific Conference, Portland), Jessica Martínez-Cruz (Tepoztlán Institute for Transnational History of the Americas, Morelos/México and Critical Genealogies  Workshop, Syracuse), Taylor Mills (Ambientalismos Interseccionales/Intersectional Environmentalisms, Puerto Rico), Qingxuan Pan (Philosophy Graduate Conference, Boston), and Gregory Rogel (7th Public Philosophy Network Conference, Santa Cruz). In addition, Blake Ginsburg will take a Trauma and Self- Care Trauma Certificate Course. In 2024-25 Travel Funding Awards have been given to Jonah Branding (Bourdeaux Summer School, Philosophy in Biology and Medicine), Gabi Bussell (North American Society for Social Philosophy, University of Texas at El Paso), Sean Cleary, Ashley Krieger and Scott Peyton, Jonathan Hollingsworth and Ashley Krieger (International Society for Environment Ethics , Conference in Missoula, Montana), Reese Haller (Biennial Conference of the Radical Philosophy Association, Salt Lake City, Utah), Emily LaRosa (Agriculture, Food and Human Values Society Conference, Oregon State University in Corvallis, OR,), Delphine Michaud (Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy (SPEP), Rochester NY), Qingxuan Pan (Conference of the European Society for Philosophy of Medicine and Health Care, Frankfurt/M, Germany).

Annual Graduate Conference

The graduate community organizes an annual Graduate Conference which features presentations by graduate students and a key note speaker. The 2023 conference attracted more than 60 submissions. The 2025 Conference, with a focus on MalcomX, attracted speakers from around the whole country, including faculty and two key notes. 

Past Conferences