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. After working through the first volume of Marx’s Capital, students run currently three reading groups focusing on Adorno and Kierkegaard, Fanon’s Wretched of the Earth, and Lenin’s Notebooks.

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. Travel Awards have been given to our current graduate students, including: 

Gregory Rogel: Participating in the Public Philosophy Network Field Philosophy Summer Workshop and the Interdisciplinary Association for Population Health Science. 

Taylor Mills: Participating in the Michigan Tribal State Federal Judicial Forum and the Law&Society Association.

Matt Kelley: Had a paper accepted at SPEP and the Critical Genealogies Workshop.

Jonathan Hollingsworth: Presented a paper at SPEP and the Critical Theory Conference in Rome. 

Chase Halsne: Presented at SPEP and the APA Pacific. 

Jessica Martínez-Cruz: Did research at the Rockefeller Archive Center in New York.

Gabi Bussell: Presented at the North American Society for Social Philosophy.

Jonah Branding: Visited the Vienna Circle Institute.

Kahlia Roberts: Presented a paper at the Annual Conference of the Graduate History Association.

Annual Graduate Conference

The grad 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.

Here is the 2024 Graduate Philosophy Conference Call for Papers [pdf]

Keynote: Stephen Ferguson II, Associate Professor of Philosophy, Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies, North Carolina State University, Author of The Paralysis of Analysis in African American Studies: Corporate Capitalism and Black Popular Culture.

Past Conferences