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
Violent memories of silencing: interweaving counter epistemologies and practices from a witness experience
PostDoc, University of Michigan
Gregory Rogel (Director: Michael O’Rourke)
A future with a past: A philosophical investigation of public health
PostDoc, University of Kentucky
Reframing Ethics Education: Why Professional Responsibility Requires Structural Competency
Creating an Engaged Philosophy of Law and Policy that Responds to Issues of Systemic Oppression in the Legal System
2023
Charles Hayes (Director: Matt Ferkany)
The Hopes of Rewilding
Adjunct Professor of Philosophy, University of Montana
2022
Ben Kenofer
Revisioning Care Ethics as a Critical Framework: Insights into Paternalism, Power, and Relationality
Dean’s Postdoctoral Scholar in the Department of Philosophy at Florida State University
Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies, Hamilton College
2020
Ayanna De’Vante Spencer
Epistemologies of Criminalization: Tracking Epistemic Oppression in the Lives of Black Girl Survivors
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
Instructor, Boise State University
2019
Eric Berling
The Evolution of Morality: Toward an Interdisciplinary Explanation
Postdoctoral fellow on The Scientific Virtues Project
Michigan State University
Julia Gibson
Climate Justice for the Dead and the Dying: Weaving Ethics of Palliation and Remembrance from Story and Practice
Queens University (in Canada)
Post-Doctoral Fellowship in Animal Studies
Youjin Kong
Reconceptualizing Women for Intersectional Feminism
University of Georgia, Assistant Professor
Monica List
The Role of Evidence in Animal Welfare Science and Standards: An Ethical Analysis
World Animal Protection (international non-profit)
Global Farm Advisor
Shelbi Nahwilet Meissner Téelamal
Every Word in Our Language is a Little Prayer: Weaving Together Indigenous Philosophy of Language
Georgetown University, Assistant Professor, tenure stream
Aidan Sprague-Rice
A Critical Analysis of Habermas’ Qualified Defense of Strong Judicial Review
J.D. Student, Michigan State College of Law
Michael Brown
Composing Other Ways: Structuralism, Realism, and the Technics of Control and Resistance
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
Jefferson University, Instructor
Ezgi Sertler
Politics of Epistemic Dependence: An Epistemological Approach to Gender-Based Asylum
Butler 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
Craig Merow
A Moral Framework for the Practice of Companion Canine Veterinary Medicine
Instructor at Germantown Academy, Fall 2017
Instructor at Temple University, Spring 2018
2016-2017
Ike Valentine Iyioke
Re-Conceptualizing Responsibility in Clinical Trials (An Insight with the African Notion of Self)
Alma College, Instructor
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
Assistant Professor, Northern Michigan University
Craig Merow
A Moral Framework for the Practice of Companion Canine Veterinary Medicine
Instructor at Germantown Academy, Fall 2017
Instructor at Temple University, Spring 2018
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”
University of Dayton, Department of Philosophy, Assistant Professor, Tenure Track
John Wallace
Contestation and Discursive Practice: Issues for Participatory Democracy
Pastor at United Methodist Church in Columbus Ohio
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
Clinical Clerkship at Sparrow Hospital (completing dual-degree; Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine/Ph.D.)
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: Washington State University, School of Politics, Philosophy, and Public Affairs Assistant Professor, Tenure Track
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, Assistant Professor, Tenure Track
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
Western Connecticut State University, Assistant Professor, Tenure Track
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
2013-14
Shannon Burns Proctor
Habitual Body and the Possibility of Becoming New: A Phenomenological Approach to Thinking about Feminist Transformation
LaGuardia Community College, Assistant Professor, Tenure Track
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
Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan
International Student Advisor/Program Coordinator
Karen Meagher
A Virtue Approach to Public Health Ethics
Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues in Washington, D.C.
Philosopher Research Analyst
2012
Michael Reno
Adorno and the Possibility of Practical Reason
Initial position: Western Kentucky University, Visiting Assistant Professor
Current position: Mary Washington University, Visiting Assistant Professor
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
Belmont University, Department of Philosophy
Nashville, Tennesee
Assistant Professor, Tenured
Lisa Campo-Engelstein
Contraceptive Responsibility: Trust, Gender, and Ideology
Initial position: Post-doctorate Fellow, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University
Current position: Albany Medical College, Alden March Bioethics Institute
Assistant Professor, Tenure Track
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
Associate Professor, Tenured
Maya Goldenberg
Advancing an Ethics of Evidence: A Critical Appraisal of Evidence Based Medicine and Feminist Theories of Evidence
University of Guelph, Department of Philosophy
Guelph, Ontario, Canada
Assistant Professor, Tenure Track
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
Albany College of Pharmacy and Health SciencesAlbany, New YorkAssistant Professor, Tenure Track
2005
Christy Rentmeester
Jaded: Institutional Oppression and Moral Damage in Healthcare
Creighton University, Center for Health Policy & Ethics
Omaha, Nebraska
Associate Professor, Tenured
2003-04
Robert Brice
Wittgenstein’s New Kind of Foundationalism
Loyola University New Orleans
New Orleans, Louisiana
Assistant Professor, Tenure Track
Kyungsuk Choi
Moral Reasoning and Justification in Medical Ethics
Catholic University
Seoul, Korea
Assistant Professor, Tenure Track
Heather Fieldhouse
Reconsidering the Status of Animals in Kant’s Ethics
Central Michigan University, Department of Philosophy
Mt. Pleasant, Michigan
Lecturer
Kenneth Parsons
An Alternative Account of Structural Violence
Avila University, Department of Philosophy
Kansas City, Missouri
Associate Proferssor, Tenured
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
Northern Michigan University, Department of Philosophy
Marquette, Michigan
Assistant Professor, Tenure Track
Jason Matzke
A Pluralistic Humean Environmental Ethic: Dealing with the Holistic-Individualistic Problem
University of Mary Washington, Department of Philosophy
Fredericksburg, Virginia
Associate Professor, Tenured