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Placement Record

Placement of MA graduates

The table below gives for each year from 2013 to 2024 the number of MA degrees conferred that year, the number of those students seeking placement in a philosophy PhD program, and information on programs to which they were successfully admitted (with funding). Each program listed admitted just one of our graduates that year unless a number in parenthesis indicates multiple admissions.

 

Year # of MA degrees # seeking PhD Placement Placement information
2013 4 2 University of California – Santa Cruz, University of Massachussetts – Amherst
2014 3 3 Johns Hopkins University, University of Miami, Arizona State University
2015 4 4 University of California – Davis (2), University of Missouri – Columbia, Arizona State University
2016 4 2
2017 5 2 University of Texas – Austin, University of South Florida
2018 3 1 Florida State University
2019 5 4 University of Kent, University of Nebraska – Lincoln, University of Florida (2)
2020 0 0
2021 2 1 University of Florida
2022 2 2 York University
2023 0 0
2024 2 2 University of Texas – Austin, University of Florida

PhD Degrees, Theses and Placement

The information below gives for each year going back to 2000 the year of the PhD, the title of the dissertation, the dissertation director, and the most recent information available regarding an academic position or academic-adjacent position.*

Year Name and Dissertation Supervisor Placement information
2024 James Wetzel, The Platonic Inheritance of Aquinas’ Doctrine of Creation John Palmer Adjunct Lecturer, University of Florida
2024 Shadi Heidarifar, The Conflation Of Epistemic And Moral Virtues: An Avicennan Response Jaime Ahlberg & Amber Ross Assistant Professor in Bioethics, Roseman University of Health Sciences (Nevada)
2023 Chris Becker, The Value of Work Jaime Ahlberg
2023 James Gillespie, An Agent-Centered Theory of Epistemic Rationality John Biro Education Specialist, University of Florida Graduate School
2023 Rusong Huang, Mental Anti-Representationalism: The Prospects for a Noncognitivist Account of Psychological Discourse Gene Witmer Adjunct Lecturer, University of Florida
2023 Mihana Mitchell, Social Suffering: A Moral Concept Jaime Ahlberg Adjunct Lecturer, University of North Florida
2023 David Ortiz, Pleasure, Perception, and Natural Harmony in Plato and Epicurus John Palmer Language Arts Teacher, East Hill Christian School (Pensacola, Florida)
2023 James Simpson, A Defense of Fallibilism John Biro Adjunct Lecturer, University of Florida
2017 Ron Claypool, Locke on Ideas Stewart Duncan Assistant Professor, Santa Fe College
2017 Andreas Falke, Excluding Thoroughly: Theories of Causation and Their Impact on the Exclusion Problem Gene Witmer Head of Marketing at Dialog Ticket Translation Agency
2014 Edward Perez, On the Ontological Status of Propositions: Why Linguistic Logical Form Cannot Ground Propositional Structure Michael Jubien & Greg Ray Lecturer, Coastal Carolina University
2012 Kirk Walker, We Do Not Have Free Will: A Critique of Libertarianism Robert D’Amico Adjunct Professor at Florida Southwestern State College
2012 Eugenio Zaldivar, Substance and the Substance of Minds in Descartes and Locke Stewart Duncan Associate Professor, Santa Fe College
2011 Shawn Burtoft, Cognitive Significance and Coextensionality John Biro
2011 Carlos Bernal Pulido, Living Together Within a Legal Practice: a Theory of Law As Collective Intentional Activity Kirk Ludwig Associate Professor, Centre for Agency, Values and Ethics at Macquarie University
2011 Casey Woodling, Intentionality and Self-Knowledge John Biro Assistant Dean of Academic Outreach and Continuing Education and Senior Lecturer, Coastal Carolina University
2011 Ana Andrei, The Nature and Significance of the Explanatory Gap Kirk Ludwig
2010 Joy Hayes, Liberalism, Communitarianism, and Self-Determination Marina Oshana Vice President of Ethics & Compliance at Activism Blizzard
2009 Ching-E Ang, Homosexual Poets and Successful Gangsters: An Examination of Aristotelian Naturalism, and the Skeptical Worries Confronting It David Copp Senior Lecturer, Idaho State University
2009 Jesse Butler, Clearing a Path for Conventionalist Modal Semantics Kirk Ludwig
2009 Ivana Simic, Intuitive A Priori Knowledge: Reliability and Rationality Kirk Ludwig Assistant Director, UF Internal Review Boards
2009 Elisabeth Shortsleeve, A Study of Belief Kirk Ludwig & Gene Witmer Visiting Assistant Professor, College of William & Mary
2009 David Tostenson, The Connection Principle: An Exegesis and Defense John Biro Associate Professor, Fort Hays State University
2008 Bill Butchard, Grounding Explanations: The Role of ‘In Virtue of’ in Philosophical Inquiry Gene Witmer Visiting Assistant Professor: University of Central Florida
2008 Catherine Campbell, Identity, Persons, and Political Theory: A Defense of John Rawls David Copp Assistant Professor, Family Youth & Community Sciences at the University of Florida
2007 Emil Badici, The Inexpressibility of Truth Greg Ray Associate Professor, Texas A&M at Kingsville
2007 Shin Sakuragi, On Propositional Memory Kirk Ludwig Assistant Professor, Shibaura Institute of Technology
2006 Anton Tupa, Development and Defense of a Desire-Satisfaction Conception of Well-Being David Copp Visiting Assistant Professor, Saginaw Valley State University
2005 Huiming Ren, Self-Knowledge and Narrow Content Kirk Ludwig Professor,  Shandong University
2005 Peter Barry, Wanting the Bad and Doing Bad Things: An Essay in Moral Psychology David Copp Professor, Saginaw Valley State University
2005 Kathryn Lammens, Defense of Conceptual Analysis and Thought Experiments Kirk Ludwig & Gene Witmer Visiting Assistant Professor, James Madison University
2004 Ellen Maccarone, Impartiality: Its Nature and Application Robert Baum Associate Professor, Gonzaga University
2003 Matthew Hallgarth, Bernard Gert’s Theory of Moral Rules and American Professional Military Ethics Robert Baum Associate Professor, Tarleton State University
2003 Daniel Boisvert, Expressive-Assertivism: A Dual-Use Solution to the Moral Problem Kirk Ludwig Senior Lecturer, University of North Carolina – Charlotte
2002 Carlos Garcia-Duque, Four Central Issues in Popper’s Theory of Science Chuang Liu Professor, Universidad de Caldas and Universidad de Manizales
2001 Eva Kort, Substance, Sorts, and Consciousness : Locke’s Empiricism and his Account of Personal Identity in An Essay Concerning Human Understanding Kirk Ludwig Lecturer, Coastal Carolina University
2000 John Peoples, A New Theory of Counterfactual Conditionals Kirk Ludwig & Greg Ray Lecturer, Open University

*The economic recession prompted the university in 2008 to suspend admissions to a number of doctoral degree programs, including that in philosophy. Admissions to the philosophy doctoral program were reopened in 2018. This accounts for the lack of PhDs produced during much of the 2010s.