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College of Liberal Arts and Sciences University of Florida

Placement Record

Placement of MA Graduates

The table below gives, for each year from 2013 to 2025, 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 PlacementPlacement Information
202521University of Florida
202422University of Texas – Austin, University of Florida
202300
202222York University
202121University of Florida
202000
201954University of Kent, University of Nebraska – Lincoln, University of Florida (2)
201831Florida State University
201752University of Texas – Austin, University of South Florida
201642
201544University of California – Davis (2), University of Missouri – Columbia, Arizona State University
201433Johns Hopkins University, University of Miami, Arizona State University
201342University of California – Santa Cruz, University of Massachussetts – Amherst

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 most recent information available regarding an academic position or academic-adjacent position, and the dissertation director.*

YearName and DissertationPlacement InformationSupervisor
2025Julianna Costanzo, How Do Computing Technologies Impact Justice?: A Democratic Egalitarian PerspectiveInstructor, University of West FloridaJaime Ahlberg
2024Thomas Schuyler Sturm, Just Predictive Machine Learning: Accounts of Sufficiently Good Data, Dual-Threshold Satisficing, and Algorithmic TransparencyAdjunct Lecturer, University of FloridaDuncan Purves
2024James Wetzel, The Platonic Inheritance of Aquinas’ Doctrine of CreationVisiting Assistant Professor, University of North FloridaJohn Palmer
2024Shadi Heidarifar, The Conflation Of Epistemic And Moral Virtues: An Avicennan ResponseAssistant Professor in Bioethics, Roseman University of Health Sciences (Nevada)Jaime Ahlberg & Amber Ross

2023Chris Becker, The Value of WorkJaime Ahlberg
2023James Gillespie, An Agent-Centered Theory of Epistemic RationalityEducation Specialist, University of Florida Graduate SchoolJohn Biro
2023Rusong Huang, Mental Anti-Representationalism: The Prospects for a Noncognitivist Account of Psychological DiscourseAdjunct Lecturer, University of FloridaGene Witmer
2023Mihana Mitchell, Social Suffering: A Moral ConceptAdjunct Lecturer, University of North FloridaJaime Ahlberg
2023David Ortiz, Pleasure, Perception, and Natural Harmony in Plato and EpicurusLanguage Arts Teacher, East Hill Christian School (Pensacola, Florida)John Palmer
2023James Simpson, A Defense of FallibilismAdjunct Lecturer, University of FloridaJohn Biro
2017Ron Claypool, Locke on IdeasAssistant Professor, Santa Fe CollegeStewart Duncan
2017Andreas Falke, Excluding Thoroughly: Theories of Causation and Their Impact on the Exclusion ProblemHead of Marketing at Dialog Ticket Translation AgencyGene Witmer
2014Edward Perez, On the Ontological Status of Propositions: Why Linguistic Logical Form Cannot Ground Propositional StructureLecturer, Coastal Carolina UniversityMichael Jubien & Greg Ray
2012Kirk Walker, We Do Not Have Free Will: A Critique of LibertarianismAdjunct Professor at Florida Southwestern State CollegeRobert D’Amico
2012Eugenio Zaldivar, Substance and the Substance of Minds in Descartes and LockeAssociate Professor, Santa Fe CollegeStewart Duncan
2011Shawn Burtoft, Cognitive Significance and CoextensionalityJohn Biro
2011Carlos Bernal Pulido, Living Together Within a Legal Practice: a Theory of Law As Collective Intentional ActivityAssociate Professor, Centre for Agency, Values and Ethics at Macquarie UniversityKirk Ludwig
2011Casey Woodling, Intentionality and Self-KnowledgeAssistant Dean of Academic Outreach and Continuing Education and Senior Lecturer, Coastal Carolina UniversityJohn Biro
2011Ana Andrei, The Nature and Significance of the Explanatory GapKirk Ludwig
2010

Joy Hayes, Liberalism, Communitarianism, and Self-DeterminationVice President of Ethics & Compliance at Activism BlizzardMarina Oshana
2009Ching-E Ang, Homosexual Poets and Successful Gangsters: An Examination of Aristotelian Naturalism, and the Skeptical Worries Confronting ItSenior Lecturer, Idaho State UniversityDavid Copp
2009Jesse Butler, Clearing a Path for Conventionalist Modal SemanticsKirk Ludwig
2009Ivana Simic, Intuitive A Priori Knowledge: Reliability and RationalityAssistant Director, UF Internal Review BoardsKirk Ludwig
2009Elisabeth Shortsleeve, A Study of BeliefVisiting Assistant Professor, College of William & MaryKirk Ludwig & Gene Witmer
2009David Tostenson, The Connection Principle: An Exegesis and DefenseAssociate Professor, Fort Hays State UniversityJohn Biro
2008Bill Butchard, Grounding Explanations: The Role of ‘In Virtue of’ in Philosophical InquiryVisiting Assistant Professor: University of Central FloridaGene Witmer
2008Catherine Campbell, Identity, Persons, and Political Theory: A Defense of John RawlsAssistant Professor, Family Youth & Community Sciences at the University of FloridaDavid Copp
2007Emil Badici, The Inexpressibility of TruthAssociate Professor, Texas A&M at KingsvilleGreg Ray
2007Shin Sakuragi, On Propositional MemoryAssistant Professor, Shibaura Institute of TechnologyKirk Ludwig
2006Anton Tupa, Development and Defense of a Desire-Satisfaction Conception of Well-BeingVisiting Assistant Professor, Saginaw Valley State UniversityDavid Copp
2005Huiming Ren, Self-Knowledge and Narrow ContentProfessor,  Shandong UniversityKirk Ludwig
2005Peter Barry, Wanting the Bad and Doing Bad Things: An Essay in Moral PsychologyProfessor, Saginaw Valley State UniversityDavid Copp
2005Kathryn Lammens, Defense of Conceptual Analysis and Thought ExperimentsVisiting Assistant Professor, James Madison UniversityKirk Ludwig & Gene Witmer
2004Ellen Maccarone, Impartiality: Its Nature and ApplicationAssociate Professor, Gonzaga UniversityRobert Baum
2003Matthew Hallgarth, Bernard Gert’s Theory of Moral Rules and American Professional Military EthicsAssociate Professor, Tarleton State UniversityRobert Baum
2003Daniel Boisvert, Expressive-Assertivism: A Dual-Use Solution to the Moral ProblemSenior Lecturer, University of North Carolina – CharlotteKirk Ludwig
2002Carlos Garcia-Duque, Four Central Issues in Popper’s Theory of ScienceProfessor, Universidad de Caldas and Universidad de ManizalesChuang Liu
2001Eva Kort, Substance, Sorts, and Consciousness : Locke’s Empiricism and his Account of Personal Identity in An Essay Concerning Human UnderstandingLecturer, Coastal Carolina UniversityKirk Ludwig
2000John Peoples, A New Theory of Counterfactual ConditionalsLecturer, Open UniversityKirk Ludwig & Greg Ray

*In 2008, the economic recession prompted the university 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.

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