Department of Philosophy

Recent Ph.D.s and Placement Record

Recent Ph.D.s and Placement Record

Our department offers a full range of placement services and support to our students. The departmental Placement Director organizes a placement workshop that meets during the spring and fall quarters for students finishing, or near finishing, their degrees. The Placement Director also advises students on preparing their CVs and assembling their dossiers and arranges practice interviews for students attending the divisional meetings of the APA.

Listed below is placement information for recent graduates of our program. Students are listed by the year in which they received their current positions. Dissertation topics and faculty advisors follow.

2023

  • Marie Evanston (PhD 2023)
    Perpetual Openness: A View of Governing the Self  (Andrews Reath)
    Current Position: Current Position: Visiting Assistant Professor, Santa Clara University (2023-34)

  • Rotem Hermann (PhD expected, Summer 2023)
    Body and Memory:  An Inquiry into Skill (Eric Schwitzgebel)
    Current Position: Visiting Assistant Professor, Macalester College (2023-25)

  • Victor Guerra (PhD 2023)
    Collective Responsibility for Oppression: Making Sense of State Apologies and Other Practices (Myisha Cherry)
    Current Position: Lecturer, California State University, Bakersfield

2022

  • Jeremy Pober (PhD 2022)
    Reduce Them All: A General Theory of Psychophysical Reduction (Eric Schwitzgebel)
    Current Position: Postdoctoral Fellow, Centre for Philosophical Psychology, University of Antwerp (2022-23)

  • Deborah Nelson (PhD 2022)
    "How Relative Economic Advantage Affects Agential Reasoning" (Eric Schwitzgebel)
    Current position: Instructional Designer, EXCITE, University of California, Riverside (2022-)

  • Tom Hanauer-Rehavia (PhD 2022)
    The Demandingness of Morality: A Nietzschean Approach (Maudemarie Clark and Andrews Reath)
    Current Position: Assistant Professor (tenure-track), Tel Aviv University (2022-)
    thana003@ucr.edu

  • Jared Smith (PhD 2022)
    The Moral Psychology of Obsessive-compulsive Disorder (Agnieszka Jaworska)
    Current Position: Post-doctoral Fellowship, Baylor’s Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy (2022-23)
    jsmit055@ucr.edu

  • Rebecca Harrison (PhD expected Spring 2023)
    Merleau-Ponty’s Realism (Eric Schwitzgebel & Mark Wrathall)
    Current position: Visiting Assistant Professor, Vassar College (2022-23)
    Previous positions: Visiting Assistant Professor, Franklin & Marshall College (2021-22); Adjunct Lecturer, Cal. State University-Long Beach (Fall 2018), University of Redlands, 2019-20
    rebecca.harrison@email.ucr.edu
    https://fandm.academia.edu/RebeccaHarrison/CurriculumVitae

2021
  • David Shope (PhD 2021)

    Autism, Allocentrism and the Moral Significance of Manners (Agnieszka Jaworska) 
    Current position: NIH Bioethics Post-doctoral Fellowship, Bethesda MD (2021-23)
    david.shope@email.ucr.edu

2020
  • Andrew Law (PhD 2020)

    Freedom and Explanation: A Defense of the Fixity of the Independent (Michael Nelson)
    Current position:  Post-doctoral fellowship, Leibniz University-Hannover (2022-25, renewable)
    Previous Position: Lecturer, Western Washington University, Winter 2022; University of Southern California, UCR (2020-21)
    https://andrewlaw91.wixsite.com/website
    alaw003@ucr.edu

  • Chris McVey  (PhD 2020)
    The Moral Importance of Narrative: A Philosophical Analysis of Narrative Transport (Eric Schwitzgebel)
    Currently moving to non-academic career.
    Chris.mcvey@gmail.com

  • Avery Snelson  (PhD 2020)
    An Animal That is Permitted to Promise:  Nietzsche’s Way of Naturalizing Responsibility (Maudemarie Clark)
    Current Position: Lecturer, Seattle University (2021-24)
    Previous position: Lecturer, UCR (2020-21)
    averysnelson@gmail.com
    https://philpeople.org/profiles/avery-snelson

2019
  • Heinrik Hellwig (PhD 2019)

    Consolidating Causation: Groundwork for a Pragmatic Approach to Causation in the Law. (Carl Cranor)
    Current Position: Visiting Assistant Professor, Seton Hall University (2022-23. Position renewable.)
    Previous position: Visiting Assistant Professor, University of Alabama- Birmingham (2020-22)
    philosophher@gmail.com

2018
  • Zachary Bachman (PhD 2018)
    Shared Agency in the Kingdom of Ends: Toward a Social Constitutivism (Peter Graham)
    Current position: Visiting Assistant Professor, Sam Houston State University, Huntsville TX (2018-)
    zcb006@shsu.edu
    https://sites.google.com/view/zacharybachman/home
     
  • David Beglin (PhD 2018)
    Taking Each Other Seriously: Towards a Morally Responsible Agency (Agnieszka Jaworska and Coleen Macnamara)
    Currently: enrolled in the J.D. Program at Berkeley Law School.
    Previous position: UCLA, Law and Philosophy Postdoctoral Fellow (2018-20)
     
  • Taylor Cyr (PhD (2018)
    Semicompatibilist Options: Essays in Defense of an Actual-Sequence Approach to Freedom and Responsibility  (John Fischer)
    Current position: Assistant Professor, Stamford University, Birmingham AL (2019- )
    Previous position: Lecturer, the Department of Philosophy at Washington University, St. Louis (2018- 2019)
    tcyr@samford.edu
    https://taylorwcyr.com/
     
  • Mark Johnston (PhD 2018)
    What Bestiality of Thought: A Nietzschean Critique of Guilt, Punishment and the Economics of Suffering (Maude Clark and John Fischer)
    Current Position: UCLA, Lecturer (on-going), Departments of Philosophy and Religion (2018- )
     
  • Patrick London (PhD 2018)
    Authenticity and Agency: Heidegger’s Constitutivism (Mark Wrathall)
    Current Position: Lecturer, University Writing Program and Department of Philosophy, University of California, Riverside (2018-23)
2017
  • Jozef Cressotti (PhD – 2017)
    Reading Kant’s Third Critique: What the Beautiful Can Teach Us about Judgment (Pierre Keller)
    Current Position:  Faculty member (Classics and Religion), St. Sebastian’s School, Needham MA
     
  • Kevin Gin (PhD – 2017)
    Agent Relative Knowledge in Heidegger [Mark Wrathall]
    Current position: Software Engineer, Google (2019- )
    Previous position: Knowledge Engineer, Amazon (2017-19)
    https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevinagin
     

  • Bach Ho (PhD – 2017)
    A Defense of Egoism (Andrews Reath)
    Current Position: Adjunct Professor, California State University, Fullerton

  • Meredith McFadden (PhD – 2017)
    Reasons as Explanations: A Genuine Alternative to the Guise of the Good Thesis (Michael Nelson & John Fischer)
    Current Position:  Ontology engineer, Cycorp Inc., Austin TX
    Previous Position: University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, Assistant Professor, tenure track; (Fall 2019-21); post-doctoral position, Lawrence University (2017- ).

2016

  • Alan Moore (PhD – 2016)
    The Experience of Reading (Eric Schwitzgebel)
    Current position: Lecturer, San Francisco State University

  • Megan Stotts (PhD – 2016)
    Conventions and Expression Meaning (John Perry & Howard Wettstein)
    Current Position: McMaster University, Assistant Professor, tenure track (2017- )
    Previous Position: Vassar College, Visiting Assistant Professor (2016-17)
    stottsm@mcmaster.ca
    http://meganstotts.com/

2015

  • John Linarelli (PhD – 2015)
    A Philosophical Reconsideration of Aspects of the Global Legal Order: Programmatic Conceptual and Normative Proposals  (Carl Cranor)
    Current position: Chair in Commercial Law at Durham University Law School

  • Courtney Morris (PhD – 2015)
    Kant’s Idea of the Self (Pierre Keller)
    Current position: Associate Professor, US Military Academy (2014- )

  • Justin White (PhD – December 2015)
    Autonomy and Authenticity as Ideals of Moral Agency  (Mark Wrathall)
    Current position: Brigham Young University, Assistant Professor, tenure track (2015- )

  • Monique Wonderly (PhD – June 2015)
    Toward a Theory of Emotional Attachment (Agnieszka Jaworska)
    Current position: University of California, San Diego, Associate Professor (Hired 2017; tenured 2022.)
    Previous position: Princeton University, Center for Human Values, 3 year Post Doctoral Researcher (2015- 17)
    https://moniquewonderly.com/

2014

  • Philip Swensen (PhD – June 2014)
    Ability and Responsibility: Essays on Behalf of Leeway Incompatibilism (John Martin Fischer)
    Current position: College of William and Mary, Associate Professor (Hired as Assistant Professor 2017.)
    Previous position: Rutgers University, Center for the Philosophy of Religion, 2 year Post-Doctoral Researcher (2014- 2016)
    pjswenson@wm.edu
    https://sites.google.com/site/philipjswenson/home

2013
  • Samantha Matherne (PhD –  June 2013)
    Art in Perception: Making Perception Aesthetic Again (Pierre Keller)
    Current position: Harvard University, Assistant Professor, tenure track (2018-)
    Previous positions: University of California, Santa Cruz, Assistant Professor, tenure track (2014-18); University of British Columbia, 3 year Visiting Assistant Professor (2013- 2014), Pomona College, Visiting Assistant Professor (2012-13)
    samanthamatherne@gmail.com
    https://www.samanthamatherne.com/
     
  • Jason Gray (PhD – June 2013)
    Philosophy, Phenomenology, and Neuroscience: The Groundwork for an Interdisciplinary Approach to a Comprehensive Understanding of Addiction [John Martin Fischer]
    Current position: Lecturer, Department of English and Philosophy, Auburn University at Montgomery (2016- )
    Previous position: University of Alabama, Birmingham: Visiting Assistant Professor (2014 -2016)
    jgray004@ucr.edu
     
  • John Ramsey (PhD – June 2013)
    How We Do Bad Things with Words: A Multi-level Model of Oppression [Peter Graham]
    Current position: Northern Colorado University, Assistant Professor, tenure track (2017-)
    Previous positions: Indiana University of Pennsylvania (2016-17); Denison College, Visiting Assistant Professor (2015-16); Scripps College, Visiting Assistant Professor (2014-15); adjunct teaching at UCR, CSU Fullerton and CSU San Bernardino (2012-13, F’13) and Scripps College (S’14)
    joramsey3@hotmail.com
    Personal Website: https://sites.google.com/site/jramseyphil/
     

  • Elizabeth Silverstein (PhD – 2013)
    Deep Deference, Autonomy and the Deferential [Coleen Macnamara]
    Current Position: University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Lecturer, continuing status (hired 2008; promoted to Senior Lecturer 2014).

2012
  • Robert Sanchez
    • Assistant Professor (tenure track) at Mount Saint Mary’s University, Los Angeles, CA
    • Dissertation title: The Virtue of Silence: An Ethical Reading of Socrates, Kierkegaard, and Wittgenstein
    • Dissertation Chair: Erich Reck
  • Benjamin Mitchell-Yellin
    • Sam Houston State University, Huntsville TX, Assistant Professor, tenure track
    • University of California-Riverside, Riverside, CA, 3 years Post Doctoral Researcher
    • Dissertation title: Evaluators, explainers, planners: the importance of basic conceptions of what we are like as agents
    • Dissertation Chair: Andrews Reath
  • Daniel Justin Coates
    • University of Houston, Texas, Assistant Professor, tenure track
    • Dissertation title: Reasons and Responsibility
    • Dissertation Chair: John Martin Fischer
  • Christopher Scott Sevier
    • College of Southern Nevada, Professor, tenured
    • Dissertation title: Thomas Aquinas On the Nature and Experience of Beauty
    • Dissertation Chair: David Glidden
  • Jason Chang
    • Evergreen Valley College, San Jose, CA, Adjunct Instructor
    • Dissertation title: Toward a More Honest Public Reason Liberalism
    • Dissertation Chair: Coleen Macnamara
2011
  • Patrick Todd
    • University of Edinburgh, Scotland, Chancellor’s Fellow, to become tenure track position after three years
    • Dissertation title: The Metaphysics of Moral Responsibility
    • Dissertation Chair: John Martin Fischer
  • Megs Gendreau
    • Cal Poly Pomona, Assistant Professor, tenure track
    • Dissertation title: Modeling Environmental Justice: A Normative Conception for Healthier Communities
    • Dissertation Chair: Carl Cranor
  • Michael Goerger
    • Central Washington University, Assistant Professor, tenure track
    • Dissertation title: Love and Morality: Toward an Ethic of Universal Love
    • Dissertation Chair: David Glidden
2010
  • Chris Franklin
    • Grove City College, Assistant Professor, tenure track
    • Dissertation title: Strawsonian Libertarianism: A Theory of Free Will and Moral Responsibility
    • Dissertation Chair: John Martin Fischer
  • Jacob Affolter
    • University of Kentucky, Lexington, Lecturer
    • Dissertation title: Tolerance as a Moral and Political Virtue
    • Dissertation Chair: Gary Watson
  • Josh Bright
    • University of California, Riverside, CA, Interim Associate Vice Chancellor and Chief Information Officer (AVC/CIO)
    • Dissertation title: Belief and Responsibility: An Essay on Control
    • Dissertation Chair: Peter Graham
  • John McAteer
    • Houston Baptist University, Houston, TX, Assistant Professor, Renewable contract
    • Dissertation title: Moral Beauty and Moral Taste from Shaftesbury to Hume
    • Dissertation Chair: Andrews Reath
  • Garrett Pendergraft
    • Pepperdine University, Malibu, CA, Assistant Professor, tenure track
    • Dissertation title: Fundamentalist Contextualist Compatibilism: A Response to the Consequence Argument
    • Dissertation Chair: John Martin Fischer
  • Elizabeth Hamilton
    • West Virginia University, Accreditation and Planning Officer
    • Dissertation title: Coercion, Responsibility, and Discourse
    • Dissertation Chair: John Martin Fischer
2009
  • Nathan Placencia
    • University of West Virginia: Assistant Professor, tenure track
    • Dissertation title: Am I who I say I am?: A Role Identification account of Identity
    • Dissertation Chair: Georgia Warnke
  • Neil Tognazzini
    • Western Washington University, Assistant Professor, tenure track
    • Dissertation title: The Conceptual Foundations of Moral Responsibility
    • Dissertation Chair: John Martin Fischer
  • Felipe Leon
    • Metropolitan Community College – Penn Valley, Tenure track
    • Dissertation title:  Armchair knowledge and Modal Skepticism: A Rapprochement
    • Dissertation Chair: Peter Graham
  • David Long
    • Bellevue College: Adjunct Professor
    • Dissertation title: Hume and Buddhism: A Comparative Study of Personal Identity, Skepticism, and Moral Sentiments
    • Dissertation Chair: Paul Hoffman (with Justin McDaniel, Department of Religious Studies)
2007
  • Amy MacArthur
    • High Point University, Department of Religion and Philosophy (High Point, NC): Assistant Professor, Tenure track
    • Dissertation title: The Duty of Self-Knowledge in Kant’s Ethics
    • Dissertation Chair: Andrews Reath
  • Nick Baiamonte
    • De Anza College, Cupertino, CA, Instructor, tenure track
    • Dissertation title: Avoiding Evil: Motivation, Reflection, and Character Structure
    • Dissertation Chair: Eric Schwitzgebel
  • Jessica Ludescher
    • Seattle University, Associate Professor of Business Ethics with joint appointments in Management and Philosophy. tenure track
    • Dissertation title: The Logical Compatibility of CSR with Any Theory of the Firm
    • Dissertation Chair: Georgia Warnke
  • Michael Stannard
    • Clovis and Madera Centers of the State Center Community College District (Fresno, CA): Instructor of Philosophy
    • Dissertation title:  Material ends of reason: Kantian Formalism, pure intelligent existence, and the possibility of a deduction of the postulate of freedom
    • Dissertation Chair: Andrews Reath
2006
  • Zack Knorr
    • Los Angeles Valley College: Assistant Professor, tenured
    • Dissertation title: The Moral Problem of Capitalism: What Habermasian Critical Theory Can Tell Us About Recent Developments in the International Anti-Sweatshop Movement
    • Dissertation Chair: Georgia Warnke
  • Rico Vitz
    • University of North Florida (Jacksonville, FL): Assistant Professor, tenure track
    • Dissertation title: Virtuous Belief: Descartes, Hume, and the Proper Method of Belief Formation
    • Dissertation Chair: Paul Hoffman
2005
  • Rodrigo de Castro
    • Tenured Professor at the Federal University of Pernambuco, in Recife, Brazil, since 2015
    • Dissertation title: Direct Reference and Belief Ascriptions: Overcoming the Relational Paradigm
    • Dissertation Chair: Howard Wettstein
  • Chris Yeomans
    • Purdue University: Assistant Professor, tenure track
    • Dissertation title: Hegel’s Logic of Agency: A Transcendental Defense of Free Will
    • Dissertation Chair: Pierre Keller
  • Joshua Rust
    • Stetson University (DeLand, FL): Assistant Professor, tenure track
    • Dissertation title: John Searle’s Ideal Type: Max Weber and the Construction of Social Reality
    • Dissertation Chair: Eric Schwitzgebel
  • Matt Talbert
    • West Virginia University: Assistant Professor, tenure track
    • Dissertation title: Moral Reasons and Personal History: A Normative Competence Account of Moral Responsibility
    • Dissertation Chair: Gary Watson
  • Dillon Emerick
    • Palomar College (San Marcos, CA): Instructor, tenured
    • Dissertation title: Critical Theory, Critical Subjects
    • Dissertation Chair: Georgia Warnke
  • Ted Preston
    • Rio Hondo College (Whittier, CA): Instructor, tenure track
    • Dissertation title: Bridging the Gap between Normative Beliefs and Actions
    • Dissertation Chair: Eric Schwitzgebel
2004
  • Sam Page
    • Concordia College (Bronxville, NY): Assistant Professor (non-tenure track) 2005–2009
    • Dissertation title: Nature’s Joints: Inherent or Imposed?
    • Dissertation Chair: Peter Graham
  • Hugh Marlowe
    • Flagler College (St. Augustine, FL): Assistant Professor, renewable contract
    • Dissertation title: Saving the Agent: An Investigation of Agency, Explanation, and Two-Standpoint Arguments
    • Dissertation Chair: Gary Watson
2003
  • Glen Pettigrove
    • University of Glasgow, Chair of Moral Philosophy (2017- )
    • Dissertation title: Seeking Forgiveness: Studies in Moral and Political Philosophy
    • Dissertation Chair: Georgia Warnke
  • Chris Campolo
    • Hendrix College (Conway, AR): Associate Professor, a four-year initial contract (2002-06), now tenured.
    • Dissertation title: The Reach of Argument
    • Dissertation Chair: Georgia Warnke
2002
  • Daniel Speak
    • Loyola Marymount University (Los Angeles, CA): Assistant Professor, tenure track. (Tenured and became Chair of department 2011)
    • Dissertation title: Moral Responsibility and the Irrelevance of Alternative Possibilities
    • Dissertation Chair: John Martin Fischer
  • Jeremy Wisnewski
    • Hartwick College (Oneonta, NY): Assistant Professor, tenure track
    • Dissertation title: Agency, Normativity, and Theory: Awakening from Anthropological Slumber
    • Dissertation Chair: Bernd Magnus
  • Scott Dixon
    • Minnesota State Technical and Community College (Moorhead, MN): Instructor, tenure track
    • Dissertation title: Hume
    • Dissertation Chair: Paul Hoffman
1998
  • Andrew Eshleman
    • University of Portland, Oregon, taken position as Chair of the department
    • Dissertation Chair: John Martin Fischer
1996
  • Andrew Light
    • University of Washington, Seattle: Associate Professor of Philosophy & Public Affairs
    • Dissertation title: Nature, Class, and the Built World: Philosophical Essays Between Political Ecology and Critical Technology
    • Dissertation Chair: Bernd Magnus