Department of Philosophy

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.

2022
  • Tom Hanauer-Rehavia
    • The Demandingness of Morality: A Nietzschean Approach (Maudemarie Clark and Andrews Reath)
    • Current Position: Assistant Professor (tenure-track), Tel Aviv University (2022-)
  • Rebecca Harrison
    • 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
  • Deborah Nelson
    • Instructional Designer I, XCITE, University of California, Riverside
    • Dissertation title: How Relative Economic Advantage Affects Agential Reasoning
    • Dissertation Chair: Eric Schwitzgebel
  • Jeremy Pober
    • Reduce Them All: A General Theory of Psychophysical Reduction (Eric Schwitzgebel)
    • Current Position: Postdoctoral Fellow, Centre for Philosophical Psychology, University of Antwerp (2022-23)
  • Jared Smith
    • 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)
2021
  • David Shope
    • Autism, Allocentrism and the Moral Significance of Manners (Agnieszka Jaworska)
    • Current position: NIH Bioethics Post-doctoral Fellowship, Bethesda MD (2021-23)
2020
  • Andrew Law
    • 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)
  • Chris McVey
    • The Moral Importance of Narrative: A Philosophical Analysis of Narrative Transport (Eric Schwitzgebel)
    • Currently moving to non-academic career.
  • Avery Snelson
    • 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)
2019
  • Heinrik Hellwig
    • 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)
2018
  •  David Beglin
    • UCLA, Law and Philosophy Postdoctoral Fellow
    • Dissertation title: Taking Each Other Seriously: Towards a Morally Responsible Agency 
    • Dissertation Chairs: Coleen Macnamara and Agnieszka Jaworska
  • Taylor Cyr
    • Samford University, Assistant Professor, Tenure Track
    • Dissertation Title: Semicompatibilist Options: Essays in Defense of an Actual-Sequence Approach To Freedom and Responsibility
    • Dissertation Chair: John M. Fischer
  • Patrick Londen
    • Lecturer, University Writing Program and Department of Philosophy, University of California, Riverside
    • Dissertation Title: Authenticity and Agency: Heidegger’s Constitutivism
    • Dissertation Chair: Mark Wrathall
  • Zachary Bachman
    • Visiting Assistant Professor, Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, Texas
    • Dissertation Title: Shared Agency in the Kingdom of Ends: Toward a Social Constitutivism
    • Dissertation Chair: Peter Graham
  • Mark Cunningham Johnson
    • University of California, Los Angeles, Lecturer
    • Dissertation Title: “What Bestiality of Thought” A Nietzschean Critique
    • Dissertation Chairs: Maude Clark and John Fischer
2017
  • Josef Nichola Cressotti
    • St. Sebastian’s School, Needham MA, Professor of Classics and Religious Studies
    • Dissertation Title: Reading Kant’s Third Critique: What the Beautiful Can Teach
    • Dissertation Chair: Pierre Keller
  • Meredith  McFadden
    • Current Position: Ontology engineer, Cycorp, Austin Texas
    • Previous Position: University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, Assistant Professor, tenure track; (Fall 2019-21); post-doctoral position, Lawrence University (2017- ).
    • Dissertation Title: Reasons as Explanations:  A Genuine Alternative to the Guise of the Good Thesis. 
    • Dissertation Chairs: Michael Nelson & John Fischer
  • Kevin Gin
    • Software Engineer at Google
    • Dissertation Title: Agent-Relative Knowledge in Heidegger
    • Dissertation Chair: Mark Wrathall
2016
  • Megan Stotts
    • Current Position: McMaster University, Assistant Professor, tenure track (2017- )
    • Previous Position: Vassar College, Visiting Assistant Professor (2016-17)
    • Dissertation title: Conventions and Expression Meaning
    • Dissertation Chairs: John Perry and Howard Wettstein
  • Alan Moore
    • Lecturer, San Francisco State University
    • Dissertation title: The Experience of Reading
    • Dissertation Chair: Eric Schwitzgebel
  • Justin White
    • Assistant Professor (continuing faculty status track, i.e., tenure track) at Brigham Young University, Provo, UT
    • Dissertation title: Autonomy and Authenticity as Ideals of Agency
    • Dissertation Chair: Mark Wrathall
2015
  • Monique Wonderly
    • University of California, San Diego, Assistant Professor, tenure track (2017- )
    • Dissertation title: Toward a Theory of Emotional Attachment
    • Dissertation Chair: Agnieszka Jaworsk
  • Courtney Morris
    • US Military Academy, West Point, Professor, Assistant Professor
    • Dissertation title: Kant’s Idea of the Self
    • Dissertation Chair: Pierre Keller
2014
  • Philip Swenson
    • College of William and Mary: Assistant Professor, tenure track (2017- )
    • Dissertation title: Ability and Responsibility: Essays on Behalf of Leeway Incompatibilism
    • Dissertation Chair: John Martin Fischer
2013
  • John Ramsey
    • Northern Colorado University, Assistant Professor, tenure track (2017- )
    • Dissertation title: How We Do Bad Things with Words: A Multi-level Model of Oppression
    • Dissertation Chair: Peter Graham
  • Samantha Matherne
    • Harvard University, Tenure Track Assistant Professor
    • Dissertation title: Art in Perception: Making Perception Aesthetic Again
    • Dissertation Chair: Pierre Keller
  • Elizabeth Silverstein
    • Dissertation Title: Deep Deference, Autonomy and the Deferential
    • Dissertation Chair: Coleen MacNamara
  • Jason Gray
    • Auburn University at Montgomery, Lecturer
    • Dissertation title: Philosophy, Phenomenology, and Neuroscience: The Groundwork for an Interdisciplinary Approach to a Comprehensive Understanding of Addiction
    • Dissertation Chair: John Martin Fischer
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