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

2023

Charles Hayes
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

 
Kwabena Edusei
Subjugation by Noise: Colonial Retuning of Knowledge, Language, and Land

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