Placement Of Graduates

The department makes vigorous efforts to find suitable positions for its graduate students, especially for graduates of its doctoral program. Happily, we have been quite successful. In 2005, we have placed eight students – five in their first academic jobs and three others who moved to new academic positions at the University of London, Duquesne University, and the University of Texas at Austin. In recent years, Ph.D. students from the department have also found tenure-track positions in institutions such as Emory University, Kenyon College, St. John’s College, and the University of Houston

The placement program is directed by Professor Nasser Behnegar. A key component is an annual employment seminar in which young faculty discuss their own searches and distribute written suggestions and hints. There is also the department's annual reception at the APSA convention, which is designed to provide a home base for our students at the convention and to provide a nice occasion for students and faculty alike to meet graduates and friends of the department. Also, the director and other faculty review a student's résumé and other documents involved in job applications. And the faculty who have worked most closely with a student have responsibility for writing and calling on his or her behalf. Prior to going for an interview, the student is to "test drive" his or her job talk before an audience of faculty and fellow grad students. This is a tough audience, and the experience has proved to be a big help — even a job clincher — for a number of applicants.

The following is a list of last year's placements:

Erik Dempsey, University of Colorado, Boulder

Randal Hendrickson, Michigan State University

Natalie Wills Culp, University of Houston

Jakub Franek, Western Connecticut State University

Dissertations defended during 2006-2007:

David Bobb, "Competing Crowns:  An Augustinian Inquiry into Humility, Magnanimity, and Political Pride"

Natalie H. Wills Culp,  "Rousseau on Religion and Politics"

Kyle D. Dell, "A History Unwritten:  The Impact of an Environmental Ethos in American Environmental Politics"

Erik Dempsey,  "Virtue and Prudence in Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics" 

Wyatt Dowling,  "Science, Robinson Crusoe, and Judgment:  A Commentary on Book III of Rousseau's Emile"

Jakub Franek, "Hannah Arendt on The Crisis of Modernity:  Philosophy and Politics in the Post-Totalitarian World"

Randal Hendrickson, "Montesquieu and the Transformation of Republicanism"

Please see the navigation bar to the left for other pages relevant to the graduate program.