PhDs Awarded and Placement History

2024

Wei Chaunke (May)

Initial Placement: Associate Research Fellow, Institute for Science, Technology & Society at South China Normal University
Dissertation Title: Confusions of Natural Selection
Advisor: Ariew

2022

Duke Cruz (July)

Initial Placement: SEC Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Missouri
Dissertation Title: Evident Yet Opaque: A Defense of the Evaluative Normativity of Logic
Advisor: Weirich

Selwyn Griffith (December)

Current Appointment: Adjunct Assistant Professor, Department of Philosophy, Hofstra University
Dissertation Title: Standing and Status: A Dissertation on the Necessary and Sufficient Conditions for Moral Standing and an Analysis of Moral Status
Advisor: Vallentyne

Travis Holmes (May)

Current Appointment: Visiting Teaching and Research Specialist at Gies College of Business at the University of Illinois, Champaign
Dissertation Title: Enlarging the Possibility Space for Scientific Model-Based Explanation
Advisor: Ariew

Tieying Zhou (May)

Current Appointment: Visiting Assistant Professor at the University of Alabama, Birmingham
Initial Appointment: Adjunct Instructor, University of Missouri, Columbia
Dissertation Title: An Investigation of Aesthetic Appreciation
Advisor: Folescu

2021

Alek Willsey (March)

Dissertation Title: Authoritatively Speaking: A Speech Pragmatic Analysis of Authority and Power

Advisor: Horisk

2020

Jon Marc Asper (June)

Current appointment: Marshalltown Community College (Iowa)

Dissertation Title: Why Preference Can Be Optional 

Advisor: Vallentyne

Alex Howe (April)

Current appointment: UniServ Organizer, Indiana State Teachers Association

Dissertation title: Citizenship Goes to the Dogs

Adviser: Vallentyne

2019

Salman Khawaja (December)

Initial appointment: Instructor, University of Memphis

Dissertation title: Naturalizing Epistemology: Reconsidering Quine and Nietzsche

Adviser: Matt McGrath

Stephen Perinchery-Herman (December)

Current appointment: Director of Ethics, at Mercy Health System, in Fort Smith, Arkansas

Dissertation title: Defending an Indirect Normativity of Belief

Adviser: Vallentyne

2018

Eric Rowse (December)

Initial Appointment: Adjunct Professor, University of Missouri.

Current Appointment: Same.

Dissertation Title: Clarifying Relational Egalitarianism

Adviser: Vallentyne

Jonathan Burmeister (July)

Initial appointment: Visiting Assistant Professor, Fort Lewis College

Dissertation Title: Examining the Nature of Epistemic Value

Adviser: McGrath

Seokman Kang (July)

Current appointment: Visiting Professor, Shinhan University, Korea

Dissertation Title: The Consciousness of Visual Experience

Adviser: McGrath

Isaac Wagner (May)

Current appointment: Associate Professor of Teaching in Bioethics, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.

Dissertation Title: Preventing Unjust Wars and Less Aggression

Adviser: Vallentyne

Troy Hall (May)

Current Appointment: Visiting Assistant Professor, University of Missouri

Dissertation Title: Three Studies in the Philosophy of Jazz

Adviser: Johnson

Paul Hamilton (May)

Current Appointment: Lecturer, Missouri University of Science and Technology

Dissertation Title: Resisting the Nudge

Adviser: Weirich

Keith Harris (May)

Initial appointment: Visiting Assistant Professor, University of Iowa

Dissertation Title: The Epistemology of Group Agents

Adviser: McGrath

Tung-Ying Wu (May)

Current Appointment: Tenure Track, Institute of Philosophy, Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing

Dissertation Title: Skepticism, Reason, and Decision

Adviser: Weirich

2017

Joshua Smart (August)

Current Appointment: Senior Lecturer, Ohio State University

Dissertation Title: Epistemic Rationality and Meeting One's Own Standards

Adviser: McGrath

2016

Dustin Nelson (August)

Dissertation Title: Defending States and Protecting Individuals: A Critical Examination of the Principle of Nonintervention

Adviser: Vallentyne

Current Appointment: Assistant Professor (tenure track) and Program Coordinator of Legal Studies at Morehead State University in Kentucky

Kenneth Shields (July)

Current Appointment: Visiting Assistant Professor, University of Indianapolis

Dissertation Title: Amoralists, Inverted Commas, and the Puzzle of Moral Internalism: An Essay in Experimental Metaethics

Adviser: Philip Robbins

Richard Lauer (May)

Current Appointment: Visiting Assistant Professor, St. Lawrence University

Dissertation Title: Explanation for the Cognitively Bounded: Psychology and the Pragmatics of Explanation

Adviser: Ariew

Phillip Zema (April)

Dissertation Title: Three Questions Concerning Reid's Moral Epistemology

Advisers: Markie and Folescu

2015

Lynn Chiu (August)

Current Appointment: Internal Communications Manager for the University of Vienna

Dissertation Title: Niche Construction and the Logic of Natural Selection Explanations

Adviser: Ariew

Devin Frank (July)

Current Appointment: Instructor, Eastern Illinois University

Dissertation Title: The Metaphysics of Content: Towards a Minimalist Account of Propositions

Adviser: McGrath

Adam Koszela (May)

Current Appointment: Franchise Lead/Associate Publisher, Money Map Press

Dissertation Title: Compensation as the Moral Foundation of Jus Post Bellum

Adviser: Vallentyne

Katy Shorey (May)

Current Appointment: Assistant Teaching Professor, Northeastern University

Dissertation Title: A Salience Account of Explanatory Power

Adviser: Ariew

Sheng Zhang (May)

Current Appointment: Assistant Professor, Xiamen University

Dissertation Title: Epistemic Democracy and Political Legitimacy

Adviser: Vallentyne

2014

Jacob Wright (December)

Current Appointment: Senior Lecturer, University of Minnesota-Rochester

Dissertation Title: Toward a Virtue Account of Science

Adviser: Ariew

Wenwen Fan (May)

Dissertation Title: Moral Wrongness and Reactive Attitudes

Adviser: Vallentyne

Christopher Gadsden (May)

Current Appointment: Adjunct professor, University of Missouri

Dissertation Title: Epistemic Duties and Blameworthiness for Beliefs

Adviser: McGrath

Kok Yong Lee (May)

Current Appointment: Assistant Professor, National Chung Cheng University (Taiwan)

Dissertation Title: A Solution to Skeptical Puzzles

Adviser: McGrath

Dan Marshall (May)

Dissertation Title: Skill-Based Reliabilism

Adviser: Weirich

2012

Crystal Allen (May)

Current Appointment: Assistant Professor, Principia College

Dissertation Title: Justifying War: An Account of Just and Merely Justifying Causes for War

Adviser: Vallentyne

Xiaofei Liu (May)

Current Appointment: Full Professor, Wuhan University (China)

Dissertation Title: Choice, Control, and Moral Responsibility

Adviser: Vallentyne

Brian Montgomery (May)

Current Appointment: Visiting Assistant Professor, University of Texas El Paso

Dissertation Title: A New Defense of the Knowledge Norm of Assertion

Adviser: McGrath

Collin Rice (May)

Current Appointment: Associate Professor at Colorado State

Dissertation Title: Optimality Explanations: A New Approach

Adviser: Ariew

Yasha Rohwer (May)

Current Appointment: Associate Professor, Oregon Tech

Dissertation Title: Rethinking the Evolution of Human Intelligence

Adviser: Ernst

2011

Darin Finke (May)

Initial Appointment: Associate teaching professor, Missouri University of Science and Technology

Current Appointment: Associate Teaching Professor, Missouri University of Science and Technology

Dissertation Title: Van Fraassen and a Defense of Inference to the Best Explanation

Adviser: Weirich

Ashton Sperry (May)

Current Appointment: Research Scholar, Ronin Institute

Dissertation Title: Bounded Rationality in Games of Strategy

Adviser: Weirich

2010

Joel Dittmer (May)

Dissertation Title: Rawlsian Ethical Act Contractarianism

Adviser: Kierland and Vallentyne

Michael Hartsock (December)

Current Appointment: Associate Professor/Director of Honors, Millikin University

Dissertation Title: Absences as Causes: A Defense of Negative Causation

Adviser: Ariew

Andrew Moon (August)

Current Appointment: Assistant Professor, Virginia Commonwealth University

Dissertation Title: The Nonepistemic Psychological Requirements for Knowledge

Adviser: Markie

Brandon Schmidly (May)

Dissertation Title: A Proprietarian Theory of Custodial Rights Over Children

Adviser: Vallentyne

Contact

Updated 1/24/2023. This list is a work in progress, if you are aware of any changes that need to be made, please contact Elisa Day (daye@umsystem.edu) or André Ariew (ariewa@missouri.edu).