Graduate Placement

The department actively assists graduates from the M.A. program in their search for employment or further education. Many of our graduates have elected to pursue the Ph.D. in philosophy (in boldface below). A healthy percentage of these students have been admitted with full funding to “top-50” programs or programs with specialties in particular areas. Other graduates have elected not to pursue the Ph.D. in philosophy. Such students have gone on to use their philosophical skills in a variety of academic and non-academic professions (e.g., psychology, law, medicine, social work, business, and education).

As our placement record suggests, while many of our students come to the University of Wyoming intending to pursue the Ph.D. in philosophy, many come simply because they love philosophy or desire to advance their careers. Here are some statistics on what our graduates have done since 1995 (List reflects all students who completed their MA at UW):

Year

Name

• Thesis Title
• Graduate School / Professional Institution (Discipline) 

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2013

John Poland

• Understanding Nature: Towards a More Inclusive Approach to Aesthetic Appreciation
• Working as an itinerant philosophy instructor and applying to Ph.D. programs

Jeremy Troy

• Learning as Recollection in Plato's Phaedo
• Working at Charter and applying to Seminary school

2012

Jennifer Lamborn

• Two Standpoints and the Transcendental Distinction: An Analysis of Kant's Conception of Freedom
• Secondary English Language Arts Instructor

Glen Nesse

• Arbitrary Things 
• Ph.D. candidate at University of Illinois

Pablo Zavala

• "A Defense of Ontological Deflationism"
• University of Wyoming (M.A. Spanish Literature), now Ph.D student in Spanish Literature Washington University in St. Louis

2011

Casey Hart

• "Truth and Abstract"
• University of Wisconsin - Madison (full funding)

2010

Ian Harmon

• "Specified Ways of Knowing How"
• University of Illinois - Urbana/Champaign (full funding)

2008

Erik Hoversten

• "Faultless Disagreement and the Semantics of Personal Taste"
• Rutgers University (full funding)

T. Scott Dixon

• "Problems with Presentism"
• University of California Davis (full funding)

Jeremy Weiss

• "Wants and Reasons"
• Ohio State University (full funding)

2007    

Allison Fritz

• "Analysis of Nature-Human Conflicts in Light of Just War Theory"
• University of Nebraska

R. Jason Williams

• "Spinoza on the Relation between Substance and Attribute"
• Practicing Law

Adam Thompson

• "Groundwork for a Concept-based Theory of Confirmation"
• University of Nebraska (full funding)

2006

Jennifer Lyn Cole Wright

• "The Problem(s) with Principles: Towards a skill-based account of mature moral agency"
• University of Wyoming (Ph.D, Psychology), now Assistant Professor of Psychology, College of Charleston

2005    

Bruce Buchanan

• "Deep Ecology and Authenticity"
• Southern Illinois University - Carbondale

Christopher Gaffney

• "The Problem of Prior Probabilities in Bayesian Confirmation Theory"
• University of Nevada, Reno (M.Sc., Mathematics); Ph.D. candidate at the Center for Operations Research at Rutgers University and a Senior Analyst for PHH Mortgage

2004

John Bengson

• "From Inner Perception to Direct Attention"
• University of Texas, Austin (Ph.D, Philosophy), now Assistant Professor of Philosophy University of Wisconsin - Madison

2003

Ben Whiting

• "Functionalism as a Reductive Explanation"
• University of Chicago Law School (J.D., with High Honors), now Associate at Bartlit, Beck, Herman, Palenchar & Scott, L.L.P.

Luke Glowacki

• "Establishing a Foundation for Environmental Rights"
• University of Wisconsin, Madison (Law), studied at University of Utah (Philosophy and Law), now at Harvard University (Anthropology Ph.D. program)

2002

Crystal McLeod (nee Primeau)

• "Species as Individuals: A Critical Analysis"
• Appalachian State University (M.A., Clinical Psychology), now Clinical Counselor, Michigan Technological University

2001

William Devlin

• "Science without the Independent World"
• Boston University (Philosophy), Associate Professor at Bridgewater State College.

Jonathan Foltz

• "The Epistemic Limits of a Semantic Theory of Indexicals and Demonstratives"
• Wake Forest (MBA)

Robert Wolverton

• "Aristotle and Nietzsche: A Comparison of Virtue"
• University of Wyoming (Ed.D., Education), now Program Manager, CRHRE, University of Wyoming

2000

Mark Bauer

• "Consciousness and Reducibility"
• University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (Philosophy), now Visiting Assistant Professor University of Colorado-Denver

1999

Karson Kovakovich

• "Deflationism"
• Rutgers University - State University of New Jersey (ABD, Philosophy), now District Manager, McGraw-Hill Higher Education

Scott O'Brien

• "Tensegrity and Biological Laws"
• University of Indiana (Philosophy) 

Peter Stoval

• "The Limits of Biocentric Individualism"
• University of Wyoming (Ph.D., Education), now Academic Services Coordinator, University of Wisconsin - LaCrosse

Ethan Keyes

• "Nietzsche and the Truth in Language"
• Unknown

1998

Ronald Hustwit

• "Investigating the Philosophical Investigations: An analysis of some basic concepts of the beginning sections"
• University of Arkansas (Ph.D., Philosophy), now United States Air Force

Alec Muthig

• "Zarathustra's Descent: Of Art and Mountains"
• WyoTech (Instructor)

Elizabeth Anne Franklin

• "Nietzsche's Changing Aesthetic"
• University of Wyoming (Law)

Joseph P. Johnson

• "Berkeley's Archetypes"
• University of Wyoming (Law)

Douglas Sullivan

• "Wittgenstein on Certainty: Action and Justification"
• Unknown

Jason Landry

• "A Pragmatic Theory for the Speaking and Listening of a Parable"
• Unknown

1996

Jason Goltz

• "Toward an Alternative Interpretation of Kierkegaard's Fear and Trembling"
• University of Utah (Ph.D., Philosophy), now Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Westminster College (UT)

Kenith Sobel

• "Assertion Hunting in Forrester's New Deontic Logic"
• Vanderbilt (Ph.D., Psychology), now Assistant Professor of Psychology, University of Central Arkansas

1995

Matthew Heitmann

• "Wittgenstein on Logical Necessity"
• Temple University (Ph.D, Philosophy), now Head of Marketing, BMC Switzerland

Sharron Connor

• "Leviathan, Chapter 16 and Gauthierian Authorization"
• University of Nebraska, Lincoln (Ph.D, Philosophy), now Lecturer, Central Washington University

Scott Daley

• "A Little Something About Old Evidence"
• Unknown