Our recent placement record is shown below, with Ph.D. recipients grouped by the year their degrees were awarded. All students from each graduating class have been listed, whether they obtained academic or private industry positions.

A forthcoming issue of the journal Metaphilosophy reports survey results that bear out the impressive placement record of USC Philosophy. The survey found that we rank number 1 among all Philosophy Ph.D. programs in the English-speaking world in the percentage of Ph.D.s who landed permanent jobs over two periods—the last 10 years, and the last 5 of those years—in addition to ranking above the mean in the number of PhDs granted. The survey compared over 200 Philosophy programs measured on several dimensions, including their success in placing PhDs among a total of more than 6000 tenure track (or otherwise permanent) jobs in colleges and universities. The programs compared along this dimension include NYU, Princeton, Rutgers, Oxford, MIT, Yale, Harvard, Berkeley, Stanford, Michigan, and many more. The survey was conducted by Academic Placement Data and Analysis (APDA), and a draft of the report is here. The placement results may be found on pages 37-42 of Appendix D.

List of Placements

Abbreviations: TT = tenure track faculty, FT = fixed term faculty, PD = postdoctoral scholar, PP = permanent position (for TT-equivalent jobs outside the US)

Recent Updates

 

Graduated Name Specialization(s) Current position
2021 Michael Ashfield Political Philosophy Utah State University TT
2020 Eleonore Neufeld Language, Mind, Social Philosophy University of Massachusetts, Amherst TT
2019 Nathan Howard Ethics, Philosophy of Language University of Toronto TT
2018 August Gorman Ethics, Philosophy of Disability Oakland University TT
2018 Woo Ram Lee Ethics, Epistemology Seoul National University TT
2016 Aness Webster Law, Action Durham University PP
2014 Kenny Pearce Early Modern, Philosophy of Religion James Madison University TT

2022 Graduates

Name Specialization(s) Initial placement Current position
Sean Donahue Political Philosophy Australian National University unchanged PD
Daniel Pallies Ethics and Mind Lingnan University unchanged PD
Vishnu Sridharan Philosophy of Law UCLA unchanged PD

2021 Graduates

Name Specialization(s) Initial placement Current position
Michael Ashfield Political Philosophy Utah State University (PD) Utah State University TT
Tatyana Kostochka Moral Psychology and Buddhist Philosophy Ashoka University unchanged TT

2020 Graduates

Name Specialization(s) Initial placement Current position
Eleonore Neufeld Language, Mind, Social Philosophy University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (TT) University of Massachusetts, Amherst TT
Jonathan Wright  Non-Academic unchanged –

2019 Graduates

Name Specialization(s) Initial placement Current position
Matthew Leonard Metaphysics California Baptist University unchanged TT
Nathan Howard Ethics, Philosophy of Language Texas A&M (TT) University of Toronto TT

2018 Graduates

Name Specialization(s) Initial placement Current position
Rima Basu Ethics, Epistemology, Philosophy of Race Claremont McKenna College unchanged TT
Maegan Fairchild Metaphysics, Philosophical Logic University of Michigan (PD) University of Michigan TT
Alexander Dietz Normative Ethics, Moral Psychology Cardiff University (PP) Private Industry –
August Gorman Ethics, Philosophy of Disability Georgetown University (PD), Princeton University (PD) Oakland University TT
Keith Hall Annual Review, Production Editor unchanged –
Woo Ram Lee Ethics, Epistemology Seoul National University (NTT), University of Duisberg-Essen (FT) Seoul National University TT
Michael Pressman  Normative Ethics, Philosophy of Law U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, Law Clerk NYU Law School, Research Fellow at the Civil Jury Project –

2017 Graduates

Name Specialization(s) Initial placement Current position
Ara Astorian Political Philosophy Student of Harvard Law School unchanged –
Matthew Babb Language, Mind, Action Washington University UCLA, instructor FT
Stephen Bero Ethics, Law University of Surrey Law School unchanged PP
Renee Bolinger Moral, Political, Philosophy of Language Australian National University (PD) University of Michigan TT
Michael Hatcher Epistemology Valparaiso University, Indiana FLAME University, Pune PP
Joe Horton Ethics, Policial, Law, Epistemology University College London unchanged PP
Caleb Perl Ethics, Philosophy of Language Shandong University (TT) Australian Catholic University PP
Nicholas Laskowski Metaethics, Ethics Duisberg-Essen University (TT) Cal State Long Beach TT
Kenneth Silver Action, Metaphysics, Business Ethics University of Southern California, Preceptorship Trinity Business School at Trinity College Dublin TT

2016 Graduates

Name Specialization(s) Initial placement Current position
Greg Ackerman Mobility Ware Corp. Date Scientist unchanged FT
Joshua Crabill Social/Political Philosophy, Applied Ethics Southern Methodist University TT
Erik Encarnacion Law Harvard Law School (FT) University of Texas at Austin Law TT
Michael Milona Moral Epistemology Cornell (PD) Ryerson University Toronto TT
Abelard Podgorski Ethics, Epistemology National University of Singapore unchanged TT
Aness Webster Law, Action University of Nottingham (PT) Durham University PP

2015 Graduates

Name Specialization(s) Initial placement Current position
Justin Dallmann Epistemology, Philosophy of Science University of Toronto, PD Data analyst for the city of Edmonton
Alida Liberman Ethics, Metaethics University of Western Ontario (PD) Southern Methodist University TT
Matthew Lutz Metaethics, Epistemology Wuhan University unchanged TT

2014 Graduates

Name Specialization(s) Initial placement Current position
Ben Lennertz Language, Mind, Epistemology Davidson College (FT) Colgate University TT
Shyam Nair Metaethics, Philosophical Logic, Epistemology Lingnan University (TT) Arizona State University TT
Indrek Reiland Language, Mind Rice University (FT) University of Vienna PD
Yingying Tang Political Philosophy, Moral Philosophy Sun Yat-Sen University (TT) Shandong University, Qingdao TT
Kenny Pearce Early Modern, Philosophy of Religion Valperaiso University (PD), Trinity College Dublin (PP) James Madison University TT

2013 Graduates

Name Specialization(s) Initial placement Current position
M. Folescu History of Modern Philosophy University of Missouri, Columbia (TT) unchanged TT
Justin Snedegar Metaethics St. Andrews University (PP) unchanged FT
Julia Staffel Formal Epistemology Australian National University (PD) University of Colorado, Boulder TT
Tiffany Chang Private Industry –

2012 Graduates

Name Specialization(s) Initial placement Current position
Hrafn Asgeirsson Philosophy of Law Monash University (PD) University of Surrey, Law (PP) FT
Kory DeClark Law Student of Yale Law School Attorney in the Supreme Court and Appellate group at Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe –
Brian Bowman Language University of Southern California (FT) Non-academic –
Hsin-Wen Lee Political Philosophy Tunghai University (FT) University of Delaware TT
Johannes Schmitt University of Konstanz (PD) Private Industry –
Eduardo Villanueva Language Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú unchanged TT
Brandon Johns Action, Ethics California State University, San Bernardino unchanged FT
Xiao Wei Political Philosophy Private Industry (SuperMicro) –

2011 Graduates

Name Specialization(s) Initial placement Current position
Geoff Georgi Language University of Southern California (FT) West Virginia TT
Ryan Hay Metaethics Occidental College (FT) SCU San Bernadino FT
Lewis Powell Early modern Wayne State University (TT) University of Buffalo, SUNY TT
Sam Shpall Practical Reason University of Southern California (PD) University of Sydney FT
Robert Shanklin Moral Semantics Santa Clara University unchanged FT
Jonathan Well Metaphysics Stanford University High School unchanged FT

2010 Graduates

Name Specialization(s) Initial placement Current position
Daniel Kwon Language California State University Fullerton (adjunct) unchanged FT

2009 Graduates

Name Specialization(s) Initial placement Current position
Brian Talbot Epistemology University of Colorado, Boulder (FT) unchanged TT
Shlomo Sher Ethics USC Levan Institute of Humanities an Ethics (Associate) & CSU Fullerton (FT) CSU Fullerton FT
Sherri Zhu Free Will Antelope Valley College (TT) unchanged TT

2008 Graduates

Name Specialization(s) Initial placement Current position
Daniel Considine Early Modern Metropolitan State College of Denver (FT) Folsom Lake College TT
Maryam Qudrat Political Philosophy CSU Long Beach (FT), UC Irvine Center for Ethics & Morality (Fellow) CSU Long Beach FT