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.
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 | |
| 2022 | Junhyo Lee | Philosophy of Language | Heinrich Heine University | PD |
| 2024 | Paul Garofalo | Social and Political Philosophy | UNC Chapel Hill | FT |
| 2024 | Quyen Pham | Metaphysics, Social Philosophy | Harvard University | FT |
| 2023 | David Clark | Moral, Legal, and Political Philosophy | University of Arizona | TT |
| 2022 | Vishnu Sridharan | Philosophy of Law | University of Colorado at Boulder | TT |
| 2024 | Kin San | Epistemology, Ethics, Decision Theory | NYU (PD) London School of Economics (TT) |
PD |
| 2023 | Douglas Wadle | Philosophy of Mind, Philosophy of Cognitive Science | Rochester Institute of Technology | TT |
| 2024 | Andrew Stewart | Social and Political Philosophy | Chapman University | PD |
2023 Graduates
| Name | Specialization(s) | Initial placement | Current position | |
| David Clark | Moral, Legal, and Political Philosophy | University of Arizona (PD) | University of Arizona | TT |
| Noah Gordon | Non-Academic | unchanged | – | |
| Zach Goodsell | Logic, Metaphysics, Decision Theory | NYU (PD) National University of Singapore (TT) |
NYU | PD |
| Jasmine Gunkel | Normative and Applied Ethics | National Institutes of Health (PD) Western Ontario (TT) |
unchanged | PD |
| Frank Hong | Applied Ethics, Epistemology, Language | Hong Kong University (PD) | unchanged | PD |
| Mahmoud Jalloh | History and Philosophy of Science, Metaphyscs | St. John’s College, Santa Fe (PD) | unchanged | PD |
| Douglas Wadle | Philosophy of Mind, Philosophy of Cognitive Science | University of Kansas (FT) | Rochester Institute of Technology | TT |
| Jesse Wilson | Non-Academic | unchanged | – |
2022 Graduates
| Name | Specialization(s) | Initial placement | Current position | |
| Sean Donahue | Political Philosophy | Australian National University | unchanged | PD |
| Junhyo Lee | Philosophy of Language | Seoul National University (FT) | Heinrich Heine University | PD |
| Daniel Pallies | Ethics and Mind | Lingnan University | unchanged | PD |
| Vishnu Sridharan | Philosophy of Law | UCLA (PD) | University of Colorado at Boulder | TT |
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 |