Skip redundant pieces

Graduate Studies In Philosophy

    The philosophy department at the University of Kansas comprises of 13 faculty members and about 35 graduate students. The department has traditionally fostered teaching and research that reflects a number of different philosophical orientations and fields of philosophy. Courses are taught on a broad range of topics. Master's theses and dissertations have had a similarly wide range of themes. The department's chief strengths are in history of philosophy (ancient, modern, 19th century), ethics, social-political philosophy, and analytic philosophy, including philosophy of language, philosophy of mind, and metaphysics. The department is in Wescoe Hall, the main humanities building. For more information, see the department's graduate study brochure.

Degrees and Courses of Study         

The department offers the degrees of M.A. and Ph.D. and, in cooperation with the law school, a program leading to a joint M.A./J.D. degree. An M.A. degree requires 30 hours of graduate course work, including a first-year graduate tutorial and at least 12 additional hours of seminar and/or thesis work. M.A. candidates must pass a comprehensive examination over their course work or must write and successfully defend an M.A. thesis. The Ph.D. degree requires 48 hours of graduate course work, including a first-year graduate tutorial, a research tutorial, and at least 18 additional hours of seminar and/or independent research work. Ph.D. candidates also must satisfy the departmental requirement in foreign language or other research skills, pass both a departmental examination over the research tutorial and an oral comprehensive examination, and write and successfully defend a dissertation. The M.A./J.D. degree combines into three years and one summer session the programs for both degrees.

Graduate Association of Students in Philosophy         

The Graduate Association of Students in Philosophy (GASP) elects representatives who participate in departmental meetings and serve on departmental committees, and periodically holds work-in-progress or other scholarly meetings. Additionally, since 1973 the graduate students at KU have edited Auslegung, a semi-annual journal of philosophy.

Links for Prospective Graduate Students

Links for Current Graduate Students