Philosophy PhD

Were proud of our excellent research and high-quality supervision in a broad range of subjects and a variety of traditions. During your PhD, you’ll work in a friendly, open-minded and inclusive environment. You’ll:<br/><br/><br/>- be part of a lively department with a diverse postgraduate community<br/><br/><br/>- work with academics who are breaking new ground in their respective fields of research<br/><br/><br/>- attend our weekly Philosophy Colloquium, workshops, student-led conferences and discussion groups.<br/><br/><br/>Your research project will culminate in a (roughly) 80,000-word thesis. You can choose to work with more than one supervisor and – if your project demands it – one of your supervisors can be from another department.<br/><br/>You have the opportunity to audit postgraduate taught modules in Philosophy and other disciplines. You may also be able to gain teaching experience from your second year of study.<br/><br/>The Department of Philosophy is part of the School of Media, Arts and Humanities. We’re committed to fostering cross-disciplinary initiatives and relationships with other departments in our School and beyond.<br/><br/>The Department hosts the Centre for Social and Political Thought. There are opportunities to work with specialists in political thought. This includes experts not only from Philosophy but from other disciplines such as Sociology, Politics and History. We also have strong ties with Informatics and Cognitive Science. Applications at the intersection of Philosophy and these disciplines are very welcome.<br/><br/>You’ll work with academics who are experts at the forefront of their subjects. Our research expertise includes:<br/><br/><br/>- continental, post-Kantian philosophy; phenomenology, existentialism; with strong specialism in figures such as Heidegger, Husserl, Blanchot, Merleau-Ponty, Levinas, and also in continental approaches to ancient philosophy (especially Plato)<br/><br/><br/>- epistemology<br/><br/><br/>- ethics; philosophy of normativity broadly construed, including the normativity of epistemology, logic and meaning<br/><br/><br/>- feminist philosophy; sex and gender<br/><br/><br/>- Islamic philosophy<br/><br/><br/>- philosophy of language; externalism and internalism; conceptual engineering, semantics (expressivism, relativism, contextualism)<br/><br/><br/>- philosophy of logic; the history of early analytic philosophy (especially Lewis Carroll, Frege and Russell)<br/><br/><br/>- philosophy of mind and cognitive science; embodied cognition<br/><br/><br/>- political philosophy with strong specialism in figures such as Hegel, Marks and Rawls; Marxism and critical theory, especially the Frankfurt School.<br/><br/><br/>We understand that deciding where and what to study is a very important decision. We’ll make all reasonable efforts to provide you with the courses, services and facilities described in this prospectus. However, if we need to make material changes, for example due to government or regulatory requirements, or unanticipated staff changes, we’ll let you know as soon as possible.