Our Phd Program

Welcome!

Our faculty and staff provide a supportive environment for realizing your research goals and for developing the professional skills needed to flourish both within and outside academia.

The program is designed to take four years to complete:

In your first year you will begin your coursework--our students typically take 6 graduate courses in their first year--five courses of their own choosing, and one required course, PHIL 6960 PhD Seminar (which will guide you in writing your thesis proposal and will also train you in a number of professional skills: grant-writing, teaching, publishing, conference presenting, etc).
In your second year you will complete your coursework (if you have not completed 6 courses including the PhD seminar in your first year). You will take the mandatory PHIL*6970 PhD Thesis Research course in the fall of your second year. This course, with your supervisor and another PhD committe member, is general preparation in your thesis area. The winter semester is devoted to preparing a thesis proposal, and at the end of the winter semester, you sit your Oral Qualifying Exam to defend that proposal.
In your third and fourth years you will undertake the writing of your thesis and you will defend it at the end of your fourth year.

We give our students a lot of teaching opportunities:

Many of our introductory courses have tutorial components--if you are a teaching assistant for those classes, you get the opportunity to run your own weekly tutorial classes with undergrads. In the third year, you will also be offered your own course to teach. The department will provide you with a teaching mentor to help you out with any questions you might have about preparing and teaching your own course.

How to apply to our program

Doing the program:

We also offer interdisciplinary options:

We have options for our graduate students to explore interdisciplinary avenues of research. Graduate students are free to take courses outside of philosophy and a number of our students have availed themselves of opportunity. We also offer collaborative programs at the MA and PhD levels with International Development Studies and Neuroscience (please see below for information about these program options).

Interdisciplinary MA Collaborative Specialization in Sexualities, Genders and Bodies (SGB)

The Philosophy MA or PhD can be combined with a SGB collaborative specialization. Students in SGB study advanced concepts relating to human identity, embodiment, and self-expression. Students explore theories drawn from the fields of feminism, decolonialism, postcolonialism, LGBTQ+, race/whiteness, queer-of-colour, indigeneity, masculinities, and disability/crip studies among many others. Students engage with these topics from interdisciplinary perspectives and apply these concepts, theories, and methodologies to research in their home discipline. In addition to Philosophy program course requirements, students take:

SXGN*6000: Somatic Entanglements: Issues and Methods
SXGN*6100: Challenging Bodies: Theorizing Sexualities and Genders

Please ensure that your statement of intent explains how your research ideas fit with the SGB specialization, and also explains how your background and interests will contribute to the vitality of the specialization.

Please visit the SGB website for more information.

Interdisciplinary PhD Collaborative Specialization in Neuroscience (CSN)

The Philosophy MA or PhD can be combined with a Neuroscience collaborative specialization. The Collaborative Specialization in Neuroscience offers the opportunity for Master’s and PhD students to combine their studies in Philosophy with multidisciplinary exposure to the field of neuroscience. Doctoral and Master’s (thesis or course work and major research paper) students wishing to undertake graduate studies with emphasis on neuroscience will be admitted by the Philosophy Department and will register in both Philosophy and in the Collaborative Specialization in Neuroscience.

In addition to Philosophy program course requirements, students take:

NEUR 6000: Principles of Neuroscience
NEUR*6100 Seminar in Neuroscience
- students and faculty meet once a month to hear talks from experts in the field and discuss the presented research. NEUR*6100 is a two-semester commitment, and students will register for the course twice each year.

Please ensure that your statement of intent explains how your research ideas fit with the CSN specialization, and also explains how your background and interests will contribute to the vitality of the specialization in neuroscience.

Please visit the CSN website for more information.

Interdisciplinary PhD in Collaborative International Development Studies (IDS)

The Philosophy MA or PhD can be combined with an IDS collaborative specialization. This offers an interdisciplinary framework for the study of international development that combines training in a selected academic discipline with exposure to a broad range of social science perspectives. In addition to Philosophy program course requirements, students take:

For the MA: "IDS Seminar" (IDEV 6100)
For the PhD: "Theories and Debates in Development" (IDEV 6800) and "Developmental Research and Practice" (IDEV 6850)

Please ensure that your statement of intent explains how your research ideas fit with the IDS specialization, and also explains how your background and interests will contribute to the vitality of the specialization in development studies.

Please visit the IDS website for more information.