One Year Master's Recommendation?

[justhaveaquestion]

Hi all,

I am a PhD student in a different discipline working on a philosophy-related topic. I double-majored in philosophy in college, but I barely satisfied the minimum requirement for declaring the major and spent most of my time for the other major (which is now my PhD discipline). Since my research also involves philosophy, I've taken philosophy graduate courses at my current school, and several of my dissertation committee are from the philosophy department as well. But since the second semester of PhD, I've wanted to take a year off and solely focus on philosophy to fortify the foundation. And this desire is still here even after two years. For my purpose, a coursework-focused year-long master's program will do (And fortunately, my department and school is pretty relaxed with students taking a leave of absence for a year for whatever reason, and so as my advisor). 

I've gotten my education in the U.S., but most 1-year master's programs seem to be located in other countries. I've come across U Rochester's one-year master's program, but that's pretty much about it. I wonder if anyone here knows other one-year programs in the US? I'm also open to other English-speaking countries. I've found quite a few one-year programs in UK and Canada but other than obviously reputable schools (e.g., ranked highly in the Philosophical Gourmet, has strong faculty members, etc), I don't know which programs are "good." Also, I really have absolutely no idea how the UK system works/feels, other than the basic information each school posted on the web. So I wonder if anyone has a specific recommendation, whether it's for academics, partial funding for international students (I'm a US citizen), community, and whatnot. 

Thanks a lot!

J

p.s. Just to add more context, I've more-or-less focused on one or two sub-field of philosophy, so I'm looking to get more generic (analytic) philosophy education. Also, since I'm not planning to apply for a PhD upon graduation, I'm not too hung up about building a close relationship with one faculty member. 

Edited July 17, 2021 by justhaveaquestion

[labradoodle]

It really depends what you want to get out of the programme, but you might want to consider the UvA's (Amsterdam) 1-year programme in philosophy. Of course, it's not an English-speaking country, but everyone can speak English, especially in Amsterdam itself, so if that's the main concern it might not be as big of a deal. Also, it's probably cheaper than some other MA programmes. It generally is, however, considered not the programme to do if you want to go into research (there's also a 2-year research track which does have that exact aim), but that might be better suited to your aims!

It came to mind because you're looking to learn more about analytic philosophy, and I generally do feel like the analytic philosophy faculty is really strong (the ILLC is also here, of course, though you probably wouldn't be at the same location or able to take their courses). However, a disadvantage (or maybe advantage to you? idk) would be that the programme does not have any set courses that give you a foundation in the fields; it almost exclusively consists of electives, with the exception of your mandatory thesis. While I've done continental philosophy and other fields exclusively for the last years because I dislike analytic philosophy, the faculty was so good that they tricked me into thinking I liked it for a good two years. Hope this helps!

[justhaveaquestion]

15 hours ago, labradoodle said:

It really depends what you want to get out of the programme, but you might want to consider the UvA's (Amsterdam) 1-year programme in philosophy. Of course, it's not an English-speaking country, but everyone can speak English, especially in Amsterdam itself, so if that's the main concern it might not be as big of a deal. Also, it's probably cheaper than some other MA programmes. It generally is, however, considered not the programme to do if you want to go into research (there's also a 2-year research track which does have that exact aim), but that might be better suited to your aims!

It came to mind because you're looking to learn more about analytic philosophy, and I generally do feel like the analytic philosophy faculty is really strong (the ILLC is also here, of course, though you probably wouldn't be at the same location or able to take their courses). However, a disadvantage (or maybe advantage to you? idk) would be that the programme does not have any set courses that give you a foundation in the fields; it almost exclusively consists of electives, with the exception of your mandatory thesis. While I've done continental philosophy and other fields exclusively for the last years because I dislike analytic philosophy, the faculty was so good that they tricked me into thinking I liked it for a good two years. Hope this helps!

Thanks a lot for the reply! I saw that Amsterdam has a one-year program, but I didn't know what to think of it because it's not in an English-speaking country. But I'm glad to hear that. I'll definitely look into the school when I apply for master's programs!

 

 

[musicdegree4me]

I believe that Cambridge, Edinburgh, and St. Andrews all have 1 year masters programmes. 

I'd advise you to check LSE, KCL, and UCL as well. 

[ararslan]

I would suggest University of Barcelona APHIL program. LOGOS research group has a very very strong faculty like Manuel-Garcia Carpintero, Sven Rosenkranz, Genoveva Marti, Josep Macia, Jose Diez..etc. The program is highly competitive. And Barcelona is a great city. 

Edited January 25, 2022 by ararslan