Program Recommendation for Somone with Interdisciplinary/Unusual Interests

[SignificanceMany3917]

I'm in the midst of applying to graduate schools, a process that has been much less straightforward than I’ve hoped. My main difficulty has simply been finding programs that actually feel suitable for my interests. It seems like there’s an endless number of programs, and I don’t want to miss something that would be great for me.

I got my BA in philosophy and history, and I always assumed I would go to grad school in philosophy but now I’m beginning to think that might not be the best fit. The philosophy I studied in undergraduate school was analytic, an approach I was good at but am no longer really interested in. For history, I focused on intellectual history, something I still really enjoy.

As far as my interests go, they’re seemingly all over the place, I know. I'm drawn to continental philosophy, specifically phenomenological approaches, though because of my academic background I don’t have an extensive knowledge of the continental tradition. Critical theory, and social critique in general, is also a real passion of mine. Additionally, I’ve become very interested in indigenous approaches to knowledge production, particularly the way in which an embodied, phenomenological open relationship to the nature world reveals a sort of animacy of natural objects that can be built into a relational ethical approach. Unfortunately, it doesn’t appear that many philosophy departments take into consideration viewpoints outside of the West.

In the largest sense, I am interested in the ways in which deeply profound and transcendent experiences of meaning, whether with the natural world or what is typically understood as the divine can inform our epistemological, ontological, and ethical perspectives. Relatedly, I’m interested in alternative or traditionally disregarded approaches to knowledge production like the occult or that which is produced via mystical experiences. Here, questions of the role that imagination, symbolism, and the unconscious plays in the construction of our understanding of the world is particularly important to me. Those are my primary interests in a nutshell though there are others that I can’t seem to properly square (like my interest in Japanese cultural history and systems theory and cybernetics), but I understand you can’t do it all.

To summarize, it would be wonderful to find some program that I could pursue a theoretical, philosophically informed approach to looking at the subjective experience of transcendent mystical states. For this reason, I’ve begun to think that religion programs are my best bet, though I’ve also had people recommend that I look into anthropology. I could see how this would work, but I have little background in anthropology which makes finding programs difficult. I’ve thought about interdisciplinary programs like the UC Santa Cruz History of Consciousness program, the University of Minnesota Interdisciplinary Studies program, and Cornell Comparative Literature, but I’m not sure of my chances at getting into those programs. As of now, I am considering applying to the Harvard Divinity School MTS, the Chicago Divinity School MA, the Yale Divinity School MAR, particularly their concentrated program in Religion and Ecology, Penn State philosophy PhD, University of Toronto philosophy PhD, Tufts University philosophy MA, Georgia State philosophy MA, and University of Oregon Philosophy PhD. I’m not dead set on any of these, though, as of now, I feel like Harvard Divinity School would be the best place for me at the moment. I’m open to either master’s or PhD programs, provided that I don’t fall into immense debt. Any advice on potential programs or professors that would align with my interests would really be appreciated.

TL;DR: Where can I study the philosophical implications of subjective, transcendent experiences?

[SemperDiscentes]

I'll take a stab at this, although this is not my area of expertise.

Three programs come to mind: 

1) Graduate Theological Union

2) Rice's PhD program in GEM [GEM info here: https://reli.rice.edu/what-gem] 

3) California Institute of Integral Studies 

 

The first is known for interdisciplinary work around the areas of philosophy, religion, science, and mysticism (especially known for process theology). The second is a newer program that focuses on alternative religious experiences under the category of Gnosticism, Esoterism, and Mysticism (GEM). The last is similar to GTU (1st) although I'm not as familiar with them, but they do have a strong philosophy-mysticism emphasis (e.g., they have a Phd in Philosophy, Cosmology, and Consciousness). The 'brass tacks' is that 1 and 3 typically don't provide funding, but there does seem to be significant support for Rice's program.

 

 

 

Edited October 30 by SemperDiscentes

[SignificanceMany3917]

Thanks so much for giving me some recommendations. I’ve only briefly looked at GTU; since it’s divided into eight different schools would you have any recommendation for a particular school or people? I plan on applying to Rice, though I’m not sure if I should shoot for the PhD or try for the MA. Since I have no degrees in religion, I assumed that I would have very little chance of getting into a PhD program for religion. Do you think this is the case? As for the California Institute of Integral Studies, many people have recommended this program to me and it seems to cover a lot of what I am interested in, but I am leery because it doesn’t seem to have a particularly great standing in the academic world in addition to it being primarily online and not funded.