PhD. in Continental Philosophy in Leiter Dept.

[objectivityofcontradiction]

Any one on here trying to study continental philosophy at a highish-ranked Leiter Program? e.g. Johns Hopkins, Columbia, Notre Dame, UC Riverside, Yale, UC San Diego, Gtown? etc. I am looking at these schools for next year, with the intention of studying the German Idealist tradition and its legacy in 20th cent. euro philosophy (esp. Adorno  and the Frankfurt School).

 

I have a few friends that attended such places as UCR, ND, and JHU and were able to study continental philosophy... it can be done. Just wondering if any one from this years incumbent class went this route and if so, what sort of advice they might have regarding SOP and application structure for some one looking to study continental philosophy in some of these more pluralist departments. 

 

Thanks.

[bakedalaska]

Why care about leiter rank if you're doing continental? I don't do continental, but my understanding is that those who do discount or ignore the leiter report.

[crate]

STM: I decided not to go that route, because I wasn't interested in taking a majority of my seminars in analytic philosophy. I am interested in feminist philosophy and poststructuralism, however, which might change things. I sought programs with a significant number of people working in continental more broadly speaking, as well as at least 2 people I could imagine working with on a dissertation. I want my philosophy education to provide a strong history of philosophy, as well as a focus in my AOI. For me, one seminar in analytic should be sufficient to reap some of the methodological benefits to be had from that kind of training. If, however, you want to study the analytic methodology and apply it to Critical Theory, then the Leiter list may be more useful.

[anon530]

The programs you have listed are certainly some of the best for German Idealism, and a couple of them for Critical Theory. I think you should probably be aware, however, that this is a very ambitious list of programs. Even though they are all quite  receptive to students proposing to study in your AOI, if, as you say, your background is primarily in Continental Philosophy (does this mean you have not taken many courses in metaphysics, epistemology, mind, value etc.?), then you will be up against some very steep competition. For example, I have known several people (with very strong MAs in Continental Philosophy) who have applied to a very similar list to yours their first time around and have been shut out. Generally this has meant applying a little more broadly the next time around, i.e. to more of the programs listed in the pluralist guide. 

 

While the programs you mentioned are all top-notch, I think that DePaul, Emory, Kentucky, Memphis, BU, Warwick (UK) and the list goes on, are in most cases as good (and in some better) for your AOI. From looking at your list, it seems that you have let the Leiter rankings fully determine your picks. I would say this is very unwise, but that is just my opinion. 

 

Good Luck!

[Billy Goehring]

Also--what is your motivation for sticking to Leiter's ranking? As anon530 said, Emory, Villanova, et alios are all top-notch programs for German Idealism and Critical Theory. I'm not sure what there is to gain by abandoning those for Leiter--it's not like these schools have terrible placement rates or have low expectations for their students. 

[objectivityofcontradiction]

Emory, Villanova, DePaul, Kentucky, Memphis, etc. have no one who works on Adorno. There's my simple answer. Meanwhile at Notre Dame you have Fred Rush. At Columbia there's Lydia Goehr, At Johns Hopkins there is Hent de Vries, who is affiliated with the Philosophy Dept. Other schools I mentioned in my very rough and sketchy list are long shots. My top choices will be schools that have some one working on Adorno... that is ideally where I want to be. I will obviously be applying to plenty of schools that are more pluralist, but I'm optimistic that I can get in some where where I can continue to study his work. Also, I don't think you'd find many who would agree with you, whether we're talking analytics or continentals, that Emory and Villanova are top notch places to do German Idealism. That's just flat out not the case. 

 

As far as Leiter fully determining my list--I've been researching PhD. programs for almost two years now. I have spent countless hours scanning philosophy department webpages, faculty profiles, reading publications, etc. from both 'lists,' Leiter and SPEP. It just so happens that though the schools listed on the SPEP are obviously billed as being more friendly to continental philosophy, the schools listed on Leiter are the places where good work is being done on Adorno and the Frankfurt school. 'Analytic' departments with strong interests in the History of Philosophy and German Idealism are willing to work with students who might come from a continental background (which, for the record, I don't. My undergrad degree in the states was almost exclusively analytic philosophy: Sellars, McDowell, Davidson, Philosophy of Mind, Philosophy of Action, Philosophy of Biology etc.)  Some of the best work being done in the area of 'Adorno' these days is actually being conducted by philosophers who attended more analytic style programs. This does not mean that current Adorno scholarship reads like an article in Mind. But, rather, because of the difficulty of Adorno's texts, having fine-tuned analytic skills is necessary if one wants to try and dispel several of the rumors surrounding this great mind: that he never made arguments, spoke too rhetorically, was historically uninformed, etc.

 

All I am trying to say is that no, I have not been blinded by Leiter's list as you seem to suggest... I've done the research into my area of study and the schools to which I will apply just happen to fall on the Leiter-side of the spectrum. I guess I should have worded the heading to this thread differently because I detest getting involved in conversations about these 'lists...' there is good philosophy being done in a wide variety of places, and the labels are useless. All I was really asking was if people would think such programs as the one's on Leiter's list would not entertain a proposal like mine. Which would really leave me in a pickle, since it is in those programs where Adorno is being studied in the U.S. 

Edited March 21, 2013 by STMphilosophy

[LawrencevonBuskirk]

I suppose there's no harm in applying to these "continental friendly" Leiter programs. It very much sounds like you could be happy in one or all of them.

 

I would strongly suggest, however, that you also apply to some strong continental programs that aren't mentioned in Leiter. You're incorrect when you say that Kentucky and DePaul have no one who works on idealism and Adorno. Kentucky has Arnold Farr and DePaul has Bill Martin. The University of Oregon, another top-notch continental strong-hold that Leiter wouldn't touch with a ten-foot pole, has Rocio Zambrana, who specializes in Hegel and The Frankfurt School.

 

Basically: 1) By all means apply to these Leiter programs. 2) Do not ONLY apply to such programs. 

[fjn]

another suggestion would be to look at northwestern, although this is perhaps slightly biased, as i'm likely going to be attending next year.

 

i'm only secondarily interested in later german philosophy, but they seem really strong in critical theory, although a lot of the focus tends to be on post-adorno developments (habermas taught there regularly for a long time and remains close to the dept and various people from uni frankfurt are scheduled to come in the next few years -- christoph menke, rainer forst etc.)

 

the philo dept also has close ties with people in german and comp lit (peter fenves and sam weber, who actually studied with and translated adorno ages ago) who do a lot on the earlier frankfurt school.

 

perhaps something to look into... 

[eugvdeb]

It is also incorrect that Villanova has no one working on Adorno. Annika Theim is a specialist in the early Frankfurt School. And at DePaul, Rick Lee recently taught a two-quarter course devoted to Negative Dialectics, and several graduate students are working on Adorno.

 

I don't mention this to enter into the Leiter debate, but thought it worth mentioning since it sounds like STM17 is applying next season.

[pot]

All,

I have nothing substantive to contribute. But in this time of application season stress, I thought you might enjoy the @LeiterReports Twitter account for a light-hearted take on Leiter's stranglehold on the profession.