Continental philosophy applicants/students?

[steve3020]

Hey people, 

I'm a second time applicant for phd programmes. I have what they call 'interdisciplinary' interests bordering on modern to contemporary philosophy, social and political thought, psychoanalysis, and so on. At the moment, the focus of my reading/writing is Lacan, Badiou, Marx, Heidegger, and Zizek.

I've done my undergrad in the UK and there are courses here which are really custom-made for people like me. Places like Centre for modern european philosophy at Kingston, Dundee, Warwick, Essex, etc. all seem to have strong continental philosophy courses that blend political elements. But I'm applying to American ones for many reasons...and the picture seems more complicated in the States. 

Last year I've applied to only few courses in comparative literature, mainly because I didn't have much time to prepare applications. This time I am applying to both fields, which means that I have to do some research on which unis have a strong continental element. So far, I've found Stony Brook, DePaul, Emory, CUNY, Fordham, and SUNY Buffalo. 

So is there anyone who's in a similar situation? Let's share information and talk about our interests. 

[Thrasymachus]

In terms of departments that are strong in Continental thought generally, you might also want to add Duquesne, Villanova, Memphis, Loyola Chicago, Boston College, (and if you're interested in Canadian schools) McGill and Toronto. Some other places which aren't quite as Continental but also have some strong faculty are Georgetown and Temple. These departments will all certainly be strong for anyone interested in Marx, Heidegger, and social/political thought. As for Lacan/Badiou/Zizek/psychonalysis, you're probably going to have to look at individual faculty members at these programs. Hopefully this helps but I'd be interested to hear if people have other suggestions.

[steve3020]

3 hours ago, Thrasymachus said:

In terms of departments that are strong in Continental thought generally, you might also want to add Duquesne, Villanova, Memphis, Loyola Chicago, Boston College, (and if you're interested in Canadian schools) McGill and Toronto. Some other places which aren't quite as Continental but also have some strong faculty are Georgetown and Temple. These departments will all certainly be strong for anyone interested in Marx, Heidegger, and social/political thought. As for Lacan/Badiou/Zizek/psychonalysis, you're probably going to have to look at individual faculty members at these programs. Hopefully this helps but I'd be interested to hear if people have other suggestions.

Hi Thrasymachus. Yes, true. So last year I just searched 'big names' in Lacan and Badiou and somehow they were all in comparative literature departments (Joan Copjec, Bruno Bosteels, Kenneth Reinhard, etc.). It'd be ideal to can study with one of these people, but given that my interests can change I thought that it wouldn't be bad to apply to a few philosophy ones as well. 

My main concern with applying to philosophy depts is writing sample. During my undergrad my tutors always said that my essays are all over the place, and once I took an analytic module and I got some horrible marks! I've been trying to address this problem but the very problematic that I deal with in my essays seems to prohibit me from achieving the same level of 'rigour' as analytic chaps. 

 

[bookofletters]

I believe there's a continental philwiki for those kinds of programs that ma prove useful.