Religion MA to Philosophy PhD

[Thorongil]

I will have an MA in comparative religion by the end of this year and want to apply to both religious studies and philosophy PhD programs. I like the interdisciplinarity of religious studies, but philosophy is my first love, and I can't honestly choose which would be the better fit for me academically. My interests are broadly speaking philosophy of religion and history of philosophy. 

Does anyone have any advice for me in terms of applying to the philosophy schools? Also, what schools might you recommend? I've done my own research but pose the question to see if I may have missed some. I'm more concerned about getting in with funding than with being in what somebody considers a top program. 

Edited July 6, 2016 by Thorongil

[bookofletters]

Without knowing too much about your actual interests, University of South Florida sounds like a good fit. The philosophy dept actually offers a Philosophy and Religion PhD, which is funded and you sound suited for it to me.

[Thorongil]

On 7/11/2016 at 0:45 AM, bookofletters said:

Without knowing too much about your actual interests, University of South Florida sounds like a good fit. The philosophy dept actually offers a Philosophy and Religion PhD, which is funded and you sound suited for it to me.

 

Sounds very interesting, but it says it has limited funding. 

[Glasperlenspieler]

Which schools would be a good fit will probably depend heavily on what area(s) in the history of philosophy you are interested in. Very few schools are top notch in history of philosophy across the board, but rather have particular areas of strength (go to A, B, or C if you want to study Aquinas, but X, Y, or Z if you're interested in Hume). So any useful suggestions will probably require a more detailed explanation of your interests. 

[bookofletters]

9 hours ago, Thorongil said:

Sounds very interesting, but it says it has limited funding. 

While that's true, the philsophy and religion phd is funded, unless that's changed recently. Although, they seemes to offer a lot in buddhisn and not much else when i looked into them.

[Thorongil]

18 hours ago, DerPhilosoph said:

Which schools would be a good fit will probably depend heavily on what area(s) in the history of philosophy you are interested in. Very few schools are top notch in history of philosophy across the board, but rather have particular areas of strength (go to A, B, or C if you want to study Aquinas, but X, Y, or Z if you're interested in Hume). So any useful suggestions will probably require a more detailed explanation of your interests. 

 

I'd really like to do something on Schopenhauer, but it's been hard finding programs with scholars who have him as an interest. Sandra Shapshay at Indiana is pretty much all I've found as of now. 

[Glasperlenspieler]

3 hours ago, Thorongil said:

I'd really like to do something on Schopenhauer, but it's been hard finding programs with scholars who have him as an interest. Sandra Shapshay at Indiana is pretty much all I've found as of now. 

Yeah, for one reason or another Schopenhauer seems to be somewhat out of vogue in contemporary philosophy. The two other philosophers I can think of with an interest in Schopenhauer are Paul Katsafanas at Boston University and Christopher Janaway at Southhampton.

 

I suspect that finding a program suitable for studying philosophy of religion and Schopenhauer may be a little difficult. You're best bet will probably be a program strong in philosophy of religion with someone strong in 19th century German philosophy. Even if it's not a publishing specialty, I suspect that most philosophers working in 19th century German philosophy could supervise a dissertation on Schopenhauer (particularly Nietzsche scholars). In this sense, it may be worth looking at Notre Dame which is probably the strongest place in the world right now for philosophy of religion and also has two people working on German philosophy (Fred Rush and Stephen Watson).

[maxhgns]

5 hours ago, DerPhilosoph said:

Yeah, for one reason or another Schopenhauer seems to be somewhat out of vogue in contemporary philosophy. The two other philosophers I can think of with an interest in Schopenhauer are Paul Katsafanas at Boston University and Christopher Janaway at Southhampton.

 

It's easy enough to think of scholars with a research concentration in Schopenhauer's thought. What's harder is finding philosophers at PhD-granting programs (who aren't emeritus). The only other scholar who springs to mind immediately is Dale Jacquette at Bern. Paul Guyer (Brown) has published on Schopenhauer, as has Lydia Goehr (Columbia). I guess some time peering at the Schopenhauer Gesellschaft might reveal a few more. Incidentally, they currently have an essay competition on for an essay on Schopenhauer and religion.

[Thorongil]

15 hours ago, maxhgns said:

What's harder is finding philosophers at PhD-granting programs (who aren't emeritus).

This has been my impression as well. I think I have a fairly good grasp of where most Schopenhauer scholars are, but many of them simply don't work for PhD granting programs (like David Cartwright), or if they do, they're at schools which are geographically remote (like Robert Wicks in New Zealand) or at a place I would be very skeptical of getting into (like Columbia). I see Barbara Hannan is at New Mexico, though, so maybe I'll add that school. 

Do you think I should email some of these professors and ask if I ought to apply, after giving them a little background on my interests, or simply apply and talk about that in my personal statement? 

[Thorongil]

33 minutes ago, Abendstern said:

But dare to dream...

Interesting use of the word "but."

[maxhgns]

7 hours ago, Thorongil said:

Do you think I should email some of these professors and ask if I ought to apply, after giving them a little background on my interests, or simply apply and talk about that in my personal statement? 

I don't think it would hurt to email them, especially now, long before the semester or application season is upon them. Their responses might not be helpful, but then again some might be.

FWIW, Shapshay is amazing. A treasure of that department.

[bob311]

This is random but look into Heythrop College in the UK. They specialize in philosophy and theology and it might be a good place to start looking for people, etc. 

[xypathos]

On 7/21/2016 at 4:53 PM, bob311 said:

This is random but look into Heythrop College in the UK. They specialize in philosophy and theology and it might be a good place to start looking for people, etc. 

While I'm three months late, a heads up for anyone that stumbles across this thread in the future: Heythrop is in the stages of shutting down and their final degree students began in Sept. of 2016.