This chart lists all students who have completed the M.A. degree in Philosophy at Gonzaga University since 1999. The placement information on this page is, to the best of our knowledge, complete and accurate. However, if you have updated information, or suspect that information here is incomplete or mistaken, please contact the Director of Graduate Studies, David Calhoun (calhoun at gem.gonzaga.edu).
Placement Summary Statistics
(data since 1999, updated May 11, 2012; some graduates belong to more than one category)
|
count |
percentage |
|
|
total M.A. degrees awarded |
39 |
100% |
|
graduates placed in Ph.D. programs |
16 |
41.0% |
|
graduates who have completed Ph.D. programs |
8 |
20.5% |
|
total graduates in all forms of teaching positions |
22 |
56.4% |
|
graduates in tenured and tenure-track positions |
5 |
12.8% |
|
graduates in adjunct teaching positions |
16 |
41.0% |
|
graduates in high school / prep school positions |
1 |
2.6% |
|
graduates in law practice |
2 |
5.1% |
|
graduates in religious vocations or careers |
2 |
5.1% |
Graduate Degrees, Theses, and Placements
|
Name |
Degree Awarded |
Thesis / Supervisor |
Post-Gonzaga Placement |
|
David Kovacs |
2012 |
“Aquinas on Formal Objects” John Wagner |
Ph.D. program in philosophy, Fordham University |
|
Craig Vander Hart |
2012 |
“Recovering Hegel’s Method: Raya Dunayevskaya, Marxist-Humanism, and the Crisis of Praxis” Tom Jeannot |
adjunct teaching in philosophy, Wenatchee Valley College |
|
John Van Houdt |
2012 |
“Contingency and Necessity: Hegel, Badiou, and the Logic of Quantitative Infinity” Tom Jeannot |
M.Phil. program in philosophy, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (Belgium), Ph.D. program in philosophy, Tilburg University (the Netherlands), teaching assignments at KU Leuven |
|
Ricardo Davila |
2011 |
“On What we Know There Is: A Critique of Independently Existing Essences” Richard McClelland |
adjunct teaching in philosophy, Gonzaga University; applying for philosophy grad school |
|
Lukas Sauer |
2011 |
“The Moral Justification of Violence in Civilly Disobedient Action” Ellen Maccarone |
applying for adjunct teaching in philosophy |
|
Brent Diebel |
2011 |
“Intertheoretic Relation, Reduction, and a Defense of the Legitimacy of Mental Discourse in the Sciences” Erik Schmidt |
adjunct teaching in philosophy, Gonzaga University; apply for philosophy Ph.D. study |
|
Bruce Beerman |
2011 |
Care and Dasein: A Study of the Notion of Care in the Early Writings of Martin Heidegger” Tom Jeannot |
adjunct teaching in philosophy, Gonzaga University |
|
Daniel Wagner |
2010 |
“A Thomistic Critique of Occasionalism from Natural Causality, Divine Omnipotence, and the Psychology of Human Agency” Michael Tkacz |
Ph.D. program in philosophy, University of St Thomas, Houston |
|
Spencer Murphy |
2010 |
“Leo Strauss, the Crisis of the West, and the Theologico-Political Problem” Douglas Kries |
adjunct instructor in philosophy, Green River Community College |
|
Adriana Kowal |
2010 |
“Phenomenology of ‘Le Regard’: Understanding a Merleau-Pontian Ethics Through Aesthetics” Kirk Besmer |
adjunct teaching in philosophy, Loyola University Chicago; Ph.D. program in philosophy, Marquette University |
|
Adriane Leithauser |
2009 |
“Schelling’s Religious Philosophy: A Step Toward a Meaningful Postmodern World?” Tim Clancy, SJ |
adjunct instructor, Gonzaga University (Philosophy and School of Business) |
|
Elton Callahan |
2009 |
“A Critique of Four Contemporary Versions of Divine Simplicity” Brian Clayton |
N/A |
|
David M. Huntley |
2009 |
“Santayana and Dewey: Two Naturalistic Responses to the Everyday” Tom Jeannot |
private law practice |
|
Barney H. Corbin |
2009 |
“A Thomistic Reply to the Reformed Objection to Natural Theology” Michael Tkacz |
graduate coursework in theology, Liberty University |
|
Lara Perry |
2008 |
“The ‘Failure’ of Physics, the Mystical Experience, and the Experiential Knowledge of the Founders of Modern Physics” Quanhua Liu |
Ph.D. program in Leadership Studies, Gonzaga University |
|
Anthony George (Major, US Army) |
2008 |
“The Soteriology of Epictetus the Mystic: An Exposition of Stoic Religiosity and Mysticism” Richard McClelland |
Instructor, US Military Academy, West Point; Security Transition Team, Iraq |
|
Molly Ayers |
2008 |
“Naming the Ultimate: The Approach and Methods of St. Thomas Aquinas and Taoist Philosophers in Speaking Meaningfully About the Ultimate” John Wagner |
Assistant Director, Center for Community Action and Service Learning, Gonzaga University; adjunct instructor in philosophy, Gonzaga |
|
Justin Anderson |
2007 |
“Thomas Aquinas on Final Causality and a Contemporary Debate on Design in Nature” Michael Tkacz |
Ph.D. program in philosophy, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven |
|
Cory S. Madsen |
2007 |
“Method in Philosophical Theology: The Free-Will/Determinism Controversy” Richard McClelland |
non-academic employment |
|
Emma Miner |
2007 |
“Disability, Quality-of-Life, and Genetic Testing” Rose Mary Volbrecht |
hospital work |
|
David Weise |
2006 |
“Capitalism or Freedom: A Critique of the Capitalist Claim of the Maximization of Human Freedom” Brian Steverson |
adjunct instructor in philosophy at Gonzaga University, Eastern Washington University, Spokane Community College, and Spokane Falls Community College |
|
Brian Buckley |
2006 |
“Applications of Communitarian Ethical Principles to a Bioethics Setting” Tim Clancy, SJ |
Ph.D. in philosophy, Loyola-Chicago (2011); Lecturer in philosophy at Santa Clara University |
|
John Sherman (Major, US Air Force) |
2005 |
“The Telos Metaethic” Brian Steverson |
instructor in philosophy, Air Force Academy |
|
Ross Anthony Tippit |
2005 |
“A Comparison of Two Critiques of Modern Epistemology: Thomistic Realism and Philosophical-Hermeneutics” Tim Clancy, SJ |
adjunct instructor in philosophy, St. John’s University, NY |
|
Margaret Gathoni Muchiri |
2005 |
“A Critical Review of Traditional Cultural Practices in Africa with Regard to Oppression of Women: Focus on Female Genital Cutting/Mutilation” Rose Mary Volbrecht |
Ph.D. program in Leadership Studies, Gonzaga University (2009) |
|
Britni Weaver |
2003 |
“Primary Being and Accidents: Aristotle's Metaphysics Applied to Questions of Race Discrimination and Slavery” David Calhoun and John Wagner |
Instructor (full-time, tenured 2008) and Department Chair, Spokane Falls Community College |
|
Mark Tschaepe |
2003 |
Ph.D. in philosophy, Southern Illinois University (2008); Faculty, Center for Learning Innovation (Philosophy), University of Minnesota Rochester |
|
|
Fr. Wilbroad Mwape |
2003 |
“The Unmoved First Mover Proof and Modern Science: A Defense of the Motor Causality Principle” Michael Tkacz |
work in Catholic priesthood as hospital chaplain (Charleston, SC) and religious broadcasting (Zambia) |
|
Stephen Dilley |
2002 |
“Written on The Heart: A Critical Assessment of Explanations for Universal Religious Belief” Brian Clayton and Douglas Kries |
Ph.D., Arizona State University (2007), Assistant Professor of Philosophy (tenure-track), St Edwards University, TX |
|
BonnieJean Kurle |
2002 |
“How to Cheat at Language Games: An Analysis of Unruly Illocutions” Richard McClelland |
Ph.D. in philosophy, Purdue University (2011); independent scholar |
|
Simeon Enemuo |
2001 |
“An Exercise in Wondering: An Illumination of Nigeria’s Problems as Guided by Lonergan, Gadamer, and Marxism” Tom Jeannot and Mark Alfino |
semi-professional soccer, Spokane Shadow |
|
John Russell |
2001 |
“Contemporary Fideistic Assessments of Human Activity after MacIntyre” Douglas Kries |
Ph.D. program in Philosophy, Duquesne University; teaching appointments at several schools, including St. Vincent College and Trivium School, MA |
|
Fr. Uchechukwu Obisike |
2001 |
“The Similarity of the IGBO Political System to Aristotle’s Best Regimes: One Proof that Africa is not a Dark Continent” Doug Kries |
work in Catholic priesthood as hospital chaplain (Spokane, WA) and parish priest (Rosalia, WA) |
|
Brian Sterner |
2000 |
“Epistemic Foundations of Socratic Pedagogy” David Calhoun and Bernard Tyrrell |
Ph.D. program in philosophy, University of South Florida |
|
Matthew Newcomb |
2000 |
“Situating the author by way of the Reader in Literature and History: A study and Critique of the Reception Theories of Wolfgang Iser and Hans-Robert Jauss” Tim Clancy and Mark Alfino |
Ph.D. in English, Pennsylvania State University (2007), associate professor of English at SUNY New Paltz |
|
Christopher Kozoll |
2000 |
“Implications of Dewey’s Theory of Moral Autonomy for Rawls’ Theory of Civil Disobedience” Brian Steverson and Mark Alfino |
JD in Law, University of Colorado School of Law (2004), private law practice |
|
Alyssa Pitstick |
1999 |
“Human and Non-Human Animals: What’s the Difference? The Human Person in His Natural Context” Michael Tkacz |
STL, International Theological Institute, Gaming, Austria (2002), STD, Pontifical University of St Thomas Aquinas, Rome (2005), tenure track appointment at Hope College (Holland, MI) |
|
Joel N. Steinmetz |
1999 |
“Is Scientific Natural Theology Possible? Facing the Implications of Scientific Demarcation” Brian Clayton and Michael Tkacz |
Ph.D. in Philosophy, Catholic University (2008); visiting and adjunct teaching; philosophical coaching |
|
Richard Carpenter |
1999 |
“The Transcendental Object as Manifested in the Work of Art” Quanhua Liu |
Independent musician |
In addition to Ph.D. program placements listed here, Gonzaga Philosophy M.A. students who graduated prior to 1999 have been placed in philosophy programs at institutions such as Boston College, University of Colorado, University of Hawaii, and University of Southern California, and in programs in other disciplines such as political science at Georgetown and anthropology at Washington State University. Gonzaga Philosophy M.A. graduates from prior to 1999 have gone on to hold tenured positions at such institutions as Seattle University, Duquesne University, Washington State University, North Idaho College, Patrick Henry College, and Talbot School of Theology at Biola University.
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Phone: (509) 313-6741
Email: philosophy@gonzaga.edu
www.gonzaga.edu/philosophy
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1207 N. Astor Street
(Across from St. Aloysius Church)