A (more) complete list of Carleton philosophy alums who are currently in academia can be found here. 

Jump to class of:

2005
2004
2002
2000
1997
1995
1989
1988
1987
1985
1984
1983
1980
1979
1972
1971
1964
1956 

 

2005

Matthew Steilen
Matt Steilen '99 took a job as Associate Professor of Law and Philosophy (by courtesy) at State University of New York at Buffalo.  Matt teaches and writes in the areas of constitutional law and civil procedure, with a focus on First Amendment and methods of judicial decision-making.  At Carleton, Matt wrote his comps under Roy Elveton, and then went on, like Roy, to receive his PhD from Northwestern University.

 

2004

Benjamin Goldberg
I went to Carleton figuring I would major in English or Biology. I'd ever really been interested in philosophy. But then, during my first term, I took "Intergalactic Knowledge" with Dave MacCallum.  I was hooked. My junior year was spent studying philosophy at Oxford and it was there in Harry-Potter-Land that I decided to get my PhD. I ended up at the University of Pittsburgh Department of History and Philosophy of Science, and it has been a really wonderful time so far in graduate school. My interests lie at the intersection of the history of medicine and the history of early modern philosophy: I am currently writing my dissertation on the role of teleology in work of William Harvey. Here is my web page: http://www.pitt.edu/~beg9/

 

2002

Sarah Paul
It's Perry Mason's fault.  He ensnared me in my first semester with 'Virtue and Vice' and I somehow ended up as a Philosophy major.  At graduation, he asked if I had ever consider going to graduate school in philosophy.  I hadn't, but after spending a year on a Fulbright grant in Germany and not having any further plans, it started to seem like the thing to do.  I did my Ph.D at Stanford University and am now an Assistant Professor at the University of Wisconsin - Madison.  I work on practical philosophy, to put it in the broadest way possible, and you can find out more about it here.

 

2000

Mark Schroeder
My first philosophy class at Carleton hooked me, and I haven't been able to stop, ever since. After Carleton I got my MA and Ph.D. in philosophy from Princeton, and I now teach and do research in philosophy professionally, at the University of Southern California, where I have some fantastic colleagues and very good students. In fact, my research focuses largely on the questions I was introduced to in that first Carleton philosophy class, an intro seminar called 'The Roots of Obligation'. If you are interested, my web page is here. 

 

1997

Cara Nine
I'm one that took the unoriginal career option, and I went on to get a PhD in philosophy. I'm now engaged in a career as a professional academic philosopher teaching philosophy at a university. I find this to be a very rewarding career, but I know it's not every philosophy major's cup of tea. So here are some of my experiences in other jobs:

I worked at a non-profit organization as a liaison with children in the migrant farming community. I also worked as the assistant to the director of the Learning and Teaching Center at Carleton. I didn't pursue any of these jobs (because I was going on to graduate school in philosophy), but I did find that my philosophical skills were very welcome and sought-after by my employers. Philosophers have amazing organizational skills-we can organize thoughts, meetings, conversations, agendas, goals, and arguments... even if we can't organize our desks! We also are sought-after for our analytic and reasoning skills: we know how to approach and analyze problems and to present viable solutions. These are transferable skills, good for almost all professions, and I found that employers desperately sought them out because so many fresh BAs don't have these skills. Philosophers also tend to be particularly well suited for jobs that involve theoretical prowess, especially any job that involves applied ethics (jobs working with environmental policy or research; political policy or research; immigration policy or research...)

Update: Cara's book Global Justice and Territory will be coming out with Oxford University Press in 2011.

 

1995

Ryan Hickerson
After graduation I moved back to Iowa for a while. In the fall of 1995 I took two graduate seminars at the University of Iowa, and though I was not part of their degree program, it was an opportunity for me to convince myself that graduate school in philosophy is what I wanted to do after Carleton. I worked in a mortgage company for a year, retook the GRE, worked my comps up into a writing sample, and then applied (again) to graduate schools. I went to the University of California, San Diego in 1996, and received my Ph.D. from UCSD in 2003. I then spent a couple more years in San Diego, hunting for teaching jobs (and teaching), and working as an editorial assistant for "Inquiry". I was hired as an assistant professor by Western Oregon University in 2005.

Students often ask me: "What can you 'do' with a philosophy major?" I sometimes answer: "That depends on what you plan to do." The real answer is: lots of different things. The presumption that there is only one (or a small number of things) "to be done" with philosophy isn't true. It's like asking, "What can you 'do' with reading?" (or with a degree in music, art, math, literature,and science.) Such things are, of course, intrinsically good. They are also, certainly, instrumental goods. But it is not the case that intrinsic goods that are also instrumental goods are instrumentally good for only one (or a small number) of things.

 

1989

John M. Collins
After working for several years in dreary jobs, I went to the University of California at Santa Barbara for graduate school in philosophy, and I completed my PhD in 2000.  My research interests and publications are now primarily in externalist theories of mental and semantic content, and theories about the interpretation of the Constitution.  In 2001 I was hired as Assistant Professor in the philosophy department at East Carolina University in Greenville NC (part of the UNC system).  In 2007 I received tenure and promotion to Associate Professor.  I enjoy the teaching and the research, and I can mostly tolerate the committee meetings.  I am the advisor to the philosophy majors, so I frequently need to explain the value of the study of philosophy.  I think life is more rewarding and interesting when you have a philosophical outlook.  I know that I see almost everything, from the mundane to the sublime, differently from how I would had I not studied philosophy.  For the more career-minded student, I say that the analytical skills developed by the study of philosophy are requisite for any good job you'll ever have -- and nowadays most people will have several careers -- and will never be obsolete, unlike much of the knowledge you'll acquire in some supposedly more practical majors.  I think Carleton prepared me very well for graduate study and a career in philosophy, and I've never regretted my choice of major or profession. 

 

1988

Bennett Helm
Bennett is currently a professor at Franklin & Marshall College. You can find out more about him here.

 

1987

Laura Ruetsche
I entered Carleton dubious of the very idea of philosophy, and left it an addict. David Sipfle's first year seminar on Zeno's paradoxes got me hooked: in pursuit of themes and questions encountered there, I studied lots of physics, philosophy, and classical Greek while at Carleton. At Oxford on a Rhodes scholarship, I wrote a B. Phil. thesis under the direction of JL Ackrill on Plato's Timaeus, and continued to learn about philosophy of physics.  Interpretations of quantum theories were the focus of my PhD thesis, completed at Pitt in 1995.  While I was ABD, convinced that the life for me was at  a small liberal arts college with plenty of cross country ski opportunities, I snuck off and got myself a job at Middlebury College in Vermont.  Pitt lured me back to join the philosophy faculty in 1996.  I moved to the University of Michigan in 2008.  I'm slated to start chairing the philosophy department here in July 2011.  Philosophy of physics is my primary research interest, but I also like to think about what, if anything, gender and other sorts of social situatedness have  to do with the epistemic dimension of science.  This is my out of date homepage.  And this is a book OUP published in June 2011.

 

1985 

Ted Kinnaman
After graduating from Carleton, I took a year off to read, think, and not be a student.  Thereafter, I entered the PhD program in philosophy at the University of Wisconsin.  I wrote a thesis on Kant's Critique of Judgment, and completed the degree in 1995.  Along the way I spent a couple of years studying in Germany, at the Universities of Bonn and Konstanz.  After a year as an adjunct in the Penn State system, in 1996 I started a tenure-track job at George Mason University in the greater Washington DC area.  I got tenure in 2001, and since 2005 have been chair of my department.  George Mason is an interesting place to be after studying at Carleton, because it is the opposite of Carleton in so many respects: large; mostly non-residential; many students first in their families to go to college; a focus mainly on preparation for a job; and EVERYONE has a car.  So for that reason I think about my experience a lot.  I also think of it, and very fondly, because I am responsible for teaching the History of Modern Phil. course, which I took at Carleton from David Sipfle.  I try to make the course as exciting for them as it was for me.

 

1984

Peter A. Ubel
I am a physician and behavioral scientist. My research and writing explores the quirks in human nature that influence our lives — the mixture of rational and irrational forces that affect our health, our happiness and the way our society functions. (What fun would it be to tackle just the easy problems?)  For news and recent blog posts, check out my personal website at: http://www.peterubel.com/

I’m also a Professor of Marketing and Public Policy at Duke University. My research explores controversial issues about the role of values and preferences in health care decision making, from decisions at the bedside to policy decisions. I use the tools of decision psychology and behavioral economics to explore topics like informed consent, shared decision making and health care rationing.

 

1983

Guy Robertson
I'm working in Forest Service Research as lead author and science coordinator for the 2010 National report on Sustainable Forests.  This after getting a doctorate in natural resource economics and an MA in international studies.  A somewhat winding path to be sure, but I see it all as linked to philosophy in its classical, etymological sense.  As an undergraduate major, philosophy really can't be beat, if nothing else because it forces you to read all those books you should read but wouldn't otherwise.  But really, it did provide me with some core skills in terms of discerning fundamental assumptions and logical connections as well as familiarity with the long evolution of human thought.  This can be a real advantage when working in a field that is dominated by mathematical and technical training.  So, I don't regret the philosophy major at all, but it was kind of tough to land a job just out of college--plan on going to grad school.  Also, I see a philosophy major as something of a badge of honor reserved for those who are called (or perhaps those who are called to law school).

 

1980

David Carr
I am a professor of Old Testament/Hebrew Bible at Union Theological Seminary in New York City. At Carleton I was particularly interested in ethics and political philosophy (my major paper was a socialist study of democratic theory). I got interested in activist Christianity (in the best sense of the word) from meeting a number of socially radical Christians during a college internship in Atlanta, Georgia and so moved a more theological direction for my masters degree. In the end, I got a Masters of Theological Study from Emory with a focus on critical theory and anthropological study of religion. While doing that I got turned on to Biblical study, though it was hard to see how that would combine with my activism. But somehow (after teaching twelve years in Ohio) I ended up here at Union Theological Seminary, working with amazing past, present and future activists, ministers, artists, etc. My philosophy major prepared me to read and analyze anything. Unlike some colleagues in my field, I have no anxiety whatsoever reading highly theoretical material and my BS-ometer is well honed. Also, I learned to write so others could understand.

 

1979

Will Hamlin
Will Hamlin was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship for 2008-2009 in order to finish a book on English readership of the French essayist Michel de Montaigne in the seventeenth century.  Hamlin teaches Renaissance literature at Washington State University.

 

1972

Roger Trangsrud
I received your email today about Carleton Philosophy majors in the academy.  I think you can count me in.  I have been a Professor of Law at the George Washington University Law School for  some 28 years.  I served as Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs here for over a decade and as Interim Dean for one year [2004-05].  Whenever I am in Northfield I try to visit with my mentor and friend, Roy Elveton.

 

1971

Linda E. Patrik
A good liberal arts education under your belt makes it possible to study connections between different disciplines and to develop new fields of research. My own academic career in philosophy is devoted to building bridges between western and Asian philosophy. This bridge building started from a solid grounding in 20^th century European phenomenology and culminated in an exploration of Asian meditative methods as these relate to ethics, metaphysics and epistemology. Along the way I’ve also taught philosophy of art, ancient Greek philosophy, and feminist philosophy at Union College, another good liberal arts college. Along the way, my research has also branched out into philosophy of archaeology and digital humanities. Currently my research is in Tibetan philosophy. Every summer I study and teach Tibetan Buddhist philosophy at the Nitartha Institute in Washington state, where Tibetan philosophers, monks, nuns, translators, and western Buddhist practitioners examine the epistemological and metaphysical theories of Buddhism and then debate these theories formally in sharp, precision-driven argumentation. The view from the bridge is breath-taking.

 

1964

Nicholas Sturgeon
Nicholas Sturgeon is a Professor of Philosophy at Cornell University.

 

James McGilvary
James McGilvary is a Professor of Philosophy at McGill University.

 

1956

Walter B. Mead
By the time I completed my philosophy major at Carleton, I was quite sure that I wanted to end up somehow living the life of a philosopher. However, the attraction of fully paid tuition, board, and room by the Rockefeller Theological Fund for a year at Yale Divinity School persuaded me to try a year there. As intellectually exciting as my four years at Carleton had been, I must say that the year at Yale was the most stimulating yet--studying under some of the greatest philosophical and theological minds of the time, such as Richard Niebuhr, Robert Calhoun, Hans Frei, and such visiting intellects as Reinhold Niebuhr, Paul Tillich, etc. So I continued at Yale for another two years to complete my M.Div. there, and then was ordained in the Methodist Church.
However, my goal remained the same--to teach and write philosophy. At that time most philosophy departments across the U.S. were dominated by a very arid kind of positivistic, or analytic, or linguistic approach that had little to do with the exciting substantive issues that had characterized philosophical inquiry since its beginning in ancient Athens. Soon I learned that those departments of political science that were strong in political philosophy, provided much more opportunity than did philosophy departments for those interested in exploring these more substantive issues. Therefore, I decided to do my Ph.D. work in political science, focusing on political philosophy. At that time Duke University, under the influence of John Hallowell, offered such a program. I was most fortunate that the Lilly Foundation was offering full scholarships for the entire Ph.D. program to those with a background in some theological training interested in going into political science, and lucky to be able to be able to receive one such scholarship. (Having gone through Carleton on a full scholarship for four years, you might say that I had a virtual "free ride" through all my 10 years of higher education!) At Duke I had the opportunity to be exposed to some of the greatest minds in political philosophy--Eric Voegelin, Leo Strauss, Michael Oakeshott, Michael Polanyi--and a faculty advisor who was open to relating theological to philosophical concerns.

Right out of Duke, I taught for fours years at Lake Forest College, and subsequently for 28 years at Illinois State University--both institutions providing me with a broad range of interdisciplinary courses, and to pursue related research and writing interests. In the course of my career I authored about 35 articles, presented about 40 papers, and wrote three books--all relating to philosophical or theological matters or to issues of church and state relations. I took an early retirement in order to address full time my writing interests, and during my 'retirement' I have been involved in writing three more books, as well as numerous papers and journal articles. I serve on the boards of directors of three philosophical journals in the U.S. and Europe, do a lot of 'refereeing' of submitted articles, and was recently elected President of the Michael Polanyi Society, whose interest is in furthering the development of Polanyi's brilliant philosophical ideas, particularly his epistemology.

Despite all the cautions from all kinds of friends and relatives that "you'll never be able to make a living from majoring in philosophy" (by the way, at Carleton my minor field was in Government and International Relations, a program then under the inspired leadership of Reginal Lang--one of the architects of the European Union and the Atlantic Alliance), I've had no problem in making a decent living from this background and--more important--finding that this training has given me much personal satisfaction by the 'larger-picture' perspective and enrichment it has provided. I've held local elective office, and on many occasions this larger perspective, has helped enormously in having a sense of direction in dealing with very practical social and political problems.

If anyone cares to see how I've related by theological training to my philosophical training, I invite you to check in on the Michael Polanyi Society web site, where you can download a paper I delivered at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Religion on November 17, 2006, in Washington, D.C. In the months ahead I'll be giving papers on related topics at Oxford University and at the University of California, Berkeley. So, in short, I would encourage anyone who has been enticed by their exposure to philosophy to plunge ahead in taking one of the more exciting adventures in life by pursuing philosophy. Not all philosophers end up having to wear 'hair-shirts' or to drink Hemlock! But even if I had had to do this (at least the hair-shirt bit) it would have been worth it!