Postgraduate Prospectus

www.essex.ac.uk/philosophy | Philosophy
Matthew Bennett, Sunderland
– MA Continental Philosophy ’09,
PhD Philosophy
Student
profile
While doing my undergraduate
degree at Durham University,
colleagues recommended Essex
to me, as it is one of the only
places in the country to
specialise in Continental philosophy, a
subset of the discipline that I was keen
to study at postgraduate level. Alongside
this specialisation, Essex appealed to me
as it is also fully versed in more ‘traditional’
philosophical areas. It offers, for example,
MA Continental Philosophy, while
bridging the (somewhat outdated) divide
being analytic and continental philosophy.
My time at Essex has given me the
opportunity to study the particulars of
some of the philosophical questions I
was introduced to as an undergraduate.
I also appreciate the vibrant academic
community here at Essex; since I arrived
there have been regular extra-curricular
seminars, workshops, conferences
and reading groups, which I have
attended and enjoyed. There is an
abundance of opportunities to discuss
our work in a variety of environments
– from more formal seminars to less
formal pub-philosophy discussions.
This has all been very rewarding.
Upon completion of my PhD, I want to
undertake research and teaching in a
philosophy department, so my studies
at Essex are really the only way to help
me get such a job. My best memories
of the University will be my long evenings
in the Students’ Union bar, talking
about all kinds of smart things,
with all kinds of smart people,
and learning all kinds of
new ideas.
n Philosophy and literature
n Philosophy of language
n Philosophy of medicine
n Philosophy of religion
n Wittgenstein
Titles of recent theses written by our
students include:
n Deliberation, Deconstruction and
the Democratic Venture
n Phenomenal Consciousness and
Higher-Order Thought
n Self and World: A Critique and
Jamesian Reconstruction of the
Phenomenology of Selfhood
n Making Sense of Global Social
Justice: The Sufficiency Threshold
n Deceiving Reason: Radical Evil in
Kant's Philosophy
n Humanitarian Intervention: The
Dilemma of Imposing Conditions
We aim to provide opportunities for our
research students to acquire valuable
teaching experience. This usually takes
the form of support teaching for first-year
undergraduate modules or providing
back-up for our staff on modules for
more advanced undergraduate students.
We also house the editorial offices of
Inquiry (An Interdisciplinary Journal of
Philosophy), where editorial positions
are offered.
Research areas
Research supervision is available in the
following fields:
n Ancient philosophy
n Applied ethics
n Contemporary French philosophy
n Continental philosophy
n Ethics and practical reasoning
n Frankfurt School and Critical Theory
n History of philosophy
n Kant and German idealism
n Nietzsche
n Phenomenology
n Philosophy and psychoanalysis
n Philosophy and religion, emphasising
Kierkegaard
n Philosophy, art and literature
n Philosophy of mind, theory of
knowledge and cognitive science
n Political philosophy
n Self-consciousness
n Social and political philosophy
n Structuralism and post-structuralism
n Wittgenstein
Mini-courses and seminars
We host annual mini-courses, given by
visiting speakers of international reputation,
which are specifically designed for our
postgraduates. In addition, we run regular
seminars, co-ordinated with those arranged
by our Centre for Theoretical Studies.
We also have a ten-week Doctoral
Research Seminar and a termly
Departmental Research Colloquium,
where there is the opportunity for our
research students to present their work
in progress to an audience of their peers
and academic staff.
Postgraduate Prospectus 2012 | 175