Continental Philosophy
This report for academic year 2019/20 divides graduate programs into the two categories indicated below.
Strongly Recommended departments have indications that graduate students will be encouraged and supported to pursue work in this area, will find a supportive community of scholars and mentors, and will be able to write a state of the art dissertation in continental philosophy.
Recommended departments have indications that graduate students will be encouraged and supported to pursue work in continental philosophy.
For information about the basis of these recommendations, please go to our FAQ and Methodology pages. The recommendations below are not listed alphabetically but roughly in the order of support they received. Please keep in mind that these lists have been produced by surveying experts in this sub-field of philosophy. The Pluralist Guide strongly advises students to use these lists as a prima facie guideline for further research. Faculty retire and change departments, and the particular area that one philosopher is working within may not connect with a given student’s interests. We encourage you to use these lists alongside the APA Grad Guide on the APA website as well as your own research into departments. Department chairs will often provide names of current students who can be consulted for more information, and though the students that chairs direct you toward may be a select set, putting all of these sources of information alongside each other can significantly inform your decision about where to apply.
Recommended PhD Programs for Continental Philosophy
Strongly Recomended
Emory University
Pennsylvania State University
University of Oregon
Boston College
Fordham University
McGill University
SUNY, Stony Brook
University of Memphis
Duquesne University
DePaul University
Georgetown University
Purdue University
Texas A&M University
Loyola University, Chicago
Michigan State University
Northwestern University
SUNY, Binghamton
University of Guelph
Marquette University
University of Toronto
Memorial University, Newfoundland
CUNY Grad center
University of Chicago
Rice University
Columbia University
Temple University
Vanderbilt University
Boston University
University of South Florida
New School for Social Research
Villanova University
Cornell University
University of Pennsylvania
University of California, Irvine
Queen’s University
University of Western Ontario (CTC)
Recomended
Notre Dame University
McMaster University
University of California, Riverside
University of Alberta
University of Montreal
Dalhousie University
Duke University
Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (Belgium)
Rutgers University
SUNY, Buffalo
University of Dallas
University of Houston
University of California, Berkley
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
University of Pittsburgh
Washington State University, Pullman
Washington University, St Louis
Western Michigan University
St. Louis University
University of California, Santa Cruz
University of Texas, Austin
University of New Mexico
Catholic University of America
Recommended MA programs for Continental Philosophy
Strongly Recommended
American University
Ryerson University, Toronto
Loyola Marymount University of Los Angeles
Miami University of Ohio
Recommended
Georgia State University
West Chester University of Pennsylvania
University of North Carolina, Charlotte
Washington State University, Pullman
Western Michigan University
Concordia University
University of Houston
University of Western Ontario