Over the last few decades, we have witnessed an increased interest in LGBTQ philosophy. More recently, this has been supplemented by an increased interest in trans philosophy, and the future promises more fertile areas of study. Moreover, because such a subfield in philosophy is new (and until recently many of its practitioners were cautious about declaring themselves its practitioners), there is a need to help aspiring graduate students know where to go to do graduate work in this area. Hence this list.
Any time we attempt to define a subfield in philosophy, there is bound to be disagreement about the definition. This is especially true of LGBTQ philosophy, which contains not only two broad strands of philosophy—one pertaining mostly to sexual orientation and the other mostly to gender—but which also connects deeply with related fields in philosophy, such as feminism, political philosophy, moral philosophy, social philosophy, and philosophy of sex.
In constructing the list, we emailed a number of people (“the advisory board”) who are well-informed about the universities where students can find at least one person with whom they can work on LGBTQ themes and issues. The places on the list are not ranked (e.g., numerically or verbally [“recommended vs. strongly recommended”]), and the list says nothing about the climate in these places regarding LGBTQ philosophy. Moreover, prospective students should use the list as a first step in looking for places to do graduate work. They will need to look up the places on the list to see who is there and what specific area in LGBTQ philosophy they do and whether their research in it is connected to other areas in philosophy. They should also keep in mind that departments sometimes change quickly in their faculty composition.
With the above in mind, we hope that the LGBTQ list is of benefit in putting graduate students on the right path.
American University (MA only)
Arizona State University
Boston University
California State University, Los Angeles (MA only)
California State University, Northridge
DePaul University
Emory University
Georgetown University
MIT
Northwestern University
Pennsylvania State University
San Diego State University (MA only)
Seattle University
San Francisco State University
SUNY Binghamton
University of Alberta
University of Arizona
University of California, Santa Cruz
University of Chicago
University of Illinois, Champaign
University of North Carolina, Charlotte
University of Oregon
University of San Francisco
University of Southern California
University of Texas, Austin
University of Virginia
Wayne State University
Yale University
York University