Thesis Topics & Graduate Placement

 

2024

 

Student
Title of Thesis

Graduate Placement

Ben Lugo

“Friendship Intimacy: A New Approach to Valuing Friendship”

PhD Marquette, Philosophy Department

William Moix

"White Guilt: An Ameliorative Proposal"

PhD progam at SUNY-Binghamton, Philosophy Department

Tanicredo Tivane

"What is a Person? How does one become a Morally Good Person? The Intuitive View!"

PhD Program at University of Arkansas, Philosophy Department

Matthew Warren

 "Moores Paradox, the first person, and self-knowledge"

PhD Program at University of Connecticut, Philosophy Department

 

2023

 

Tori Cotton "On Neo-Humean Accounts of Natural Law" PhD Program at UC, Irvine, Department of Logic and Philosophy of Science
Michael Dover "The Multiverse Argument for the Existence of God" International Worker 
 

2022

 
Ashon Sorrels "The Social Ontology of Psychiatry: Psychiatric Diagnosis as an Ontogenetic, Interpellative Speech Act" Ph.D program in Philosophy at Georgetown
Robert Ragsdale "Cognitive Tribalism: A Social Doxastic Model" Ph.D program in Philosophy at Maryland
Jason Miller "The Foundation of a Grand Unified Metaphysics" Equal Opportunity Compliance Officer for the Department of Labor
 

2021

 
Aaron Morris "The Role of 'I' in First-Person Thought and What We Mean by Self-Knowledge"  Ph.D program in Philosophy at UC Riverside
Holly Davis "The Inter The Interconnectedness of Jonathan E connectedness of Jonathan Edwards's Ontology and ology and Trinitarianism" Did not pursue Ph.D
Erica Nicolas "The Evolution of Defeaters: A Taxonomy" Ph.D program in Philosophy at the University of Nebraska
Benjamin Nicholas House "The Application of Complex Systems Science to Political Philosophy" Staff member at the University of Arkansas, UITS
 

2020

 
Kyle Hallam "When Down Looks Like Up: Self-Deceptive Self-Handicapping" Ph.D program in Philosophy at University of Arkansas
Anthony Holdier "Perceptual Characterization: On Perceptual Learning and Perspectival Sedimentation" Ph.D program in Philosophy and Public Policy at University of Arkansas
Braxton Bragg "An Interpersonal Account of Heideggerian Ethics: An Analysis of Being and Time." Ph.D program in Public Policy at University of Arkansas
 

2019

 
Austin Synoground  "Implicit Bias and the Boundaries of Belief: A Single-Representational Dual-Attitude Account of Implicit Attitudes." Assistant Language Teacher, JET Program
Benjamin Dardas "An Evaluative Framework for the Improvement of Religious Practice in the Context of Pluralism" Did not pursue Ph.D
Stephen Irby "Potentials, Actuals, and the Logical Problem of Evil "  Ph.D program University of Arkansas
 

2017

 
Chris Seay "Friedrich Schelling: Soteriological Redemption and Ontological Renewal in the Intellectual Intuition of the Life of Life" Private sector; Vice President and Principal, World Retail Concepts
Justin Edens  "Determinism and the Role of Moral Responsibility"     Ph.D program University of Arkansas
 

2016

 
Alexandra Jewell “An Investigation into Hybrid Models of Mindreading: A Dual Type Model Theory Account"    Ph.D program at University of British Columbia
Michael Hogan “Grounding Deliberative Contractualism" Ph.D program at University of Arkansas
Dylan Abney “Contra Naturalness” Ph.D program at UC-Santa Barbara
Maxwell Gatyas  “An Inquiry into the Distinction between Belief and Imagination” Ph.D program at University of Cincinnati
 

2015

 
Bobby Howard “On the Evolutionary Origins of Religious Belief” Ph.D program at University of Arkansas
Zachary Biondi “Spinoza’s Eternal Mind” Ph.D program at UCLA
Derek McAllister “The Problem of Epistemically Irrelevant Causal Factors” Ph.D program at Baylor University
 

2014

 
Kelly Gallagher "Can Libertarianism or Compatibilism Capture Aquinas' position on the Will?"  Instructor of Theology, Strake Jesuit High School, Houston, TX.  Previously  Visiting Professor of Philosophy, Benedictine College, Atchison, KS.
Blake Hereth "Against Self-Defense" Ph.D program at University of Washington-Seattle
Elijah Hess "Neo-Molinism: A Reappraisal and Defense" Ph.D program at University of Arkansas
 

2013

 
Justin Clardy "Love, Reason, and Romantic Relationships" Ph.D program at University of Arkansas.
Seth Daves  "On the Permanence of Heideggerian Authenticity"  Adjunct Instructor of Philosophy, University of Arkansas.
 

2011

 
Kathryn Zawisza "The Ins and Outs of Prostitution: A Moral Analysis" Ph.D program at University of Arkansas.
Danny Marrero "Cognitive Agendas and Legal Epistemology" Ph.D program at University of Arkansas.
Zaccheus Harmon "Whither Representationalism? Evaluating How Price's Global Expressivism" Ph.D program at University of Illinois at Chicago
 

2010

 
Cody Cash "An Alternate Approach to the Conditional Analysis of Dispositions"  Ph.D program at University of Arkansas.  Instructor of Philosophy, Missouri State  University, Springfield, MO.
 

2009

 
Cameron Pershall "A Case Against Moral Universalism" Ph.D program at Calgary University, Canada (declined).
Paul Cudney "Response-Dependent Evaluative Properties:  A Response to the Circulatory Objection" Ph.D program at Georgetown. Previously in Ph.D program at University of South Florida.
 

2008

 
Philip Antin "There's a Place for 'Us': The Need for the Notion of Collective Responsibility" Ph.D program at University of Arkansas.
David Barrett "Universalizability and Resultance: An Argument Against Dancey's Particularism" Ph.D program at University of Arkansas
Chad Bogosian "MacIntyre's Virtue Theory: A Critical Appraisal" Ph.D program at University of Arkansas.
Charlie Coil "Primum Non Nocere--First Do No Harm: Finding Common Ground for Human Indignity" Ph.D program at University of Arkansas.
Joshua Kenyon "Global Skepticism: Descartes, Wittgenstein, and the Limits of Inquiry" Ph.D program at University of Arkansas
Joshua Packwood "Mysticism and Conversion in Plotinus" Ph.D program at University of Arkansas
Dawna Shin  "Wittgenstein and the Grammar of 'Human Being" Ph.D program at University of Arkansas
 

2007

 
Jeffery Byrnes "Dasein, Skepticism, and Authenticity: Getting from Being and Time to a Lived Life" PhD program at Essex.
Adam Grasser "Understanding Pretense: A Look at Theories of Motivation" JD program at University of Arkansas Law School.
 

2006

 
Larry Duran "Has Alvin Plantiga 'Undercut' the De Jure Objection in Warranted Christian Belief?"  MDiv program at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.
Keith Harvey "What is Enlightenment?: Foucault's Genealogical Historiography and the Concept of Danger" JD program at University of Arkansas Law School.
 

2005

 
Roman Briggs "Red Worlds of Red Prisms: A Cordial Humbling of Marxian Dialectics" PhD program at University of Arkansas;
DJ Murphy     "Heidegger, Artwork, and Truth" Did not pursue a Ph.D
Shannon Spaulding "Belief-Desire Thesis Defended: The Causal Motivation of Pretence" Ph.D program at University of Wisconsin.
Tony Woodside  "Faith and Silence in Kierkegaard's Fear and Trembling" Teaching Junior High English in Harrison, AR.
 

2004

 
Heath Bradley "To Hell with Freedom?"  MDiv program at Perkins School of Theology/SMU
Lisa Cook        "Rousseau, Mill, and Medium Censorship" Ph.D program at University of Arkansas.
John Humphrey      "Further Reanimation of Great Philosophical Monster : Species, Logico- Philosophicus, Or the Ontological Implications of Wittgenstein's View of Truth in the Tractatus" Ph.D program at University of Arkansas.
Matt Pianalto      "Suicide and the Self"  Ph.D program at University of Arkansas
Alexei Zarnitsyn       "Cavell and Rorty on Skepticism (Two Analyses of Philosophical Skepticism)" Ph.D program at University of Illinois
 

2003

 
Aaron Champene "The Possibility of Basic Beliefs" Ph.D program at University of Arkansas
Megan Wallace  "Chisholm's Paradox: An Analysis" Ph.D program at Syracuse
 

2002

 
Kyle Russell "On Talbot's Universalism" Ph.D program at University of Arkansas.
Hansen Wendlandt "Inter-Species Moral Consideration"  MDiv at Boston University
 

2001

 
Kevin Kimble  "Two Arguments Against Moral Dilemmas" Ph.D program at Indiana University
Christopher Ott       "Refutations of Idealism" Did not pursue Ph.D
Charles Urban  "On the Rationality of Christianity : An Examination of Two Contemporary Accounts"  Ph.D program at University of Arkansas
 

2000

 
E. J. Coffman "Three Recent Causalist Accounts of Free Agency" Ph.D program at University of Notre Dame
Michael Holland  "On Aquinas' Theodicy" Did not pursue Ph.D
Sonjoruri Trisakti "Thomas Kuhn and the Rationality of Scientific Movement" Lecturer in Indonesia.

 

2024

 
Student Title of Dissertation Professional Placement
Luke Hillman "The Riddle of Religious Langauge"  
Micheal Hogan "Non-Naturalism and Superenience" Instructor of Philosophy, University of Arkansas
 

2023

 
Stephen Irby

"A Calvinistic Divine Glory Defense"

Upper School Humanities Teacher at Sager Classical Academy 
Elijah Hess

"Theistic Open Futurism: A Critical Philosophical Investigation"

Professor at St. Louis Community College-Wildwood
 

2022

 
Adam Blehm "Disharmony of the Soul: A Philosphical Analysis of Psychological Trauma and Flourishing" Biblical Worldview Director at Rejoice Christian Schools, Oklahoma.

 

2021

 
Robert Howard   "On Human Rights and Structural Justice" Political Consultant for Well Water Consulting and Adjunct Instructor of Philosophy, University of Arkansas
Dax Bennington     "On the Epistemic Significance of Expert Conversion" Director of UNT Campus Ministry and Evangelization, University of North Texas
 

2019

 
Sam Johnson  "Normative Pragmatic Selfhood: A Pragmatist Conception of Value for Marginal Cases"  Private Sector 
Andrew Kirschner       "Will-Independent Mereological Trinity Monotheism: A Defense of the Logical Coherence of, A Priori Motivation for and a Particular Model Concerning the Doctrine of the Trinity"  Lead Minister, Glendale Christian Church
 

2018

 
David Cajias  "I, Myself, and Me, The Human Being"  English Graduate Program at the University of Arkansas
Charlie Coil     "Abandoning the Dream of Omnipotence: On Autonomy and Self-Binding" Adjunct instructor and private sector
 

2017

 
Kathryn Zawisza  "Toward a Legal Harm Principle: Constructing and Applying a Legal Principle from John Stuart Mill's General Harm Principle"       Director of Academic Technology and Innovation, University of Arkansas 
Justin Clardy  

"Civic Tenderness: Love's Role in Achieving Justice"     Assistant Professor (tenure-track) at Santa Clara University
 

2016

 
David Rice  “Biocentrism in Environmental Ethics: Questions of Inherent Worth, Etiology, and Teleofunctional Interests” Adjunct Faculty - Biology at Coastal Carolina Community College
 

2015

 
Cody Cash   “Disentangling Embodied Cognition: An Examination of the State, Problems, and Possibilities of Embodied Cognition” Non-Academic Employment, Plus Adjunct Teaching at Missouri State University
Joshua Daniel  “Wittgenstein’s Liberating Word: A Meditation on Philosophy and God” Student at Virginia Theological Seminary
Roman Briggs  “Impartialist Ethics & Psychic Disintegration: A Talking Cure” Full-time Faculty at Cochise College; Adjunct at University of Arizona South
 

2014

 
Danny Marrerro 

"Everyone Knew He Did It, But He Was Not Condemned! Knowledge and Knowledge Attributions in Legal Contexts."  Assistant Professor at University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, Program Director for Pre-Law Program
 

2013

 
Charles Urban   "Content and Concept: An Examination of Transcendental Empiricism"  Part-time Instructor of Philosophy, College of Lake County, Grayslake, IL.
Joshua Packwood   "Everything is Flat: The Transcendence of the One in Neoplatonic Ontology"  Associate Professor of Philosophy, UAFS, Fort Smith, AR.
David Barrett   "Defending the Multiple Realization Argument Against the Identity Theory"  Instructor of Philosophy, University of Arkansas.
 

2012

 
Matthew Sokoloski     "Divine Hiddenness and the Challenge of Inculpable Nonbelief" Assistant Professor of Humanities, Faulkner University, Montgomery, AL.
Chad Bogosian    "Steadfastness and the Epistemology of Disagreement"  Instructor of Philosophy, Clovis Community College
 

2011

 
Christian Roos    "A Nietzschean Account of Human Flourishing: Affirming the Will to Power Inside the Contours of Frie" Adjunct Instructor of Philosophy, Delgado Community College, New Orleans,  LA.
Nicholas Barber   "Longing for the Divine: Holism in Plato's Theaetetus and Sophist" NC State Assistant Teaching Professor
Douglas Krueger  "Activism: An Epistemology Inspired by Wittgenstein's On Certainty" Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Northwest Arkansas Community College,  Bentonville, AR.
 

2010

 
David Leonard "Intellectual Virtue and Epistemic Praise: Towards an Internalist Virtue Epistemology" Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Luther Rice College & Seminary, Atlanta, GA.
 

2009

 
Aaron Champene "Blind trust: A Defense of Non-Reductionism in the Epistemology of Testimony" Assistant Professor of Philosophy, St. Louis Community College.
 

2008

 
Jeremy Williams

“Is Knowing Only Half the Battle in Moral Decision Making?  An Analysis of the  Development of Moral Psychology through the Platonic Tradition into Late  Antiquity with Special Emphasis upon the Unity of Virtue and Akrasia Part-time Instructor, William Carey University, Hattiesburg, MS.
 

2007

 
Andy Kelso  “The Duty to Aid: A Kantian View of Physician-Assisted Suicide” Assistant Professor, West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine
Matt Pianalto  "Subjectivism, Realism, and Morality"  Associate Professor of Philosophy, Eastern Kentucky University.
 

2006

 
Lisa Cook  "The Land Ethic"  Teaching English in Japan.
 

2004

 
Richard Howe     "A Defense of Thomas Aquinas' Second Way"  Professor Emeritus of Philosophy and Apologetics, Southern Evangelical  Seminary, Charlotte, NC..
 

2003

 
John Gulley     "Ludwig Binswanger's Existential Psychology"  Associate Professor of Philosophy, Piedmont Virginia Community College.
Ronald Hustwit       "Meaning As Use: Why Wittgenstein Was Not an Empiricist"  United States Air Force.
 

2002

 
William Eakin  "A Rational Ecstasy: Language and Mystical Experience in Plotinus" Professor of Philosophy, University of the Ozarks, Clarksville, AR.
 

2001

 
Darren Hibbs    "Eriugena, Berkeley, and Hegel: The Variety of Idealisms in the Western Philosophical Tradition"  Associate Professor of Philosophy, Nova Southeastern State University, Fort Lauderdale, FL.
Donald Merrell "Contemporary Conceivability Arguments in Philosophy of Mind: A Critique" Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Northwest Arkansas Community College, Bentonville, AR.