Research Opportunities

Emphasis in Critical Theory

The School of Humanities offers an emphasis in Critical Theory that can be appended to the Philosophy track. Those interested in the emphasis begin by taking the three-quarter Critical Theory Workshop. With the recommendation of a workshop instructor or a Critical Theory faculty member in the Philosophy Department, students may then apply to the Critical Theory Committee for admission to the emphasis. Students admitted to the Critical Theory emphasis must complete requirements in addition to those of the Ph.D. program in Philosophy. For further information click here.

Salzburg Exchange Program

The Department of Philosophy and the Department of Logic and Philosophy of Science jointly administer an exchange program with the University of Salzburg. The program has two parts. The Scholarly Exchange provides opportunities for our faculty and graduate students to visit Salzburg and for faculty and graduate students from Salzburg to visit one or the other of the UCI units. The Program also sponsors joint conferences, held alternately in Irvine and in Salzburg; these are co-sponsored by Salzburg and the UCI Interdisciplinary Program in the History and Philosophy of Science.

A graduate student must normally have been advanced to candidacy in order to be eligible for the Salzburg Exchange. Selected students spend one semester in Salzburg, usually teaching one course in the area of their dissertation topic. An upper-division course may be taught in English, but lower-division courses must be taught in German. (Some previous visitors have learned serviceable German by attending a Goethe institute during the preceding summer.) Typically, a Salzburg visitor will receive a Salzburg Fellowship intended to cover travel expenses, and a stipend; those who teach while in Salzburg will also receive a salary intended to cover living expenses (including health and dental insurance).

Application should be made to the Philosophy Department by November 1 and should include a curriculum vitae and syllabi for possible courses to be taught.

Scientia Workshop

The Scientia Workshop, the successor to the Cartesian Circle, based at UCI but including faculty and graduate students from other universities in Southern California, regularly organizes and supports various activities promoting the study of the history of philosophy from the Ancient Greeks to Kant. These activities include discussion groups, translation projects, dissertation workshops and occasional sponsorship of conferences.

Scholars who find themselves in the area and wish to participate should contact Sean Greenberg.

Group for the Study of Early Cultures

The Group for the Study of Early Cultures was formed in the spring of 2006 to highlight the strength of faculty teaching and research at UCI in the earlier centuries in many different cultures, as well as to provide an intellectual and social space for both faculty and graduate student scholars to interact and exchange ideas.

Southern California Epistemology Network

The Southern California Epistemology Network consists of philosophers who work in epistemology or related areas, and who are currently (or have been) affiliated with an institution in Southern California. Members of the network have been meeting regularly since 2006 at the Southern California Epistemology Workshop and, more recently, at the Epistemology and Philosophy of Psychology Workshop (see Events section for further information).
Network aims:

• to promote interaction and collaboration among epistemologists in Southern California,
• to give faculty and graduate students the opportunity to present work in progress at regular network events,
• to serve as a platform for funding applications,
• to establish ties with epistemology groups/networks out of state and abroad.

California Phenomenology Circle

The California Phenomenology Circle is a group of philosophers with a shared interest in phenomenological philosophy. The group meets several times a year informally, and is affiliated with SPAP--the Society for the Study of Phenomenology and Analytic Philosophy. The group has been meeting since the 1960's.

Interdisciplinary Center for the Scientific Study of Ethics & Morality

Exploring this quintessential question at the heart of ethics is the goal of the UCI Interdisciplinary Center for the Scientific Study of Ethics and Morality. The Center was established in 2003 by a group of scholars interested in recent scientific research that yields insight on the origins and causes of morality. In creating the Center, UCI faculty are addressing topics that reflect critically on the moral implications of the new frontiers in science.

The Center convenes faculty, researchers, graduate students, and visiting scholars to conduct studies, present lectures and publish professional papers and proceedings from public talks and organized conferences.

Topoi, an International Journal

The journal Topoi , under the editorship of Professor Ermanno Bencivenga, has long had its home in the UCI Department of Philosophy. For more journal information and submission guidelines, click here.

Topoi’s main assumption is that philosophy is a lively, provocative activity, constantly challenging our received views, questioning our inherited habits, and elaborating on how things could be different, in other stories, in counterfactual situations, in alternative possible worlds. Whatever its ideology, whether with the intent of uncovering a truer structure of reality or of soothing our anxiety, of exposing myths or of following them through, the outcome of philosophical activity is always the destabilizing, unsettling generation of doubts, of objections, of criticisms.

It follows that this activity is intrinsically a dialogue, that philosophy is first and foremost philosophical discussion, that it requires bringing out conflicting points of view, paying careful, sympathetic attention to their structure, and using this dialectic to articulate one's approach, to make it richer, more thoughtful, more open to variation and play. And it follows that the spirit which one brings to this activity must be one of tolerance, of always suspecting one's own blindness and consequently looking with unbiased eye in every corner, without fearing to pass a (fallible) judgment on what is there but also without failing to show interest and respect.

Topoi's structure is a direct expression of this view. To maximize discussion, we devote most or all of each issue to a single topic. And, since discussion is only interesting when it is conducted seriously and responsibly, we usually request the collaboration of a guest-editor, an expert who will identify contributors and interact with them in a constructive way. Because we do not feel tied to any definite philosophical theme (or set of them), we choose the topic with absolute freedom, looking for what is blossoming and thriving, occasionally betting on what might partly through our attention -- begin to blossom and thrive. And because we do not want our structure to become our own straightjacket, we are open to contributions not fitting the topos, and do not rule out in principle the possibility of topic-less issues.