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Preparing Philosophy’s Next Faculty

����ֱ��’s PhD in Philosophy Program helps graduate students develop as educators

By Andrew Faught

Timour Kamran ’25 PhD is clear about his reasons for taking part in the Philosophy Department’s highly regarded Teacher Training Program: “I plan to become a philosophy professor who can engage students in the intellectual rigor of philosophical thought.”

In an age when knowledge is expanding exponentially, a wide range of professional fields are relying on philosophical training as a vital tool to provide critical thought, ethical decision-making and solid debate skills. A strong cadre of educators is critical to that.

The teacher training program is part of the six-year doctoral program in Philosophy, which enrolls six new students on average every academic year. Participants spend their first year working with undergraduate students in the Writing Center and other areas on campus. For the second and third years, they serve as teaching interns for undergraduate courses. In the fourth year, students complete a teaching workshop, and in their final two years, students teach their own courses.

Kamran currently teaches the department’s Knowledge, Reality, Self foundation course, and previously he was a teaching intern for courses that include Ethics and Symbolic Logic. He also teaches Ancients and Moderns in the Augustine and Culture Seminar, the University’s two-semester, first-year seminar course.

“The program’s scaffolded approach gradually introduces pedagogical theory,” says Kamran. “The Teacher Training Program has prepared me to teach in an intentional and logical way, and I employ discussion-based, participatory learning.”

Doctoral philosophy programs are known to focus on research, but not all have a well-developed teacher training program. ����ֱ��’s Philosophy Department provides a balanced approach, seeking to develop scholars who can thrive in research and teaching alike.

The Philosophy Graduate Program explores the history of philosophy; continental European philosophy; and analytic philosophy. It incorporates a wide range of perspectives, including Feminism, Africana philosophy, Buddhist philosophy, cognitive science and the philosophy of religion.

“It emphasizes diversity, both in the canon and in the faculty profiles,” says Surti Singh, PhD, director of Graduate Studies and an associate professor in the Philosophy Department. “It’s extremely rich.”

Not all students go on to teach at a university or liberal arts college, Dr. Singh notes. The higher-order thinking skills that participants develop in the program are transferable to any high-pressure, demanding career, including medicine and the law, she adds. The program builds on an ethos already prevalent at ����ֱ��.

“The idea is that a ����ֱ�� graduate has an astute and keen sense of social justice and of community, and a holistic orientation toward the world,” Dr. Singh says. “Philosophy is a huge part of that.”