Alumni

Former Social Philosophy Majors

David Warner, (pictured above) a former student who graduated from the Social Philosophy Program in December 2006. David is pictured here with his wife, Michelle at Fenway Park.

"I miss everyone in the department and remember my time there fondly. After leaving Cortland, Michelle and I moved to Boston and love it here. We have been successful thus far and it is in large part due to the efforts of your department. I currently work in compliance for an investment management firm, and essentially make sure that my company does not break any laws or break our fiduciary responsibility to our clients, which I think is a perfect fit for any Philosophy major, especially me given my hope to eventually study law."

Kevin David (pictured above) graduated from the Philosophy program in 1998.

"I graduated with a degree in Psychology but I was a Philosophy minor. After Cortland I went to graduate school at the University of Oklahoma and got my Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology there. I am now an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Northeastern State University in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. I try to inspire the same type of analytical and theoretical thinking in my own students that I learned in my philosophy classes at Cortland."

Jessica Garcia graduated Fall 2007 from the Philosophy program.

"I am currently working for California Dept of Correction and Rehabilitation as a Recreation Therapist. Its amazing how much your program has prepared me. My ability to be a critical thinker, articulate, open-minded is highly admired and useful in my work environment.

I independently run various rehabilitative groups in the prison and I find myself, many times, utilizing an assortment of papers that I have written in my philosophy classes. The paper that I use the most is the addiction paper that I wrote for Andy my last semester.

I would like to extend my gratitude and appreciation to the dept. I am one out of two RT's and I blatantly outshine the other RT (who has been working for the state for over 13 yrs). I have been working for the state of California since March and I really LIKE it. My internship experience with Heather Duke, CTRS was the deal maker in me getting this job."

Karin Howe graduated from the Philosophy program December 2006, she is presently working on her Master's degree and plans on going into a PhD program in Philosophy.

"I originally chose Social Philosophy as a major not because I wanted to study Social Philosophy, per se (I didn't even know what Social Philosophy was!), but because I wanted to study Philosophy in general. Before transferring to SUNY Cortland I attended a community college in Syracuse, NY, and it was there that I became hooked on logic. My dream was to teach logic at the college level, and the first step toward realizing that was to obtain a B.A. in Philosophy. I enrolled as a Social Philosophy major at Cortland thinking that it would give me a good grounding in basic philosophical ideas and techniques, and it did do that, but also did so much more. However, during the course of my studies at SUNY Cortland, I came to appreciate Social Philosophy in its own right. It gave me a new insight into issues in social justice, and the ways that philosophy can be applied to help us understand and address some of these problems.

I feel that my studies in Social Philosophy at SUNY Cortland were an excellent preparation for graduate studies in Philosophy. Through my classes at Cortland, I learned to read and analyze philosophical texts in many different areas of philosophy, skills that have stood me well in my graduate studies. Also, the writing intensive nature of the philosophy classes at SUNY Cortland helped me become proficient and comfortable with philosophical writing. In particular, I felt that the thesis requirement was extremely valuable in helping me prepare for the in-depth work in philosophy required for my graduate studies."

Karen's favorite memory of studying Social Philosoph at SUNY Cortland?

"Looking back at my time at SUNY Cortland, I would say that the aspect that I appreciate the most are the interactions between the students and the faculty in the department. I found the atmosphere of the Social Philosophy department to be both supportive and stimulation, which I think is a winning combination for promoting student growth and intellectual achievement."

My name is Matthew Valentine and I am a graduate student at Duquesne University, one of America's foremost Continental programs. I am currently exploring the role of philosophy as catalyst, or, in other words, exploring the limits of philosophical practice as therapy, expression, and revolution (psychology, art, and politics, respectively) through what could be called 'noological activism'. This requires an interrogation of identity (such as that of 'the mad,', 'the modernist,' and 'the queer') from a 'strategic' perspective, particularly through the lens of contemporary French philosophy (Deleuze, Badiou, Foucault, and Merleau-Ponty). As a practical interrogation, this leaves us with three specific philosophical questions: "What's possible? "What's next?" and "How do we properly mediate thought and activity?"

As a former student at SUNY Cortland, I became well-versed in the social philosophical perspective that would help determine my focus, all-the-while preparing me for further collegiate studies, which was my initial intention for attending. Just as important as the curriculum, if not more so, are the professors themselves, who, with patient concern lacking all pretension, helped me polish my thinking and find my voice. Besides classes, I was also given concrete experience as a teaching assistant, which, as any graduate student knows, is valuable to have walking in the door. Overall, I do not know where I would be today without having attended SUNY Cortland and am grateful for the experience.