Prospective Postgraduates
Bristol has an established reputation for research and a lively postgraduate community. Our postgraduate students benefit from an intensive high-quality programme of classes and research supervision. We pride ourselves particularly on the large range of philosophical activities in the Department: research seminars, work-in-progress seminars, workshops and conferences; and reading groups. Please see details of current and recent events.
Postgraduate News
Scholarships and studentships
Kate Hodesdon, a PhD student working on philosophical logic as part of the Foundations of Structuralism Project, has been awarded a studentship by the Analysis Trust for 2012-13.PhD student Geoffrey Blumenthal was awarded an AHRC studentship for 2012-15.
PhD students Marianna Antonutti Marfori and Milena Ivanova have both been awarded RIP Jacobsen Fellowships for 2011.
A prestigious fully-funded scholarship in history and philosophy of science has been awarded to Kit Patrick, a PhD student supervised by James Ladyman. The award has been made by the Darwin Trust of Edinburgh for Kit's work on how scientists generate theories, with a particular focus on geology.
Milena Ivanova, a PhD student working on the origins of conventionalism and structural realism and its relevance to the current debate on structural realism, has been awarded the British Society for the Philosophy of Science studentship for 2009-11.
Conferences
PhD student Max Jones has been accepted to speak at the 9th International Symposium of Cognition, Logic and Communication, University of Latvia at Riga, May 2013.
Kate Hodesdon has been invited to speak at LMU Munich at the 'Putnam's Model-Theoretic Arguments' workshop in May 2013.
PhD student Andrew Atkinston has had papers accepted for presentation at the Seventeenth Annual Joint Postgraduate Conference on Theology and Religious Studies at Bristol, and the Warsaw Naturalising Religion: Kazimierz Naturalist Workshop 2012 in July.
PhD student Thomas Richardson will be presenting a paper at the 15th Annual Oxford Philosophy Graduate Conference in November 2011.
Milena Ivanova had a number of papers accepted for presentation at conferences in 2011: at the CLMPS (Nancy, July), BSPS (Sussex, July) and EPSA (Athens, October).
Milena Ivanova and Matt Farr organised a Postgraduate Conference on Conventional Principles in Science, which took place at the University of Bristol in August 2011. You can read their report on the conference in the October issue of the Reasoner.
In June 2011 PhD student Marianna Antonutti Marfori co-organised a colloquium in celebration of D K Lewis titled 'Another World is Possible', at the University of Urbino.
PhD student Alex Malpass was invited to attend the TIMELY workshop in Denmark in February 2011, which considered issues involved with time perception. In 2010 Alex also attended the 'Causes and Tenses: Formal Perspectives' conference in Warsaw in September, and was invited to give a talk at Utrecht University by Thomas Mueller.
PhD students Milena Ivanova, Matt Farr and Giulia Terzian were all accepted to speak at the International Conference for Philosophy of Science in Italy, December 2010.
PhD student Andrew Atkinson, with Finn Spicer and the Bristol Cognitive Development Centre, organised an international conference titled 'Explaining Religion'. This conference took place in September 2010 and you can read a review of it here.
PhD students Matt Farr, Matt Pinder, Milena Ivanova and Marianna Antonutti-Marfori were all accepted to speak at the National Conference for Analytic Philosophy conference in Italy, September 2010.
PhD students Alex Malpass and Chris Gifford organised a postgraduate conference on Branching Time and Indeterminacy, funded by BIRTHA and held in Bristol on August 25th & 26th 2010.
PhD student Kate Hodesdon presented her work at the Postgraduate sessions of the Joint Session of the Aristotelean Society and Mind Association in Dublin, July 2010.
PhD students Milena Ivanova, Matt Farr and Damian Veal presented papers at the Annual Conference of the British Society for the Philosophy of Science in Dublin, July 2010.
PhD student Chris Gifford gave a paper entitled 'Rock 'n' role: role theory and the problem of the many' at the international conference on structuralism and identity held in Bristol in July 2010.
Publications
Marianna Antonutti Marfori has papers published in Studia Logica (2010) and 'Logic and Knowledge' (C Cellucci, E Grosholz and E Ippoliti (eds.), 2011). She has a paper titled 'Naturalising Mathematics; A Critical Look at the Quine-Maddy Debate' forthcoming in Disputatio.
Geoff Blumenthal, an MLitt student, has had an article ‘Copernicus’s development in context’ accepted by Science in Context. Since October 2011 he has also had an article ‘Kuhn and the Chemical revolution: a re-assessment’ published in Foundations of Chemistry, an article ‘On Lavoisier’s achievement in chemistry’ published in Centaurus, and an article ‘Diplomacy, patronage and the preface to De revolutionibus’ accepted for publication in the Journal for the History of Astronomy.
Milena Ivanova's article titled 'Friedman's Relativised A Priori and Structural Realism: In Search of Compatibility' appeared in International Studies in the Philosophy of Science, Vol 25, 2011. Milena has also published several papers in Studies in the History and Philosophy of Science, The Reasoner (with Matt Farr), and in P. Duhem's To Save the Phenomena (with S. Psillos). Her forthcoming paper, 'Is there a place for epistemic virtues in theory choice?' is due to appear in A. Fairweather (ed.) Virtue Scientia: Bridges Between Virtue Epistemology and Philosophy of Science, Synthese Library. Milena also has a paper, 'Did Perrin's Experiments Convert Poincare to Scientific Realism?" forthcoming in HOPOS: The Journal for the International Society for the History of Science.
Megan Blomfield's paper, 'Global Common Resources and the Just Distribution of Emission Shares' has been published in The Journal of Political Philosophy, and her forthcoming paper. 'Ethics in Economics' is due to appear in the Erasmus Journal for Philosophy and Economics.
Matt Farr has a paper in Synthese, entitled 'On A- and B-theoretic elements of branching spacetimes'. He has also published a paper with Milena Ivanova, 'Conventional Principles in Science', in The Reasoner. Matt has a paper, 'A Relic of a Bygone Age? Causation, Time Symmetry and the Directionality Argument," forthcoming in Erkenntnis (with Alexander Reutlinger).
Bryony Pierce has papers in Philosophical Writings (2006) and S. Hales (ed.), What Philosophy Can Tell You About Your Cat (2008). Bryony also has a paper, 'Is the function of consciousness to act as an interface?', forthcoming in F. Paglieri (ed.), Consciousness in interaction: the role of the natural and social context in shaping consciousness. Her paper 'Experimental Philosophy' is due to appear in N.P. Azari, A. Runehov & L. Oviedo (eds.), Encyclopedia of Sciences and Religions, Springer Reference.
Stavros Ioannidis has published two book reviews, in Biology and Philosophy (2008) and in Metascience (2011). His paper, 'Regulatory evolution and theoretical arguments in evolutionary thought', is forthcoming in a special issue of Science and Education.
Kai Kaululaau has published several review articles and journal articles, in Didactica (2011), International Journal of Multidisciplinary Research (2010), Nebula (2010), 2010 Uehiro Cross-Currents Philosophy Conference (proceedings), and others. Kai also has a number of forthcoming encyclopedia articles: 'Ecotherapy' and 'Hawaii' in The Encyclopedia of Eco-Friendly Culture in the United States (ABC-CLIO Press); 'Vajira' and 'Vajrachhedika' in The Encyclopedia of Indian Religions (Springer Press); and 'Zapatistas, the' in The Encylopedia of Global Justice (Springer Press).
Post-doctoral positions
Congratulations to Matt Farr and Milena Ivanova for passing their vivas. Matt secured a Post-Doctoral Research Fellowship on the project New Agendas for the Study of Time: Connecting the Disciplines at the University of Sydney's Centre for Time. Meanwhile, Milena is a temporary lecturer at the department for the History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Sydney.
Congratulations to Chirs Clarke, who obtained a post-doctoral position at the University of Cambridge.
Congratulations to Alex Malpass for passing his viva. Alex was an honorary member of staff at the University of Bristol 2011/12, and lecturer at the University of Glasgow 2012/13.
Congratulations to PhD student Simone Duca, who has secured a post-doctoral position at Bochum, Germany.
Congratulations to PhD student Zoe Drayson, who has secured a post-doctoral position at the Australian National University's Centre for Consciousness.
Congratulations to PhD student Alex Tillas, who has obtained a post-doctoral position at Heinrich-Heine-Universität, Düsseldorf.
Ellen Clarke who was awarded her PhD in 2010, has been elected to a post-doctoral research fellowship at All Souls College, University of Oxford.
Programmes
For full details please click here; the following is a brief overview. All programmes may be taken full-time or part-time. (Part-time study normally takes twice the length of time as the full-time durations specified below).
Diploma in Philosophy |
MA Programmes |
PhD Programme |
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A nine-month programme intended primarily for graduates in subjects other than philosophy who wish to study philosophy in depth, bringing them up to postgraduate level. |
We offer the following one-year MA programmes:
These programmes provide the necessary training for proceeding to doctoral study, but can also be pursued in their own right. |
Our PhD programme is a three-year course of study. It commences with training in research techniques and in recent issues from all areas of analytic philosophy. PhD students are also encouraged to attend graduate classes of interest or of relevance to their chosen topic. PhD students meet frequently with their supervisor. They are encouraged to learn presentation skills and in due course to publish their work. Many Bristol PhDs have gone onto successful careers in philosophy. |
Further information and admissions
For further information please contact our Postgraduate Admissions Officer Prof. James Ladyman (James.Ladyman@bristol.ac.uk) who will be pleased to help with enquiries about our programmes and other aspects of admission and studying at Bristol as a postgraduate.
For assistance with the application process, please contact Sarah Greenaway (Sarah.Greenaway@bris.ac.uk).
For further information on life as a postgraduate in Bristol, visit The Graduate School of Arts and Humanities