university of vienna phd philosophy

• Show search form Hide search form
• Quick links
• Staff search
• Search Search --> Websites Staff search Start search

Doctoral programme at the Faculty

The 42nd directorate of studies is responsible for the PhD-curriculum in the fields of humanities, cultural studies, philosophy and educationals scienes within the area of philological and cultural studies as well as the PhD in translation studies.

Directors of the Doctoral Study Programme

Univ.-Prof.in Dr.in Kathrin Sartingen

Univ.-Prof. Mag. Dr. Yavuz Köse (Deputy) ao. Univ.-Prof. Mag. Dr. Lydia Miklautsch (Deputy) Univ.-Prof. Dr. Karen Schramm (Deputy)

 Curriculum

Curriculum for PhD-studies in the fields of humanities, cultural studies, philosophy and educationals scienes (in german)

Guideline Cotutelle de thèse

Guideline for cumulative dissertations of the Directorate of the doctoral study programme of the Faculty of Philological and Cultural Studies and the Centre for Translation Studies (DSPL 42). You can find general information here . 

Further information on PhD-studies at the University of Vienna can be found at the Center for Doctoral Studies and the Büro Studienpräses

• Show search form Hide search form
• Quick links
• Staff search
• Search Search --> Websites Staff search Start search

Master programme in Philosophy

Your steps in the admission procedure depend on whether you have completed your previous degree programme at the University of Vienna or another post-secondary educational institution.

 Multilingual degree programme

The languages of instruction in this degree programme are German and at least one more language .

Additional requirements

Qualitative admission requirements.

The qualitative admission requirements are binding and determine which knowledge and competencies you must have to be admitted to this master programme. You can find detailed information about the required previous knowledge in the curriculum  (only available in German). 

English language proficiency at level B2

To be admitted to an English or multilingual master programme at the University of Vienna, you have to provide a proof of English language proficiency. 

To apply for admission to this degree programme, you require a proof of English language proficiency at level B2 . 

Application and admission procedure

Degree from the university of vienna.

This information is only available in German.

Degree from another university and knowledge of German C1 or higher

Degree from another university and knowledge of german lower than c1.

• Show search form Hide search form
• Quick links
• Staff search
• Search Search --> Websites Staff search Start search

Master's programme in Philosophy

This websites provides information on the Master's programme in Philosophy.

General Information

• Degree programme code: UA 066 941
• ECTS: 120 ECTS
• Programme duration: 4 semesters (full-time)
• Degree: Master of Arts (MA)

Complete curriculum (in German)

Programme objectives, learning goals, and prospective careers

Specialisation (modul 4), project and research module (module 5).

• Show search form Hide search form
• Quick links
• Staff search
• Search Search --> Websites Staff search Start search

Professorships Philosophy

University professor Mark Coeckelbergh , PhD

Professorship of philosophy of media and technology.

A-1010 Vienna, Universitätsstraße 7 (NIG) Room: A0310 T: +43-1-4277-46 466 Mail:  mark.coeckelbergh @ univie.ac.at

University professor Dr. Caroline Heinrich

Professorship of philosophy and ethics in school and society.

A-1010 Vienna, Universitätsstraße 7 (NIG) Room: A0312 T: +43-1-4277-46 430 Mail:  caroline.heinrich @ univie.ac.at

University professor Dr. Angela Kallhoff

Professorship of ethics with special emphasis on applied ethics.

A-1010 Vienna, Universitätsstraße 7 (NIG) Room: A0306 T: +43-1-4277-46 489 Mail:  angela.kallhoff @ univie.ac.at

University professor Tarja Knuuttila , M.Soc.Sc MSc PhD

Professorship of philosophy of science.

A-1010 Vienna, Universitätsstraße 7 (NIG) Room: A0314 T: +43-1-4277-46 430 Mail:  tarja.knuuttila @ univie.ac.at

University professor Max Kölbel , MA MPhil PhD

( director of studies for philosophy ), professorship of analytic philosophy with special emphasis on philosophy of language.

A-1010 Vienna, Universitätsstraße 7 (NIG) Room: A0326 T: +43-1-4277-46 470 Mail:  max.koelbel @ univie.ac.at

University professor Dr. Dr. h.c. Martin Kusch

Professorship of applied philosophy of science and epistemology.

A-1010 Vienna, Universitätsstraße 7 (NIG) Room: A0330 T: +43-1-4277-46 422 Mail:  martin.kusch @ univie.ac.at

University professor Mag. Dr. Herlinde Pauer-Studer

Professorship of practical philosophy and ethics.

A-1010 Vienna, Ebendorferstraße 10 Room: 3.05 T: +43-1-4277-46 444 Mail:  herlinde.pauer-studer @ univie.ac.at

University professor Dipl.-Ing. Dr. Franz-Markus Peschl

( vice-director of studies for philosophy ), professorship for philosophy of science and cognitive science.

A-1010 Vienna, Universitätsstraße 7 (NIG) Room: C0218 T: +43-1-4277-46 424 Mail:  franz-markus.peschl @ univie.ac.at

University professor Mag. Mag. Dr. Georg Schiemer

( head of the institute vienna circle ), professorship of formal philosophy (philosophy of logic and mathematics).

A-1010 Vienna, Universitätsstraße 7 (NIG) Room: C0216 T: +43-1-4277-46 482 Mail:  georg.schiemer @ univie.ac.at

University professor Dr. Dr. Tatjana Schönwälder-Kuntze, M.A.

Professorship of ethics in the context of school and society.

A-1010 Vienna, Universitätsstraße 7 (NIG) Room: A0312 T: +43-1-4277-46 442 Mail:  tatjana.schoenwaelder-kuntze @ univie.ac.at

University professor Dr. Hans Bernhard Schmid

( faculty management / dean's office dean ), professorship of political philosophy and social philosophy.

A-1010 Vienna, Universitätsstraße 7 (NIG) Room: A0304 T: +43-1-4277-46 488 Mail:  hans.bernhard.schmid @ univie.ac.at

University professor Dr. Benjamin Schnieder , MA

( director of doctoral studies and the vienna doctoral school of philosophy), professorship of theoretical philosophy.

A-1090 Vienna, Sensengasse 8/07 Room: 1012 T: +43-1-4277-46 490 Mail:  benjamin.schnieder @ univie.ac.at

University professor Dr. Paulina Sliwa

Professorship of moral and political philosopy.

A-1090 Vienna, Sensengasse 8/10 Room: 1011 T: +43-1-4277-46 450 Mail:  paulina.sliwa @ univie.ac.at

Tenure Track professorships

Assoz. Prof. Mag. Mag. Dr. Dr. Esther Heinrich-Ramharter , Privatdoz.

Philosophy of religion, philosophy of mathematics and logic.

A-1010 Vienna, Universitätsstraße 7 (NIG) Room: C0310 T: +43-1-4277-46 481 Mail:  esther.heinrich-ramharter @ univie.ac.at

Assoz. Prof. Dr. George Karamanolis , Privatdoz. MA

( head of the department of philosophy ), ancient philosophy.

A-1010 Vienna, Universitätsstraße 7 (NIG) Room: D0308 T: +43-1-4277-46 476 Mail:  george.karamanolis @ univie.ac.at

Ass.-Prof. Felix Pinkert , MLitt PhD

Philosophy und economics.

A-1010 Vienna, Universitätsstraße 7 (NIG) Room: C0308 T: +43-1-4277-46 478 Mail:  felix.pinkert @ univie.ac.at

Ass.-Prof. Dr. Olivier Ribordy , MA

History of medieval and modern philosophy.

A-1010 Vienna, Universitätsstraße 7 (NIG) Room: C0214 T: +43-1-4277-46 479 Mail:  olivier.ribordy @ univie.ac.at

Ass.-Prof. Dr. Donata Romizi , MA

Philosophy and its didactics.

A-1010 Vienna, Universitätsstraße 7 (NIG) Room: C0212 T: +43-1-4277-46 498 Mail:  donata.romizi @ univie.ac.at

Honorary professorships

Univ.-prof. dr. herwig grimm, professorship of ethics and human-animal-studies (located at the university of veterinary medicine).

A-1210 Vienna, Veterinärplatz 1 (Messerli Research Institute) Room: A0314 T: +43-1-25077-2650 Mail:  herwig.grimm @ univie.ac.at

Philosophy Ph.D. Candidate Recognized for Outstanding Achievement in the Letters

• Post published: April 26, 2024

Nic Cottone , a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Philosophy at Michigan State University, was awarded the 2024 Varg-Sullivan Endowed Graduate Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Letters in recognition of her outstanding research on feminist philosophy and social theory that primarily focuses on theories of social reproductive labor and sexual violence. The Varg-Sullivan Endowed Graduate Awards, presented by the College of Arts & Letters at Michigan State University, were established in honor of former Deans of the College of Arts & Letters, Paul Varg and Richard Sullivan, who dedicated their professional lives to excellence. Recipients of the Outstanding Achievement in the Letters Award are selected based on the best presentation at a national or international event, or the best-published article in the letters.

“The Varg-Sullivan Endowed Graduate Award is unique in that it celebrates graduate students’ dedication to academic excellence about what matters to us,” Cottone said. “In my case, that means feeling supported as I research sensitive and complex issues like social violence.”

Cottone’s paper, titled Addressing the ‘Puzzle’ of Gray Area Sexual Violations , was published in Hypatia: a Journal of Feminist Philosophy . According to Christian Lotz , Professor in the Department of Philosophy at MSU , “Nic is seen, from an academic and professional point of view, as the most advanced student in our program,” Lotz wrote in his nomination letter. “Nic’s philosophical abilities, strength of arguments, and concise style of writing usually cannot be found at this level within a typical academic trajectory.” In Addressing the ‘Puzzle’ of Gray Area Sexual Violations , Cottone examines how feminist literature grapples with the vagueness in categorizing experiences of sexual violation and how each work, in varying ways, reinforces established categories of sexual violence that reflect hegemony. Cottone argues that the “gray area” that surrounds depictions of, and conversations around, sexual violence isn’t merely a category but, instead, is a societal condition that makes sexual violence unclear. She goes on to argue that we should examine the problems of sexual violence through a lens that considers political economy and societal context, revealing certain strands of Marxist theories that are a real philosophical contender to the prevailing feminist discourse on sexual violence in general but rape in particular.

“The Varg-Sullivan Endowed Graduate Award is unique in that it celebrates graduate students’ dedication to academic excellence about what matters to us. In my case, that means feeling supported as I research sensitive and complex issues like social violence.” Nic Cottone

“Nic superbly handles a variety of traditions in feminist philosophy, critical theory, and the history of social-political thinking,” Lotz said. “Her command of the existing research literature and breadth of knowledge is simply unmatched.” The paper’s publication in Hypatia , an internationally renowned journal for feminist philosophy, made Cottone nationally visible in the feminist-philosophical community. “I have no doubts that Nic will be placed in a major philosophy department in the U.S. She is an outstanding graduate student, and one of our most important community members,” Lotz said. “I cannot imagine anyone else currently in our program who is more deserving of the Varg-Sullivan Award.” Cottone has recently received a degree completion fellowship from MSU’s Graduate School and will be finishing up her dissertation during the 2024-2025 academic year with plans to graduate with a Ph.D. in Philosophy in Spring 2025. “I am grateful for MSU’s Department of Philosophy, especially the faculty I work with, including Megan Dean, Christian Lotz, John H. McClendon III, and Lisa Schwartzman,” Cottone said. “I have worked especially closely with Lotz (who nominated me) and Schwartzman (my dissertation chair). They have facilitated my intellectual growth and research in ways that few other departments in the U.S. could. This owes not only to their research and its influence on me, but also to their rich mentorship.”

You Might Also Like

Persistence and Dedication Pay Off to Becoming a Full-Time Artist

Department of Art, Art History, and Design Announces 2023 Award and Scholarship Winners

Several College of Arts & Letters Projects Supported by HARP Grants

• Show search form Hide search form
• Quick links
• Staff search
• Search Search --> Websites Staff search Start search

Sign in Create Account

TOP STORIES

Smarting from back-to-back defeats, defending champions Chennai Super Kings will be desperate to return to winning ways when they face a formidable but bruised Sunrisers Hyderabad in the IPL match in Chennai on Sunday.

Bowlers need to find "innovative ways to execute deliveries with a touch of "anti-skill" to challenge the range-hitting batsmen in the ongoing IPL, reckons Kolkata Knight Riders assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate.

Speaking at a rally in Madhya Pradesh's Harda on April 24, Modi praised Chouhan saying the two had served together in the party organisation and also as chief ministers.

The team of Jyothi Surekha Vennam, Aditi Gopichand Swami and Parneet Kaur, who qualified as top seed, dropped just four points from 24 arrows to down the sixth seeds by a handsome margin and open their account in the season-opening...

After allegations of sexual harassment by a group of female CRPF personnel, the force conducted an investigation and determined his guilt, sources said.

• Show search form Hide search form
• Quick links
• Staff search
• Search Search --> Websites Staff search Start search

Doctoral Researchers

Scroll down to find out about the current doctoral researchers of the Vienna Doctoral School of Philosophy. Alumni are listed here .

Eva Maria Aigner

Supervised by Arno Böhler

Eva-Maria Aigner is a PhD candidate at the Department of Philosophy, University of Vienna, and DOC-fellow of the Austrian Academy of Sciences. She is currently working on her PhD project "Surviving Derrida/ Derrida Überleben" on the notion of "survivance" in deconstruction, especially Derrida. Her research interests include deconstruction, contemporary French thought, Derrida studies, feminist deconstruction and theory, poststructuralism, philosophy of literature and writing. 

Sebastian Aster

Supervised by Felix Pinker t and Paulina Sliwa

Sebastian is a PhD candidate in philosophy at the University of Vienna and a member of the PACE project . Sebastian has an academic background in economics and has studied Philosophy & Economics at the University of Vienna. In his PhD research project, he explores the moral worth of group actions. Collective ethics is predominantly focused on collectives’ or group agents’ responsibility with respect to harmful outcomes such as climate change. We very often blame groups for their deeds, but are there also instances where they deserve praise? When do group actions have moral worth? The concept of moral worth is typically linked to the motivating reasons of an agent which is why also the issue of group motivating reasons is of interest.

Besides his academic studies, Sebastian also works as a sports commentator for various national TV stations in Austria. Thus, he has a genuine interest in the philosophy of sport. His Master’s Thesis “Collective Emotions, Relational Goods and Profit” has a special focus on the commercialization of professional football. 

Mark Nader Basafa

Supervised by Christian Damböck

Mark's research project explores the genesis of Kuhn's conception of scientific progress in The Structure of Scientific Revolutions against the backdrop of historicism in France and Germany. He is particularly interested in the landscape and the ideas advanced on scientific philosophy by German and French neo-Kantians during the first half of the 20th century.

Leonhard Bauer

Supervised by Johann Schelkshorn

Leonhard Bauer studied Philosophy and Theology in Vienna, his research focuses on the subjects of normativity, argumentation, and justification. With his doctoral dissertation, "Beyond Justification/Jenseits von Rechtfertigung" he aims to deepen our understanding of the nature of justification and moral judgment from both practical and epistemological points of view. Using an analytical approach to the semantics of justification, he proposes a new perspective on the issue of final justification and radical skepticism. He is co-founder of the online platform " Systematische Offenheit " and the "Paul Feyerabend Gesellschaft."

Philipp Leon Bauer

Supervised by Friedrich Stadler

Philipp Leon Bauer, BA MA has studied philosophy with particular interest and specialisation in history of science and philosophy of science at the University of Vienna and University of Leipzig. Bauer is writing his doctoral thesis on Ernst Mach's concept of thought economy and the influence towards the Vienna Circle. In the scope of his doctoral thesis, close cooperation with Prof. Ingolf Max at the University of Leipzig has been established.  

Jessica D. Bicking

Supervised by Hans Bernhard Schmid and Herwig Grimm

As part of the 'Forms of Normativity - Transitions and Intersections' (FoNTI) scheme, Jessica D. Bicking's dissertation project explores the conditions of interdisciplinary research into (normative) mind-phenomena. Here, she is looking at work done on social cognition in individuals on the autism spectrum as a case, and as a basis for discussing the potential that phenomenological concepts may hold for a science of cognition.

Supervised by Angela Kallhoff

Michael Boch

Supervised by Kurt Appel , in close collaboration with Alexander Schnell (University of Wuppertal)

Michael Boch studied philosophy, history and educational sciences in Münster. In 2020 he obtained an MA in philosophy with a thesis about Martin Heidegger's theory of space and orientation. Boch is writing his doctoral thesis about Johann Gottlieb Fichte's idea of a transcendental logic of knowledge and its reception by Herrmann Krings. He is CEO of the archive for Post-Neokantanism and contemporary criticial idealism at the University Wuppertal.

Okwuegbu Bartholomew Chidi

Supervised by Michael Staudigl and Delia Belleri

Okwuegbu Bartholomew Chidi did his masters degree in philosophy at the University of Vienna (2021) focusing on gender and race theories. For his doctoral studies, he is narrowing his research scope to the theory of race within the areas of phenomenology and analytic philosophy. His research interest is to contribute a broad-based, coherent and balanced understanding of “Race” as well as engender a better understanding of its operative mode in the different spheres of the society.

Cristina Chițu

Supervised by Arno Böhler and George Karamanolis

In Cristina's research project, Return of the Eternal Return... and More: A Systematization of the Concept of Cyclic Time Drawing on Ancient Inspiration, the concept of cyclic time is explored by drawing insights from ancient philosophies, specifically early Stoicism, the philosophies of Śruti, and those of early Smṛti. The project's main hypothesis reads: By analyzing these ancient philosophies, as well as the scholarship associated with them, one can obtain a systematization of the various meanings more commonly associated with the term "cyclic time," and thereby identify four logically possible cyclic time structures. The main hypothesis, then, concerns the philosophy of time and its history. But in the course of substantiating it, two further theses concerning the history of philosophy arise: (a) The early Stoics assume a cyclic cosmos, but not cyclic time; (b) Both the Śruti and the early Smṛti contain the idea of cyclic time, but these two sets of sacred texts exhibit two different cyclic time structures.

Ivana Covic

In Ivana’s research, central points of interest revolve around bringing together art, bioethics and philosophy of mind (biopoetics), with focus on the mind-body problem, role of artistic research in knowledge acquisition, bioethics of artificial intelligence and animal ethics.

Maike Cram studied philosophy in Berlin before settling in Vienna, where she now focuses on the concept of human dignity from a phenomenological perspective. Her PhD project aims to enrich our idea of human dignity by analysing the structure of experiencing self-respect. From this perspective, self-respect will be analysed as existential feeling on the one hand and as posture, with special emphasis on how social and political dimensions shape our sense of dignity, on the other hand. 

Chiara Dankl

Supervised by Martin Kusch

Chiara Dankl studied philosophy, political science and ethics in Salzburg and Vienna and is now a PhD researcher at the department of philosophy. She also studies psychotherapy science at the Sigmund Freud University, Vienna and is a psychotherapist in training under supervision. Her master’s thesis explored depression in relation to contemporary forms of power and as a type of modern subjectivation. Her doctoral research focusses more broadly on mental illnesses in relation to power structures and normativity and on the epistemic limits of thinking about oneself in psychological terms.

Felix Danowski

Supervised by Max Kölbel and Esther Ramharter

Felix Danowski started his PhD in 2018, as a member of the FWF funded project 'Forms of Normativity - Transitions and Intersections' (FoNTI). His dissertation focuses on Metaethical Non-cognitivism and its implications for Moral Epistemology. Accordingly, his topics of interest are mainly Metaethics, Epistemology, and Action Theory. Since 2018, he is also a member of the Vienna Forum for Analytic Philosophy (WFAP). 

Sabato Danzilli

Sabato Danzilli is a Visiting PhD candidate affiliated with the Università di Catania, Italy, pursuing a co-tutelle program with Universität Heidelberg. His research focuses on the resurgence of Hegelian ideas within German south-western Neo-Kantianism and Wilhelm Windelband's history of philosophy. Investigating the intersections of Neo-Kantianism and Hegelian thought, he explores the German philosophical landscape of the 19th and early 20th centuries. With a keen interest in the implications of these movements, his work aims to contribute to understanding the evolution of philosophical discourse before World War I.

Konstantin Deininger

Supervised by Herwig Grimm

Konstantin studied at LMU Munich and the Munich School of Philosophy. He is a guest researcher at the Messerli Research Institute, University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna, since October 2020. His research focuses on the problems of human-animal interactions and concepts that play a crucial role in it, such as the notion of the fellow creature. Methodologically, Konstantin is located in Wittgensteinian ethics as championed by Cora Diamond, who defends a practice-oriented moral philosophy.

Wolfgang Deutsch-Pernsteiner

Supervised by Mona Singer

Wolfgang Deutsch-Pernsteiner is a PhD candidate at the Department of Philosophy at the University of Vienna and a fellow of the Austrian Academy of Sciences. His dissertation project, "The Poverty of Our Technosocial Freedom/Die Armut unserer technosozialen Freiheit", aims at re-actualizing Critical Theory in the light of climate change. He revisits a central argument of Critical Theory, articulated in the works of Adorno, Benjamin, Horkheimer, and Marcuse, according to which the entanglement of technologies with relations of domination suppresses the flourishing of meaningful human relations to the world and the realization of the emancipatory potentials that technological developments hold. For these conditions he coins the term "techno-pathologies". 

Ding Yushan

Supervised by Hans Bernhard Schmid

Ding Yushan is a visiting PhD candidate from Wuhan University, China. She has a strong interest in moral philosophy, and now she is trying to figure out what is morality, what is the difference between ethics and science,and how we could defend for a moral theory. In her dissertation, she is going to defend for a kind of moral universalism.

Arianna Dini

Supervised by Mark Coeckelbergh

Arianna Dini is a PhD candidate at the Department of Philosophy, University of Vienna, and the Northwestern Italian Philosophy Consortium (FINO). Her project, "The Political Economy of Algorithmic Pricing" explores the ethical problems arising within consumer-to-platform internet commerce, and aims to propose regulatory solutions. Her research interests include theories of property, just price theory, marginalism, market freedom, exploitation, privacy, and internet regulation. 

Dagmar Dotting

Supervised by Georg Stenger

Bishakha Dutta

Supervised by George Karamanolis

Bishakha Dutta is a PhD candidate at the Department of Philosophy, University of Vienna. She is currently working on a PhD project that studies the economic concepts laid out by Cicero in his work De Officiis vis-à-vis the views of the Stoics on private property. Bishakha Dutta has a strong interest in Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy, History of Philosophy and the Ancient languages - Ancient Greek and Latin. 

Triinu Eesmaa

Supervised by Max Kölbel

Triinu Eesmaa started her PhD in 2018 and works on philosophy of language. Her PhD research focuses on context-sensitivity and vagueness. In her dissertation, she deals with the question how to accommodate underdetermination involved in language use within semantic and pragmatic theories.

Salvatore Favenza

Salvatore Favenza is a PhD candidate at the University of Naples, and a visiting PhD Student at the University of Vienna. His project, "Impure Science. Gustav Schmoller between methodology and social reform" explores methodological debates on social sciences in the late 19th century against the background of social and political conflicts in the German Second Reich. His research interests include: the relation between knowledge and society; philosophy of social science; philosophy of history.

Maria Fedorova

Supervised by Max Kölbel and Anne Sophie Meincke

Maria is a PhD candidate in philosophy at the University of Vienna and a member of the  PACE project . She obtained her masters degree in philosophy from the Central European University with the focus on epistemology and philosophy of mind. Maria's doctoral project examines the epistemic value of imagination. On the dominant view, imagination is epistemically significant insofar as it justifies some of our beliefs. In contrast, the central question of Maria’s dissertation is whether imagistic thought may result in cognitively significant epistemic achievements which are not merely instrumental or reducible to propositional knowledge. Presently, Maria works on the ways in which imagination can contribute to understanding.

Supervised by Max Kölbel and Hans Bernhard Schmid

Tom's research is on epistemology and the ethics of beliefs. He is part of the FWF funded project 'Forms of Normativity - Transitions and Intersections' (FoNTI). He is interested in how evidential and non-evidential considerations interact when it comes to the question of what one ought to believe.

Stephan Fock

Supervised by Georg Stenger and Patrizia Giampieri-Deutsch

Stephan Fock is a psychoanalyst, PhD candidate in philosophy at the University of Vienna, and scientific staff member of the Department of Psychology & Psychodynamics, Karl Landsteiner University of Health Sciences, Krems. His thesis investigates psychoanalytic object relations theory from a perspective of philosophy of science, in particular its basic concepts like self and object representation, and their relations to philosophical and empirical theories of subjective experience and embodiment.

Arzu Formánek

Supervised by Mark Coeckelbergh and Mark H. Bickhard

As part of the  FoNTI  Project, Arzu’s research is on ethics of social interaction with robots from a cognitive scientific perspective. More information about her research and academic roles can be found  here  and  here .

Supervised by Benjamin Schnieder and Paulina Sliwa  

Fu Yaokun is a member of the PACE project and a PhD researcher at the University of Vienna. Before settling in Vienna, he completed his master's degree in philosophy at Wuhan University. He has a keen interest in metaphysics and the epistemology of modality. His current project explores the connection between essence and modality, focusing on the question "How could essence metaphysically explain modality?" Yaokun is also enthusiastic about the philosophy of language and meta-metaphysics, and he welcomes discussions on a wide range of topics.

Lukas Geiszler

Supervised by Mona Singer

Lukas Geiszler studied philosophy, German and history at the University of Vienna. After completing his MA. in philosophy with a thesis on the figure of the machine in the philosophy of René Descartes, he is currently working on a PhD. project on the interactions and consequences of sedimented notions of nature and technology as employed in recent discussions of the Anthropocene.

Ralf Gisinger

Ralf Gisinger is a DOC-Fellow of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW) and works at the Department of Philosophy, University of Vienna, with a PhD-thesis on philosophy of nature and ecology in the work of Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari as well as contemporary discourses on ecology. His main research interests include political/social philosophy, poststructuralism, materialism(s), critical theory. He recently finished a project on philosophies of pluralization (“Philosophien der Pluralisierung”).

Supervised by Violetta Waibel

Paul Gragl started his PhD in philosophy at the University of Vienna in 2019, focusing on Kant's philosophy of law and its significance for today's relationship between law and politics. His research focuses on the law of reason and the reason of law; their significance for understanding freedom and human rights; the triangular relationship between freedom, the positive law, and politics; and how these concepts translate into a modern constitutional republican-democratic concept of the State.

Hafiz Muhammad Hammad Mushtaq

Hammad Mushtaq's research is focused on the critical evaluation of the narratives at work in the debates about the companion robots, in the tradition of philosophy of technology. The variables he is working with include the politics of relation-ing - in terms of love, friendship, and companionship - among the terrestrials, technological solutionism and the activity of Terra, and the relationship between technology and evolution.

Pia-Zoe Hahne

Pia-Zoe's project "'Trust the Machine?': Conceptualising Trust in the Age of Generative Artificial Intelligence" focuses on the influence of emerging technologies, in particular generative AI, on the trust relationships necessary for functioning democratic institutions. Her work combines conceptual reflections on trust and its relationship to societal change with ethnographic interview data to bridge the gap between theory and practice.

Henriikka Hannula

Henriikka Hannula works on the history of late 19th-century German philosophy. In her dissertation, she is researching the concepts of historicism, naturalism and Lebensphilosophie in the thought of Wilhelm Dilthey. Besides that, her interests lie in the philosophy of the social sciences, the philosophy of history, and hermeneutics. 

Georg Harfensteller

Georg Harfensteller is interested in embodied, performative and pre-reflexive forms of communitarisation and the resulting shared agency. He tries to develop a social-phenomenological approach to religious and political gatherings as a starting point for a descriptive analysis of group formation beyond the mediated content. The experience of the self and other, the structure and prerequisites of interaction, as well as shared pathos and response, are the cornerstones of the analysis. 

Sebastian Horvat

Supervised by Georg Schiemer and Tarja Knuuttila

Sebastian is a PhD candidate in philosophy at the University of Vienna and a member of the PACE project . Sebastian obtained a PhD degree in physics at the University of Vienna, where he worked on various topics in the foundations of quantum mechanics and in quantum information theory. During his work in physics, his interest in philosophy grew steadily, which lead him to the decision to steer his academic trajectory and pursue a PhD in philosophy. In his current doctoral project, he is planning to investigate whether logic should be influenced by natural and social scientific research, or whether it should be pursued independently of the latter. 

Andreas Höller

Supervised by Donata Romizi , Tamara Katschnig and Maria Tulis-Oswald

Andreas Höller is creating an interdisciplinary approach for the Philosophy for/with children (P4wC) movement. It attempts to add new perspectives to the main questions in the P4wC discourse: first, can P4wC actually be called philosophy?; second, do children have the cognitive abilities to engage in philosophical discourse? Furthermore, the comparability of scientific studies on the issue is complicated by the diversity of various P4wC concepts. Using his interdisciplinary Polylogical Process model of (Elementary-)Philosophical Education (PPEE) as a linking model could lead into a better comparability of international studies by paving the way for more constructive criticism in the long run.

Christoph Hubatschke

Christoph Hubatschke was a DOC-Fellow of the Austrian Academy of Science and a visiting research fellow at the Department for Visual Cultures, Goldsmiths University, London, for his PhD project on the philosophy of technology in the works of Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, especially on the political aspects of such a philosophy of technology. His research focuses on the work of Deleuze/Guattari, philosophy of technology, critical political theory, new technologies and social movements.

Eva Jägle writes her PhD about Deleuze's thinking on other philosophers in the context of his film-books. The research is inspired by her interdisciplinary interest in art and its possibilities of expression. Her dissertation will follow Deleuze into his cinematographic vision of other thoughts.

Roman Jordan

Roman Otto Jordan's main area of interest is the field of philosophy of science ­— in his doctoral thesis he investigates the theories of science of Wolfgang Stegmüller and Paul Lorenzen. He has also been interested in the evolutionary epistemology of Rupert Riedl and the philosophy of physics of Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker. He was also project worker to Christian Damböck at the Institute Vienna Circle for FWF projects about the diaries of Rudolf Carnap.

Nikolina Kamzola

Nikolina Kamzola studied classics (BA), philosophy (MSc) and Science-Technology-Society (MSc) at the University of Athens, Greece. Her PhD project aims to investigate the Epicurean views on language, specifically on the origin of language as well as on sense and meaning. Her research will bring pieces of ancient sources together, reconstruct the puzzle and connect this topic with contemporary theories of language.

Kanau Kobayashi

Kanau Kobayashi studied Philosophy, Anthropology and Literature in Tokyo and in Freiburg. His PhD project focuses on the psychoanalytic approach to the foundational moment of the law and the institution. Especially based on Pierre Legendre’s work of dogmatic anthropology, he tries to sharpen the aesthetic, performative and unconscious dimension of the law through its subject-constituting function.

Rami Koskinen

Supervised by Tarja Knuuttila

Rami Koskinen is working on his PhD on modalities in synthetic biology as part of the ERC group Possible Life: The Philosophical Significance of Extending Biology. Besides modal reasoning, he is interested in general philosophy of science, philosophy of biology and logic. Before coming to Vienna, Koskinen studied philosophy and mathematics at the University of Helsinki.

Moritz Kriegleder

Supervised by Tarja Knuuttila .

Moritz Kriegleder is a cognitive scientist and physicist interested in computational models of consciousness. In his PhD project, he studies how current mathematical theories of cognition such as predictive processing and free energy try to explain qualities of subjective experience. His interests are philosophy of scientific modeling, phenomenology, and embodied cognition.

Odin Kröger

Odin Kröger has been studying philosophy in Vienna, Berlin, Canberra, and Boston. He mainly works on social metaphysics, the philosophy of the social sciences, and critical theory, but he also has a soft spot for formal theories. His PhD is about what it is for us to reify our social order.

Rodrigo Lagos

Eva liedauer.

Eva Liedauer works as an assistant at the Chair of Ethics and Applied Ethics. After completing her MA with a thesis on Hannah Arendt's account of judgment, she is pursuing a PhD on the tensions between political action and the social in Arendt's work. Eva aims to revisit Arendt's critique of modernity in the light of theories of money. In addition to her research interests in money and politics, Eva is also keenly interested in environmental philosophy and ethics. 

Supervised by Benjamin Schnieder

Li Xiao is interested in metaphysics and the philosophy of language. His research project explores the nature of structures by investigating their theoretical roles and recommends a metaphysical picture of them that explains their general features. He is also interested in a wide range of topics like mereology, intrinsicality, modality, grounding, meta-ontological deflationism, aboutness, negation, and Kant’s philosophy.

Erich Linder

Erich Linder studied in Padova, Berlin, Milan and is currently guest researcher at the Messerli Research Institute. Drawing from pragmatism and phenomenology his research focuses on the problem of injustice in utilitarianism applied within the context of animal research.

Flora Löffelmann

Flora Löffelmann's research encompasses ideas from both queer phenomenology and social/ political epistemology. In their PhD thesis, they focus on how epistemic injustice is experienced at a first-personal, phenomenal level, and highlight the potential for action and agency that arises from being a body "out of place". 

Rojin Mazouji

Previously working on ethics and philosophy of religion in Kant and Kierkegaard, currently Rojin Mazouji is working on the philosophy of Fichte and self-knowledge. The next project concentrates on the concept of embodiment in German Idealism and how this discussion reflects some central issues in the debate of gender inequality and feminism.

Sofia Abelha Meirelles

Supervised by Georg Schiemer

Sofia Abelha is a predoctoral researcher and member of the ERC-Project " The Formal Turn - The Emergence of Formalism in Twentieth-Century Thought ". Her primary research interests are in the philosophy of logic and the philosophy of science, particularly focusing on comparing the methodology and epistemology of logic with other sciences from a practical and historically informed perspective.

Eusebius Nkwagu

Supervised by Michael Staudigl

Eusebius Nkwagu did his Masters in Philosophy at the University of Vienna and is writing his doctoral thesis on how Emmanuel Levinas' ethical phenomenology of the other can be translated into our concrete relations with the other and may be capable of awakening a sense of responsibility where these relations indulge in reciprocal inauthenticity, indifference, or morally petrified normative social orders.

Balázs Ónya

Balázs Ónya brought BA and MA degrees in philosophy from the University of Pécs (Hungary) and is currently a student at the Doctoral School of Philosophy of the University of Pécs as well as a visiting researcher at the VDP.  In his doctoral research, he investigates how different interpretations of social kinds can be paired with certain beliefs regarding theories of truth. He also explores the modern emergence of the separation of natural and social kinds and its philosophical and ideological background.

Nianzu Tu is a doctoral candidate sponsored by the Ministry of Education of China. His research focuses on social philosophy and phenomenology, with a keen interest in aesthetics and German philosophy. His research project deals with the phenomenological interpretation of social ontology, especially the relationship between self-identification and social recognition. For him, the aim of philosophy is to sustain a humble inquiry into the mysteries of nature and to consistently contemplate what constitutes a life worth living.

Gareth R. Pearce

Supervised by Georg Schiemer and Esther Ramharter

Gareth R. Pearce's doctoral research is on the philosophical foundations of axiom selection. In particular, Gareth argues that debates surrounding axiom selection for mathematics are highly theory non-neutral with respect to wider questions in the metaphysics and epistemology of mathematics. Gareth has been a committee member of the Vienna Forum for Analytic Philosophy (WFAP) since 2019 and is currently a VDP Steering Committee member.

Patrick Pradler

Patrick Pradler is a PhDcandidate working in the philosophy of mathematics. His dissertation explores a broadly Kantian notion of synthesis and examines whether a synthetic view of mathematics can contribute to current and long-standing debates in the philosophy of mathematics.

Supervised by Michael Staudigl and Jocelyn Benoist

Björn Puhr studied contemporary philosophy in Vienna and Paris and developed an expertise in phenomenology and aesthetics during his two master's degrees at the Sorbonne. While in the first he attempted an ethical reading of the épochè within the philosophy of Merleau-Ponty and Patočka, in the second he explored the concept of silence from a musicological and philosophical point of view. It thus served as preliminary research for his doctoral project, in which he investigates the phenomenon of silence in relation to the experience of time. 

Franziska Reinhard

Lois marie rendl.

Supervised by Kurt Walter Zeidler

Lois Marie Rendl's main research interests are transcendental logic and idealism. From 2015 to 2019 (with interruptions) he was research assistant to Christian Damböck at the Institute Vienna Circle (FWF project: edition of the diaries of Rudolf Carnap 1908-1935). The topic of his PhD project (to be submitted in autumn 2021) is "Idealism and Logic of Science. The Transcendental Interpretation of Aristotelian Syllogistics by Charles S. Peirce, Hegel and Hermann Cohen".  

Sonja Riegler

Sonja Riegler's research interests focus on social, feminist and political epistemology, particularly in relation to theories of epistemic oppression. In her thesis, she investigates causes for and effects of forms of ignorance on epistemic communities. She puts special emphasis on the repressive epistemic and political dimension of ignorance and aims to provide strategies to counteract harmful instances of ignorance.  

Irene M. Salzmann

Supervised by Martin Kusch and Dietlind Hüchtker

Irene M. Salzmann's research focuses on social/political epistemology and history of ideas. In her PhD project she adopts a a queer-feminist and post-marxist approach into works of the Konservative Revolution with a special interest in their leitmotif of nature.

Jackson Sawatzky

Supervised by Angela Kallhoff and Felix Pinkert

Jackson Sawatzky’s research occurs at the intersection of social contract theory, normative ethics, and (especially) the history of philosophical thought. By applying the techniques of analytic philosophy to contemporary variants of social contract theory, his doctoral dissertation asserts a contract-theoretical understanding of systemic oppression and social injustice.

Philipp Schaller

Philipp Schaller is working in his thesis on the rivalry that is taking place between reasoning and story-telling over the precedence in founding morals and in establishing a moral attitude in human beings. He is focusing on the works of Immanuel Kant, Friedrich Schiller and Fyodor Dostoevsky, following the line of reception linking these three authors.

Moritz Schwab

Thomas seissl.

Thomas Seissl is a fellow of the uni:docs programme and member of the Department of Philosophy at the University of Vienna. Currently, he is working on his dissertation project exploring the reception of Aristotle's account of time in Physics IV.10-14 in late antiquity. Thomas Seissl has strong interests in Ancient natural philosophy, metaphysics, and philosophy of science. 

Manu Sharma

Supervised by Martin Kusch and Michael Staudigl

Manu Sharma is a PhD Researcher at the University of Vienna. Before this, they completed their M.A. in Philosophy from the Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi. Their research concerns itself with modernity and the ways modernity (mis)reads the phenomenon of suffering. As philosophical practice, they work on texts, archives that remain buried under hegemonic epistemic erasure and approaches them deconstructively to say some things about suffering in modernity, or modernity’s (in)ability to understand, confront and address certain forms of suffering. While much of their literature comes from post-colonial landscapes, they methodologically work at the intersections of critical phenomenology, post-structuralism and de-colonial theory to investigate the phenomenon of suffering. They find much joy in indulging in art, literature, poetry, music and the like.

Mira Magdalena Sickinger

Supervised by Richard Heinrich

Mira Magdalena Sickinger's project “The Pragmatics of Deep Jokes” explores “depth” as an attribute that can be ascribed to certain philosophical problems as well as certain jokes. It reviews Wittgenstein’s description of “deep jokes” and seeks to provide a definition for this particular type of joke, which is not primarily aimed at amusement but displays communicative dysfunctionalities or misinterpretations of (and by) language. The investigation discusses how jokes violate traditional maxims of successful communication and analyses the pragmatic particularities that apply to deep jokes.

Daniel Smyth

Supervised by Sandra Lehmann

Daniel Smyth studied philosophy at the New School for Social Research and at Brock University. His MA thesis defended the idea that human rights exist in degrees. His dissertation explores the formation of common beliefs about institutions, focusing on organizational agency and the perception of institutions as simple organizations. Combining insights from medieval studies and the sociology of institutions, he traces historical shifts in the ontologies of intermediate corporate entities: from medieval guilds to contemporary institutions.

Martin Strauss

Supervised by Elisabeth Nemeth

Michael Toppel

Michael Toppel is working on his PhD on the use of geometry in the metaphysics and magical theory of Marsilio Ficino in comparison to the scholastics. Besides medieval natural philosophy, he is interested in proof theory, syntactical theory reconstruction, medieval logic and general philosophy of logic. Before starting his PhD in Vienna, he studied mathematics, logic and philosophy of science in Vienna and Leeds. He already has a PhD in mathematical logic from the University of Leeds.

Lisa Tragbar

In her PhD-thesis, Lisa Tragbar investigates the international responsibility for peacekeeping in the ius post bellum. She approaches the subject based on Francisco de Vitoria's considerations of international law. Her research interests lie in Political Philosophy and Applied Ethics, in particular Just War Theory and Peace Ethics.

Florian Uckmann

Supervised by  Hans Bernhard Schmid , Georg Stenger , and  Violetta Waibel Florian Uckmann studied philosophy, sociology and aesthetics in Jena and Frankfurt/Main before starting his PhD within the 'Forms of Normativity: Transitions and Intersections‘ scheme. The main focus of his research lies in the fields of anthropology, social philosophy and the ontology of society with particular interest in social institutions, second nature and the theoretical foundations of liberalism.

Anna Wieder

Anna Wieder studied philosophy and journalism in Vienna, Graz, and Paris VIII. Her PhD-thesis investigates the relation of democracy and political resistance. Accordingly, her research areas are ethics, social and political philosophy, esp. the theory of democracy, which she encounters from the theoretical background of critical theory, post-structuralism, and phenomenology.

Peihong Xie

Supervised by Benjamin Schnieder and Max Kölbel

Peihong is a PhD candidate in philosophy at the University of Vienna and a member of the PACE project . His academic interest covers nearly all aspects of metaphysics, but especially focuses on grounding, philosophy of time, personal identity and causal powers. His PhD project is devoted to developing, within the perspective of conceptual engineering, a way to assess and modify metaphysical grounding as an important conceptual tool, and then to implement the engineered concept of grounding in first-order philosophical debates, for example, over causal powers.

Supervised by Max Kölbel  and Paulina Sliwa

Bojin is a PhD candidate in philosophy at the University of Vienna and a member of the PACE project . Bojin previously completed his BA and MPhil at University of Cambridge. His research lies at the intersection of philosophy of mind, of language, and of science. His current focus is on the topic of conceptual engineering. Here's a link to his website, where you can find out more about his philosophical interests, publications, and various other things he writes: zubergine.com .

• Show search form Hide search form
• Quick links
• Staff search
• Search Search --> Websites Staff search Start search

Admission to the Doctoral Programme in Humanities, Philosophy and Education

To be able to apply for admission to the doctoral programme at the University of Vienna, the applicant must hold a subject-related diploma or master's degree or another subject-related degree of at least the same level of higher education, issued at a recognized domestic or foreign post-secondary educational institution. In addition, documents on the planned dissertation project must be submitted (see link below). Applications for admission will be forwarded to the responsible doctoral programme director for content review. Please note that the processing may take several weeks. The result of the examination will be communicated by an admission letter.

Application takes place online via u:space and is possible throughout the year.

Please note that you have to renew your enrollment every semester. This has to take place within the regular admission period.

 Deadlines

Application and admission to the doctoral programme is open throughout the year.

 Semester start

• winter semester: 1 October
• summer semester: 1 March

Schedule of the academic year

Please also read the FAQs. Here you will find further useful information for your application.

To the FAQs

Required documents

• Description of the intended doctoral project
• Letter of motivation
• Curriculum vitae
• Indication of Willingness to Supervise a Doctoral/PhD Candidate
• Optional: Proof of language competence: Depending on the field of doctoral research and the intended doctoral project, a prerequisite for admission to the doctoral programme is usually language proficiency in German or English corresponding to level C1. In individual cases, subject-specific and/or project-specific language skills are a prerequisite. In the fields of doctoral research of English and American studies and transcultural communication, English language proficiency corresponding to level C1 is a prerequisite in any case. Please specify any relevant language skills during the admission procedure and provide relevant evidence.

If you have a degree from another university or university of applied sciences, please additionally submit the following documents: 

• Your passport or personal ID
• A passport photograph
• Your bachelor and master/diploma certificates and transcripts with the required legalisation for the issuing country
• All for the application process necessary documents have to be translated, if they are not issued in German or English. This translation has to be done by a court sworn translator after the documents were legalised.

Your steps in the admission procedure

Step 1: Application for admission via u:space

Register in u:space and activate your u:account. You will need this account during your studies at the University of Vienna. Log in to u:space, select the degree programme of your choice and upload the above mentioned required documents as PDF. Then click on "submit application."

Please note: Documents that have already been processed in earlier applications are saved in your application as "Nachweisvorhanden.pdf" or "pseudo.txt" and do not have to be uploaded again.

As soon as the status of your application in u:space is "submitted", the admission office will take care of your application.

Please note that any missing or formally incorrect document will prolong the processing time and lead to a later admission. Only submit your application once you uploaded all required documents. The admission office needs several weeks to process your application.

Where required, interviews with candidates will take place. In this case, you will be contacted by E-Mail.

Step 2: Waiting for your admission letter

Due to administrative reasons it is not possible to inform you about the status of your application. Your admission letter will be sent to the e-mail address you provided in u:space.

Step 3: Admission to the doctoral programm

The admission may be either

• without stipulations,
• with stipulations of additional exams (up to a maximum of 60 ECTS) from the bachelor or master programme which you have to pass before the public presentation or
• rejected due to qualitative deficiencies

You will be notified about possible stipulations in the admission letter. A seperate admission to a bachelor/master programme to participate in the required courses is not necessary. Please note: Required stipulations need to be passed before the public presentation!

If you have submitted documents you have not obtained at the University of Vienna (e.g. documents from other universities), please come to the Admission Office in person to complete the admission procedure. Please bring along your admission letter and all documents, you obtained at other universities.

You are admitted as soon as the prescribed tuition fee/students' union fee is registered as paid.

DLE Research Services and Career Development | Admission Doctoral/PhD Programmes

Berggasse 7 1090 Vienna | 2nd floor E-Mail: [email protected]

+43-1-4277-18263

• The Graduate School >
• Graduate News >

New chief brings years of law enforcement experience to UB

Published April 25, 2024

Growing up in Buffalo’s Cold Springs neighborhood, Kim Beaty never imagined a career in law enforcement.

But after three decades in the Buffalo Police Department and five years as director of public safety at Canisius University, Beaty is still at it and taking on her latest challenge: chief of police at UB.

“I never thought I would stay a long time in law enforcement because it wasn’t my life’s dream,” Beaty says. “But I ended up loving it. Law enforcement has been a career of a lifetime.”

Beaty took over as UB police chief on Nov. 16, responsible for managing, planning and directing the law enforcement activities of 72 staff serving some 40,000 people across three campuses.

She brings with her a “breadth and depth” of experience accumulated while climbing the ranks of the Buffalo Police Department, where she started as a patrol officer and retired as deputy commissioner of operations and homeland security after 31 years on the force.

That included time as a community policing officer, when she learned how to gain the trust of activists in the neighborhoods, and as a trainer in the police academy, when she found her niche teaching future officers.

As a lieutenant, she recognized the importance of diversity within the ranks and spearheaded a recruiting program. Prior to her appointment as deputy commissioner, Beaty was chief of E District, which encompasses some of the toughest neighborhoods in the city.

Her shift into higher education in 2018 has been enjoyable. Beaty headed up public safety at her alma mater, Canisius, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in communication and a master’s in higher education and student affairs.

At UB, Beaty is still getting acquainted with the students, faculty and staff, as well as the sheer size of the university and the SUNY system. But she wants to continue to place an emphasis on community policing and promoting crime prevention and safety awareness on and around UB’s campuses.

“People want to feel safe, but I want them not just to feel safe — but to be safe,” she says.

Beaty also wants to keep building upon the success of a department that prides itself on its professionalism. That, she says, will mean some strategic changes within the department.

“Change is always hard, but it also brings growth and that’s what I’m looking for,” she says.

Beaty lives in Lancaster with her husband, Vernon, who is also retired from the Buffalo Police Department. She has a stepson, also Vernon, and a daughter, Kayla.

UBNow recently caught up with Beaty at her office in Bissell Hall, where she talked about being the only girl in a military family of six siblings; how she climbed the ladder in a male-dominated field; and her carpentry skills.

The interview was edited for length and clarity:

You said you didn’t want to be a police officer growing up. Why?

The police were not always superheroes and friendly in the neighborhoods where I grew up. Not that they had to be friendly, but I thought they should at least be approachable. One night, police barged into our house and things did not end well. That’s why I never thought I would go into a career in law enforcement, because I didn’t have a lot of faith in the system. Now, I do this to be a part of positive change.

So, what career were you interested in and what changed your mind about law enforcement?

I thought I would enjoy working in the media, so that’s what I went to school for. My dream job was to be a news reporter and I really thought that’s what I was going to do.

But while at Canisius, I would see this older gentleman recruiting for the police department. He would say, ‘We don’t have a lot of women working in the police department and we need women. Why don’t you join?’ I decided to take the civil service test, did very well and never looked back. Once I became a part of it, I grew to enjoy it. Ever since, I’ve been an advocate for women in leadership; equity, diversity and inclusion; community policing; and training for law enforcement.

What are issues at the forefront of your mind as a police chief on a big university campus?

Mental health. Active-shooter response. Relationship building.

If I had to put those in order I would say, No. 1 building relationships and No. 2 mental health, because mental health has everything to do with active shooter and safety. Safety is the big circle around all of those.

Do you have a philosophy you bring to the job?

Yes. Be patient, because some things don’t happen as fast as you want them to. Be kind, but you also have to be firm. Treat people with dignity and respect. Leaders have to be able to make decisions. You also have to be careful what you say — but you have to mean what you say.

How would you describe your leadership style?

It depends on the situation, but I would say I’m a transformational leader. I am authoritative as well as open-minded. I am a listener who wants to gain understanding about how people feel about things. I want others to learn.

I’ll say it this way: I’ll give people all of what they need and some of what they want.

What do you like to do when you’re not being the police chief?

I like to walk. That’s my way to exercise. I used to like to shop, but COVID and the changes in our society have changed my mind on that, so sometimes I’ll shop online. I’m not a television person, either, but if somebody tells me there’s a good show streaming on TV, I will binge watch if I have time.

A lot of people don’t know this, but I like to build things — like cabinets and shelving. I’m not a professional at it, but it helps relax me. I also like figuring things out, from something as simple as a puzzle to something as major as a crime. I like to find answers — and I like to know the why.