Welcome to the Department of Philosophy at the University of Central Florida!
Don’t let the name of the department limit your experience of our multi- and inter-disciplinary courses and programs. Our department houses not one but four degree programs, which include the BA in Philosophy, BA in Humanities and Cultural Studies, BA in Religion and Cultural Studies, and a BA and BS in Integrated Humanities. There is something for almost everyone interested in the critical and analytical study of ideas, cultures, and religions.
I have been Chair of the Department of Philosophy for the past four years (2023-24 to the present), and prior to that I was Associate Dean in the College of Arts and Humanities. The Department has been my academic home since 1987. In the past four decades, I have seen the growth of UCF from a small regional university to a major metropolitan research university with over 70,000 students.
I am very proud to be associated with these academic disciplines and with the College of Arts and Humanities at UCF, and it is amplified by pride in leading a department dedicated to its students’ success and contributing to it through excellence in teaching and the ways in which they connect their research to teaching enhancements for student benefit.
My research and teaching areas are varied, but focus primarily on ethics, the history of philosophy (especially American and early Modern British), and social philosophy. I have published six books in the fields, including three in American Philosophy, two in ethics, and one a modernization of Thomas Hobbes’s Leviathan.
Our areas in the Department of Philosophy are both independent as well as interconnected. Philosophy is represented among our faculty in both the Analytic and Continental traditions; Religion and Cultural Studies includes specialists in Christianity, Eastern religions, Islam, and religions in America; and our Humanities faculty specialize in areas such as Latin American culture, Asian culture, American culture, the Classics, and environmental humanities. Many of our courses “count” in other departmental majors, emphasizing the interconnectedness in specific contexts of such topics as philosophy, religion, and the environment; environmental humanities and environmental philosophy; ethics in both philosophy and in religion programs, and more.
Most of all, our academic areas emphasize critical and creative thinking and reasoning, research-intensive courses, high-impact practices including global learning, experiential learning, and study away and study abroad programming. The experiences and the education you receive from the Department of Philosophy is useful and inherently valuable in cultivating abilities and habits of thought that are essential to employers of of nearly all kinds, the ability to write clearly and well, and to propose and implement creative solutions to difficult problems.
Our graduates go on to careers in many and varied areas, from law to medicine, and from museum curators to software development, government, business, entertainment, education, and consulting. While it is surely rare for a job ad to say “Philosopher Wanted” or “Cultural Theorist Needed,” the skills and abilities gained through an education in our department’s areas last a lifetime and provide to employers with employees and professionals who think critically, reason carefully, and approach their positions with integrity.
If you come to us in the Department of Philosophy for your major or simply to take some of our courses, you will find faculty members who are committed to your success, who will help you to find courses and experiences that will be valuable to you, and who will never treat you as a number. YOU matter to us, and you will receive a first-class educational experience here.
Our faculty are specialists in areas of strategic emphasis for the university, and also in areas of personal and professional emphasis for individual student success. Whether you are looking to work in a museum or as an ethicist for a business or health care organization, or your interests take you to law or to medicine, you will find faculty and courses that will satisfy your intellectual curiosity and goals.
We offer a fully online option for a BA in religion and many of our courses in religion, philosophy and humanities are offered both online and in-person, providing multiple avenues of course and requirement completion to our students. We also offer graduate certificate programs in theoretical and applied ethics and in cognitive sciences, programs that are attractive to students for their range of applicability and convenience of course offerings, both in person and online.
Be sure to come by to the Department of Philosophy to meet faculty and talk about courses in which you are interested if you’re not already one of our majors. If you are, you already know and we hope you will tell others about the quality experience you have in working with our faculty and in our programs. I and all our faculty look forward to seeing what you accomplish during your time in our department and at UCF, and we take great pride in your success.
Sincerely,
Nancy A. Stanlick, Ph.D.
Professor and Chair
Department of Philosophy
For more information on careers in arts and humanities, visit https://cah.ucf.edu/careers