This report for academic year 2013-14 divides graduate programs into the two categories indicated below.

Strongly Recommended departments have indications that graduate students will be encouraged and supported to pursue work in this area, will find a supportive community of scholars and mentors, and will be able to write a state of the art dissertation in American Philosophy.

Recommended departments have indications that graduate students will be encouraged and supported to pursue work in American Philosophy.

For information about the basis of these recommendations, please go to our FAQ and Methodology pages. The recommendations below are in no ranked order; they are listed alphabetically. Please keep in mind that these lists have been produced by surveying experts in this sub-field of philosophy. The Pluralist Guide advises students to use these lists as a prima facie guideline for further research. Faculty retire and change departments, and the particular area that one  philosopher is working within (that is, in feminist philosophy, continental philosophy, critical race philosophy and so on) may not connect with a given student’s interests.  We encourage you to use these lists alongside the APA Grad Guide here as well as your own research into departments. Department chairs will often provide names of current students who can be consulted for more information, and though the students that chairs direct you toward may be a select set, putting all of these sources of information alongside each other can significantly inform your decision about where to apply.