Research

The Department of Philosophy at the University of Reading is a centre of international excellence in research. In the last Research Assessment Exercise conducted by the UK government (2008), we were ranked third best department in the UK, ahead of Oxford and Cambridge.

In the latest Leiter Report on graduate programmes in philosophy, we were ranked in the top ten departments in the UK, equal also to departments in the USA such as Carnegie-Mellon, Georgetown, and the University of Virginia. In ethics, we were ranked higher than any UK departments apart from Oxford and Cambridge.

We run many events throughout the year dedicated to stimulating and fostering research. There is a full visiting speaker programme in which leading researchers from around the world present their work to staff and students; a work in progress programme in which staff discuss their current research; a graduate seminar for research students; a regular staff-student reading group, as well informal reading groups on recent and classic books; the well-known annual Ratio conference, sponsored by the leading international philosophy journal edited in the Department; and various other speaker events and seminars throughout the year.

In addition, the Department has recently completed a three-year, AHRC-funded research project on Impartiality and Partiality in Ethics, with an associated visiting speaker programme and annual conference that has attracted leading ethicists from around the world.