Cultivating Underrepresented Students in Philosophy (CUSP)
The Philosophy Department at The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State) organizes two distinct CUSP (Cultivating Underrepresented Students in Philosophy) programs each year. These programs are directed toward prospective graduate students in philosophy from traditionally underrepresented groups (including African American, Chicanx and Latinx American, Native American, Asian American, and LGBTQA+ communities).
The Summer Institute is intended for rising undergraduate sophomores or juniors who are considering pursuing an academic career in Philosophy and wish to learn more about what it means to be a part of the discipline.
The Fall Graduate Application Workshop is for college seniors, recent graduates, and working professionals who want to continue their graduate education in Philosophy and are currently working on their graduate applications for the following Fall term.
Application Status
Our Summer Institute application is currently closed.
Our Fall Graduate Application Workshop application is currently closed.
Meet our Summer 2019 cohort and learn more about our Summer Institute below!
On Diversity and Inclusion
Our department strives to be a national leader in increasing the diversity and inclusiveness of our discipline and actively promotes the University’s diversity mission. Each year we recruit a diverse group of graduate students with a view to placing them in prominent positions in the academy, and our successes in this area have been recognized in a recent cover story in the Chronicle of Higher Education.
The department has also recruited a diverse group of faculty whose areas of expertise include Critical Philosophy of Race, Feminist Philosophy, African American Philosophy, and Latin American / Latinx Philosophy. These efforts, along with thoughtful attention to course offerings and syllabi, have contributed to our undergraduates and graduates experiencing a wide range of diversity in their philosophy classes. Our department has made diversity and inclusiveness a key priority, one that influences our pedagogical mission at the deepest levels and that yields fundamental benefits to our research and public mission.