Department Scholarships

The UT Philosophy Department hopes to award around five or six scholarships of about $3,000 to $4,000 each to Philosophy majors or minors for the upcoming 2024-2025 academic ye ar. Recipients must be in Good Academic Standing and be a Philosophy major or minor at the time of the award.  The recipient must have a minimum GPA of 3.0 and be making satisfactory progress toward a degree. Other things being equal, financial need may be (but need not be) considered in the selection process. A previous recipient may be considered for the award in a successive year.  Qualified applicants will be considered for all of our scholarships.

Applications are due April 1, 2027.

Application open in February.

Philosophy Scholarship Winners

2026-2027

• Wyatt Breazeale
• Nathaniel Coffman
• Noah Cooper
• Luke Fish
• Sydney Jessie
• Owen Johnson
• James Kurschner
• Addison Leonard
• Colton Lind
• Joshua Malloy
• Shin-Soo Moon
• Kjuantaneous Prince
• Lily Regan
• Cohen Russell
• Simran Sawant
• Catherine Vierwinden
• Kiran Wadhwani
• Madelyn Yates

2025-2026

• Brynn Brickell
• Jeremiah Buckley
• Brylea Cardwell
• Nathaniel Coffman
• Ty Colley
• Elijah Erwin
• Brandon Hubbard
• Ryan Johnson
• James Kurschner
• Addison Leonard
• Elias Russell
• Simran Sawant
• Anja Shull
• Catherine Vierwinden
• Madelyn Yates

2024-2025

• Andrew Abordo
• Brynn Brickell
• Evelyn Cofer
• Laila Irigoyen
• Addison Leonard
• Anthony Raganella
• Garan Renner
• Makaela Webb

2023-2024

• Heidi Avery
• Andrew Gullahorn
• Nathaneal Parsons
• Gavin Buehring

2022-2023

• Hannah Fantuzzi
• Savanah Hunt
• Madison Lackey
• Delia McDevitt
• Rami Abu-Shehadeh

Essay Prize

The Undergraduate Philosophy Essay Contest is open to all undergraduate UT students enrolled, full or part time, at the time of the essay’s submission. Essays on any philosophical topic are eligible for entry. Contest participants may submit no more than one entry. Essays are to be no longer than 3,500 words or roughly 14 pages of typescript, excluding endnotes and references. The total amount of prize money available in any one year is $500.

Submissions are due April 1, 2027.

Application available in February.

Philosophy Essay Prize Winners

2025-2026

• Winner – Luke Fish – “A New Approach to Metaphysics in Analytic Philosophy: A Middle Path between Description and Revision”
• Winner – Tanner Wolfe – “Rival Worlds: Tragic Poetry and the Politics of Banishment in Plato’s Republic”
• Honorable Mention – Nathaniel Coffman – “Assertions and the KNA”
• Honorable Mention – Brandon Hubbard – “Social, Political, and Intellectual Parallels in Plato’s Republic”

2024-2025

• Winner – Luke Fish – An essay on Chisolm on Knowledge
• Honorable Mention – Elijah Erwin – “What Does it Cost Me: A Critical Evaluation of QALYs in Modern Pharmacoeconomics”
• Honorable Mention – Madelyn Yates – “The Meaning of Life”

2023-2024

• Winner – Evelyn Cofer – “Hegel on Art’s Evolution”
• Honorable Mention – Heidi Avery – An essay on Zagzebski against Reliabilism
• Honorable Mention – Natalie Singh – “Absolutist and Relationalist Conceptions of Space and Time”

2022-2023

• Winner – Devin Hopson – “Marxism, Ideology, and Propaganda”
• Runner-up – Delia McDevitt – “OCD and Epistemic Playfulness”

2021-2022

• Winner – Aliya Benabderrazak – “Transhumanism and Disability Justice”