Philosophy Summer Programs for Graduate Students /PhDs – 2026
Please use the comments section on this post to share information about Summer 2026 Programs in Philosophy for graduate students and/or PhDs in philosophy.
If you are organizing such a program, please add a comment to this post that includes:
– program name
– dates
– location
– contact information
– application deadline
– a brief (one-paragraph) description of the program
– link to further information
Here’s an example:
Collective Moral and Intellectual Virtues
Dates: July 6-10
Location: Central European University, Budapest
Contact Information: Mark Alfano, mark.alfano@mq.edu.au
Deadline: March 1, 2026
Description: Collectives and other groups have the capacity to do more than any of their individual members could accomplish alone. Groups can achieve great accomplishments and benefits, but they can also commit evil at scale. Likewise, through the division of cognitive labor and with the support of technologies of communication and inference, collectives can learn things that no individual could achieve in a lifetime. However, collectives can also spread misinformation, disinformation, unwarranted conspiracy theories, and propaganda at hitherto-unimagined speed and scale. This course addresses both the promise and the peril that attend our increasingly connected, global community. It offers participants the chance to think through the ethical difficulties of existence within contemporary communities, and consider how to construct those communities in ways that enable us to flourish together as moral, epistemic, and political agents. We will begin with an introduction to individual virtue theory (both ethical and epistemic), then expand to a consideration of collective virtue theory.
Further Information: https://summeruniversity.ceu.edu/courses/2026/collective-moral-and-intellectual-virtues
Related:
Philosophy Summer Programs for Undergraduates – 2026
Philosophy Summer Programs for High School Students – 2026
Collegium Spinozanum V: An International Summer School on Spinoza and Spinozisms in Their Historical and Philosophical Contexts
FernUniversität in Hagen, 30 June – 3 July 2026
AI + Data Ethics (AIDE) Summer Training Program
– Program Dates: June 1st – July 31st
– Location: Northeastern University, Boston MA
– Contact: John Basl ([email protected]) or Katie Creel ([email protected])
– Application Deadline: January 15th
– This is a summer training program for PhD students in philosophy or related fields to develop a research program and competencies in ethics and philosophy of computation. It involves bi-weekly seminar, a speaker series, a computer science lab, professional development workshops, and project mentorship. It is a residential, fully-funded program.
– You can see more details at http://www.aidesummer.org.
JHP Summer Seminar, “Early Modern Debates About Slavery”
The Summer Seminar will take place from June 14th to June 19th, 2026.
The deadline for applications is on February 1, 2026.
Travel, housing and food for the duration of the classes will be paid by the JHP up to $2,000.
Dates: June 14–19, 2026
Location: University of Massachusetts Amherst
Topic: “Early Modern Debates About Slavery”
Instructor: Julia Jorati (Professor, University of Massachusetts, Amherst)
Course Description: In 17th and 18th-century Europe and America, there were intense debates about various aspects of slavery. These debates form a crucial but understudied part of the history of early modern philosophy. They contain discussions about many central philosophical questions and often approach these questions from surprisingly different angles—for instance, questions from moral and political philosophy, metaphysics, philosophy of mind, and epistemology. In this seminar, we will analyze a few early modern texts about slavery by canonical authors and by authors who aren’t widely known but whose contributions are at least as important.
Application: Applicants should send a letter of interest and CV; see https://jhp.wisc.edu/summerseminar.html
Qualifications: PhD in the topic area of the seminar received no earlier than January 1, 2021 and no later than January 1, 2026. AOS in the area relevant to the seminar is required.
Deadline for submission: The deadline for applications is February 1, 2026. Notifications will be made by March 15, 2026.
More information: https://jhp.wisc.edu/summerseminar.html
Ethics and Economics Summer School: Ethics of Taxes, Climate Change and Labor Markets Dates: June 22-24, 2026
Location: Erasmus University Rotterdam, the Netherlands
Contact Information: Huub Brouwer (Tilburg University) & Daniel Halliday (University of Melbourne) H [dot] M [dot] Brouwer [dot] philosophy [miukumauku] proton [dot] me
Deadline: March 31, 2026
Description: In what ways can economic inequality undermine the proper functioning of democracy? Are carbon taxes morally desirable, also in non-ideal circumstances? How can green industrial policy be designed to respect, or even further, egalitarian goals? What is the value of economic growth? What are the moral harms and benefits of (labor) market competition?
The aim of this summer school is to bring together graduate students and recently completed PhDs working on economic ethics and take a deep-dive into philosophical debates about climate change, labor markets, and taxation, with some of the leading researchers on these issues [e.g. Bruno Verbeek, Marco Meyer, Kian Mintz-Woo, Jamie Draper, Constanze Binder, Julie Rose, Anca Gheaus, Yvette Drissen, Daniel Halliday, Nicholas Vrousalis, Joseph Heath and Lisa Herzog].
The goals of the course are threefold:
Further Information: https://www.ozsw.nl/activity/ethics-and-economics-summer-school/
Collective Moral and Intellectual Virtues
Programme dates: July 6–10, 2026
Location: CEU, Budapest
Application deadline: March 1st
Faculty: Mark Alfano (course director), Michal Klincewicz, Cathy Mason, Maria Silvia Vaccarezza, David Spurrett
Collectives and other groups have the capacity to do more than any of their individual members could accomplish alone. Groups can achieve great accomplishments and benefits, but they can also commit evil at scale. Likewise, through the division of cognitive labor and with the support of technologies of communication and inference, collectives can learn things that no individual could achieve in a lifetime. However, collectives can also spread misinformation, disinformation, unwarranted conspiracy theories, and propaganda at hitherto-unimagined speed and scale.
This course addresses both the promise and the peril that attend our increasingly connected, global community. It offers participants the chance to think through the ethical difficulties of existence within contemporary communities, and consider how to construct those communities in ways that enable us to flourish together as moral, epistemic, and political agents. We will begin with an introduction to individual virtue theory (both ethical and epistemic), then expand to a consideration of collective virtue theory.
Summer School Mereology and Beyond taught by Achille Varzi and Claudio Calosi
Dates: 15 to 19 June 2026
Location: USI, Lugano (Switzerland)
Contact Information: For more information and the provisional schedule: http://www.usi.ch/mereology For any questions: [email protected]
Deadline: February 15, 2026.
Description: The main instructors will be Achille Varzi (Columbia) and Claudio Calosi (Ca’ Foscari). The summer school provides a thorough survey of both classical mereology and beyond. ‘Beyond’ is articulated in three different ways: by providing alternatives, strengthenings, and extensions of classical mereology. All the sessions investigate both technical details and metaphysical issues that arise from those technical details.
Accepted participants will have the possibility to send a short abstract for consideration to present some of their research at the summer school.
How to apply: Application is open to graduate students and early career researchers. Please send a copy of your CV, a one-page motivation letter and a reference letter from a supervisor or colleague to [email protected].
SSNAP 2026: Summer Seminars in Neuroscience and Philosophy
Theme: Neuroscience and AI
Are you interested in the intersection of neuroscience, philosophy, and artificial intelligence? Join us for SSNAP 2026, a fully-funded summer program bringing together scholars to explore cutting-edge questions at the frontiers of mind, brain, and machine intelligence.
What is SSNAP?
The Summer Seminars in Neuroscience and Philosophy (SSNAP) is an intensive interdisciplinary program designed for graduate students, postdocs, professors, and advanced researchers who want to deepen their understanding of philosophical and neuroscientific approaches to fundamental questions about cognition, consciousness, and intelligence.
2026 Theme: Neuroscience and AI
This year’s program explores the rich intersections between neuroscience and artificial intelligence, including:
Appy today: here
Residential Summer Course in Philosophy for Children
Dates: August 1-8, 2026
Location: St. Marguerite’s Retreat
House, Mendham, NJ
Contact: [email protected]
Participants in this course will experience and practice facilitating a “community of philosophical inquiry” with adults. They will cultivate a “philosophical ear” by learning to recognize philosophical dimensions of experience and philosophical issues in text. We will also explore some of the theoretical dimensions of philosophy for children, community of inquiry, and philosophical curriculum construction. This course is held at St. Marguerite’s Retreat House in Mendham, New Jersey, and the course fee includes lodging and meals. It can be taken for Montclair State University master’s level credit.
Registration Link: https://secure3.touchnet.com/C20831_ustores/web/store_main.jsp?STOREID=31&SINGLESTORE=true
Center for Canon Expansion and Change (CCEC) 2026 Summer Program
Dates: May 31 – June 6
Location: University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, Minneapolis, Minnesota
Contact Information: Nada Mohamed, [email protected]
Deadline: March 1, 2026
Description: The Center for Canon Expansion and Change (CCEC) seeks applications for participants in its 4th annual Summer Program, now funded by a $500,000grant. Participants will take part in a week-long collaborative workshop, in which they learn about figures in an expanded canon of early modern philosophy (such as Anton Wilhelm Amo, Margaret Cavendish, and Anne Conway) and cutting-edge research on them; discuss inclusive, student-centered, and equitable pedagogy (with 2 sessions dedicated to teaching a predominantly white audience in predominantly white institutions); and collaboratively craft their own early modern course syllabus. After the workshop, participants and guides will meet regularly and continue to communicate as their courses (and future versions of it) are implemented. Participants will also receive an award from CCEC attesting to their experience with canon expansion and inclusive teaching.
Further info: https://www.minnesotaccec.com/ccec-summer-program-2026
Angelicum Thomistic Institute Summer Seminar 2026: ‘Mind in Neo-Confucianism and European Scholasticism’
Dates: June 18-27
Location: Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas, Rome
Contact Information: James Dominic Rooney, [email protected]
Deadline: April 15, 2026
Description: There has been a notable lack of attention to the way that Eastern and Western metaphysics have significant areas of overlap in their traditions around the problem of mind and related issues. This seminar aims to remedy this fact by drawing together experts in Neo-Confucianism and Scholasticism, providing a basic introduction to both traditions and to their metaphysical perspectives. Questions regarding “mind” were central to debates among Neo-Confucians in the East as well as to many debates in later medieval Scholasticism. In the Scholastic tradition, there was extensive development of the Aristotelian account of the human being as a combination of body and soul, conceived of as matter and form, alongside long-standing Trinitarian reflection on the nature of ‘person’ as referring to something uniquely individual and particular. Scholastics likewise spent a great deal of time working out the cognitive mechanisms and modules through which we mentally interact with extra-mental reality. All of these topics have, in various ways, become of great contemporary interest to those working on systematic issues in physics, neuroscience, chemistry, ethics, politics, and cognitive science. The Neo-Confucian tradition is a natural partner to that of the scholastics on many of these topics, holding the potential to illuminate, complement, and challenge scholastic perspectives in fruitful ways. An aim of this seminar is to explore the ways that these themes might be drawn into dialogue with areas of contemporary interest around scholastic theories in philosophy of mind and epistemology, since there are many correspondences to scholastic themes and insights within Neo-Confucian schools.
Further Information: https://cscs.hkbu.edu.hk/academic-activities/ATI-Summer-Seminar-in-Asian-Philosophy-and-Scholasticism,-2026–.html
Idols of Modernity: The Human Desire for Meaning and the Migration of the Holy (with William T. Cavanaugh)
Dates: August 3-7, 2026
Location: Benedictine Monastery Mariastein, Switzerland
Contact Information: [email protected]
Deadline: May 15, 2026
Description: In his recent book The Uses of Idolatry (OUP 2024), William T. Cavanaugh argues that worship has not disappeared from our supposedly «secular» world, but has merely changed its target. Instead of God, created things and structures are worshipped. Cavanaugh examines modern forms of idolatry, such as nationalism and consumer culture, and shows how people become dominated by their own creations. Drawing on insights from history, theology, philosophy, political science, sociology and cultural studies, the book recognizes idolatry as more than merely a «religious» phenomenon and views the critique of idolatry as a genuinely interdisciplinary project with the aim of revealing how and why we sacrifice ourselves and others to gods of our own design. The foχs Summer School 2026 offers an opportunity to discuss these provocative theses and approaches with the author and to explore their consequences for our view of ourselves, our culture and our academic work.
Further information: https://foxs.ch/summer-school-2026
Note that the registration deadline for this event has been extended to 31 May.
MCMP Summer School for Widening Participation in Mathematical Philosophy
20th – 24th July 2026
LMU Munich, Bavaria, Germany
[email protected]
https://www.mathsummer.philosophie.uni-muenchen.de/index.html
Application Deadline 15th March
The Munich Center for Mathematical Philosophy (MCMP) is organizing the third edition of the Summer School for Widening Participation in Mathematical Philosophy, which will take place from the 20th to 24th July 2026 in Munich, Germany. The summer school continues a successful tradition, which began in 2014 with eight editions of the summer school on mathematical philosophy for female students and was expanded in 2024 to underrepresented groups. The 2026 “Summer School for Widening Participation in Mathematical Philosophy” is open to women and members of other groups that are under-represented in mathematical philosophy. These groups include under-represented gender identities, races and ethnicities, people with disabilities, people from low income and non-academic family backgrounds. The target level is master students and last year-bachelor students. The school’s aim is to encourage students to engage with mathematical and scientific approaches to philosophical problems, and thereby help to redress the under-representation of women and other marginalized groups in mathematical philosophy. It offers the opportunity for study in an informal and interdisciplinary setting, for lively debate, and for the development of a network of students and professors interested in the application of formal methods to philosophy.
Philosophy of AI Summer School 2026: Reasoning and Agency in AI
Applications now open!
Hosted by the SAS Institute of Philosophy (University of London), the University of Hong Kong, and LMU, the 2026 Philosophy of AI Summer School offers an intensive five-day programme devoted to this year’s theme: Reasoning and Agency in AI. The summer school brings together leading researchers working across philosophy and artificial intelligence to examine how emerging AI systems challenge and illuminate long-standing questions about rationality, action, explanation, and decision-making.
Designed primarily for PhD students, postdocs, and early-career researchers in philosophy, the programme also welcomes applicants from adjacent disciplines, qualified MA students, and participants from industry whose work engages with the conceptual foundations of AI. Teaching consists of sessions delivered by invited instructors, together with structured discussion, opportunities for research feedback, and dedicated poster sessions for participants.
The Summer School will take place at the Venice International University. Sessions will run daily from approximately 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., with one lighter afternoon scheduled to allow attendees time to explore Venice and visit the Biennale Arte 2026.
For more info please follow the link here
Please use te updated link to apply: Philosophy of AI Summer School – Venice 2026 | Institute of Philosophy
Digital Minds Fellowship
Dates: August 3–9, 2026
Location: Jesus College, University of Cambridge, UK
Contact Information: Lucius Caviola, [email protected]
Application Deadline: March 27, 2026
Description: The Digital Minds Fellowship is a fully funded, week-long intensive program designed for graduate students, postdocs, and early-career researchers looking to build expertise in the emerging field of AI consciousness/welfare and digital minds. The curriculum covers three core modules: Philosophical & Technical Foundations (LLM architectures and frameworks for consciousness), Societal Implications & Strategy (policy and intervention design), and Project Scoping. Fellows will be paired with mentors and invited to participate in the Digital Minds Strategy Workshop alongside senior field leaders. The program includes travel, accommodation at Jesus College, and a £1,000 stipend.
Further Information: digitalminds.cam/fellowship
The 19th Cologne Summer School in Philosophy (CSSiP) on
Folk Epistemology and Science Skepticism
Location: Cologne
Time: August 10 to August 14, 2026.
Contact Information/application: [email protected]
Webpage: http://cssip.uni-koeln.de/
The Cologne Summer School is an annual, week-long, event at which leading epistemologists present their current work in a series of lectures and discuss their work with participants. The Summer School mainly aims at professional philosophers and graduate students, but anyone is welcome to apply. In 2026 our special guest will be Mikkel Gerken (University of Southern Denmark).
Cologne Summer School Themes: The 2026 Summer School will address a range of issues from foundational to applied social epistemology. Many of the discussions will revolve around an important real-life problem – namely, science skepticism. For example, we will examine how science skepticism is related to varieties of philosophical skepticism. Furthermore, we will consider how folk epistemological heuristics and conversational norms may fuel public skepticism about science. We will also consider ways in which epistemologists and philosophers of science may play a role in combating science skepticism. Thus, some of the discussions overlap with issues in philosophy of science. Throughout, there will be an emphasis on philosophical methodology and epistemology’s relationship to empirical research in the social and cognitive sciences.
Topics will include
· Philosophical skepticism and real-life (science) skepticism
· Folk epistemology and its relation to epistemology
· Epistemic norms of assertion and science communication
· Internalism and externalism in epistemology and mind
· Intuitive judgments and philosophical methodology
· The epistemic roles of science in society
The Summer School is free but limited to 50 participants – to be selected on the basis of motivation and qualification. Online application is possible through April 15. Please supply a short letter that sketches your academic background and main motivation for participating in the Summer School. If you are interested in giving a brief presentation (approx. 20 minutes) related to Gerken’s work, please also send an abstract of no more than 1,000 words. We will inform you about the result of your application soon after the deadline.
Apply via email to:
[email protected]
For more information, please visit our website:
http://cssip.uni-koeln.de/