Juliana Vossenberg Kazemi came to The University of Scranton a decade ago with designs on majoring in biology and pursuing a career in medicine. Upon arriving, she was invited to participate in the Special Jesuit Liberal Arts Honors Program (SJLA).
Almost immediately, she was taken with the program’s courses in philosophy.
“Going in, I didn’t know too much at all about philosophy. But I was immediately drawn to it, and the way that the faculty taught it,” she said. “Philosophy is something that brings you out of your normal mode to this more unique way of thinking and living.”
In fact, it changed the very trajectory of her life. Kazemi ’17 ultimately decided against medical school in favor of academia, and today she’s a third-year student in Baylor University’s doctoral program in philosophy.
Kazemi is part of a positive trend — she’s one of five female graduates of the Philosophy program currently enrolled in a top-tier Ph.D. program. While only 32 percent of bachelor’s degrees in philosophy awarded nationally go to women, according to the National Center for Education Statistics, about 60 percent of Scranton philosophy majors are female, putting the University right near the very top nationally.
All five women — Kazemi ’17, Bella Kelly ’19, Abbey Murphy ’20, Mary Purcell ’21 and Ariana Marseglia ’24 — were also products of SJLA, which every year invites 50 to 60 high-achieving first-year students to earn general education requirements through specially-designed courses in Western philosophy, theology and literature.
“I’m proud of the fact that we’ve had some extraordinary success in educating women in the field. We need more women getting academic positions in philosophy,” said Daniel Haggerty, Ph.D., professor and department chair of the Philosophy Department and director of SJLA. “Part of it is that really good things happen here in terms of scholarship and intellectual development. It’s a very supportive environment, not just the Philosophy program but also SJLA. The women who go through the program get a lot of encouragement and develop the confidence to feel like, ‘Hey, I can do this.’ And it gets them to think about their place in the world and what they want to do and where they want to do it.”
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Solid Foundation ‘Transforms Students’ Worldviews’
A good portion of the Philosophy program’s success can be attributed to SJLA — for many students, the program serves as their introduction to the subject.
Students invited into SJLA go through it as a cohort, taking 13 courses altogether, eight of which are in philosophy. From there, many are inspired to make it their primary major, a second major or a minor.
“It’s a uniquely mission-based honors program with philosophy at its core, which has produced tremendously successful graduates, a significant number of whom have majored in philosophy,” Dr. Haggerty said. “One of the nice things about it is that students are surrounded and supported by the same people for four years. The emphasis is never careerist, but cura personalis — caring for the whole person. And I think it has been important to women in the program to feel that kind of support. They get to think and talk about concepts that are complex, challenging and existential but also very personal. Students are welcome and encouraged to share and reflect on their experiences because the program isn’t cutthroat and impersonal. It’s collaborative and personal.”
“SJLA just transforms students’ worldviews — which I think is what we’re trying to do here at the University,” said David Dzurec, Ph.D., associate dean for the College of Arts and Sciences and professor of history. “It’s exposing them to bigger ideas — and helping them become better people. It lets them dive into philosophy in ways they never would have otherwise. They’re asking the big questions of life.”
That was certainly Kazemi’s experience. She immediately felt a close sense of community within the program.
In time, she decided to double major in philosophy and theology.
“I loved the faculty’s approach to philosophy,” Kazemi said. “For them, it’s more than just showing the concepts, but getting the students to wrestle with these ideas that humans have been wrestling with since the beginning of time. They very much gave each philosopher and philosophical idea its own time to shine and encouraged us to wrestle with each one. They’re preparing students to live deeply and reflectively. They wanted each of us to become our own person and were so invested in our personal growth. No other educational experience I’ve had since has risen to it.”
Marseglia graduated from the University in the spring and is now a first-year student in the University of Memphis’ Ph.D. program. That’s a long way from where she was four years ago as a prospective neuroscience major with “a hint of an interest in philosophy.”
She had an epiphany of sorts in a metaphysics class taught by Dr. Haggerty.
“It unlocked a huge door for me, and my interests went in sort of a metaphysical direction — I grew kind of bored with scientific approaches. You don’t lose your sense of wonder in the world when you study philosophy,” Marseglia said. “And I loved that the discussions with other students didn’t feel like we were just studying for a test. And the faculty were fantastic — they’ll talk to you inside and outside the classroom about anything. To me, it showed how fulfilling philosophy could be as a discipline, and how the content can be applied to so many aspects of life.”
Before long, Marseglia realized she should take her education in a different direction. She approached Dr. Haggerty one day and said, “I don’t want to do what I’m doing anymore. I want to do what you’re doing.”
“He said, ‘That’s fantastic, but I think you should wait a while and think about it and make sure you’re really sure about it,’” she said. “So, I spent the next semester and then some thinking about whether there was anything else I wanted to do. And there was nothing else I wanted to do.”
“SJLA just transforms students’ worldviews — which I think is what we’re trying to do here at the University.”
— David Dzurec, Ph.D., associate dean for the College of Arts and Sciences and professor of history.
Human Connection in Contrast to ‘Pressure Cooker’
Dr. Haggerty said another part of the program’s special sauce is that he and the other Philosophy faculty members forge close bonds with students, who know they can always drop in during office hours for wide-ranging discussions about courses, career aspirations or just their lives in general.
Independent studies are encouraged, and faculty members also make time for tutorials, readers and other assistance.
“It’s not a pressure cooker in the program; while we aspire for excellence, our approach is personal and it’s friendly,” Dr. Haggerty said. “The faculty are promoting a cooperative ap proach to learning. We want them all to succeed and excel, and to help each other. I think that encouraging, challenging and cooperative approach really speaks to our female students. It shows we can all learn from each other.”
Andrew LaZella, Ph.D., professor of philosophy, served as the faculty adviser to Kelly, Murphy and Purcell. He said their research on women philosophers including Margaret Cavendish and Edith Stein has positively affected his teaching of the subject.
“Both of those philosophers were among those who traditionally did not have a seat at the table, and I’ve brought them into my own courses. I get to expose students to more marginalized thinkers, and it lets them see that the field is a lot more diverse than what the history has shown,” said Dr. LaZella, who is chairing a new committee that will provide guidance to philosophy students who are interested in graduate school.
In addition, the program simply provides a first-rate education. “Scranton is one of the few Jesuit universities that has maintained its deep commitment to the history of philosophy in conversation with the Catholic intellectual tradition,” Dr. Haggerty noted. At the same time, faculty are also at the forefront of the field’s current scholarship. That combination, he said, makes the curriculum ideal for those who wish to study philosophy at the graduate level.
One of Marseglia’s favorite approaches to philosophy is phenomenology, the study of reality as a subjectively lived experience. Her interest was developed through extensive talks she had with Duane Armitage, Ph.D., associate professor of philosophy. Those talks would guide her forward in her research, which now is applying phenomenology to the study of artificial intelligence (AI).
As it happens, the University of Memphis’ philosophy program is known for its expertise in phenomenology, so Marseglia was encouraged to apply there for graduate school.
"I get to expose students to more marginalized thinkers, and it lets them see that the field is a lot more diverse than what the history has shown." — Andrew LaZella, Ph.D., professor of philosophy
A ‘Realistic Vision’ of the Profession
“We do our best to help them make connections to other philosophy programs, which I think speaks well to how involved our faculty is within the profession,” Dr. Haggerty said. “And I think where we’ve had a lot of success is our recommendations. I really know the student when I write a recommendation, and I think it goes a long way.
“Another benefit we offer is a realistic vision of the profes-sion, the competition of it, the economic challenges,” he added. “I don’t encourage students to take on debt to study philosophy. We want students to receive full scholarships.”
Kazemi and Marseglia said they both received extensive as-sistance with their applications and are both enrolled in a fully funded Ph.D. program.
“I can’t emphasize how helpful my professors were. They knew people at these universities, and where to steer me based on my interests, and whether the program was collegial or not,” Kazemi said.
Kazemi worked extensively with Dr. Haggerty during her time at the University. After graduating in 2017, she went on to receive master’s degrees in both theology and classics at the University of Notre Dame.
From there, she went to work for a year as she decided what her next move would be. She remained close with Dr. Haggerty and following a conversation with him about Aristotle’s thoughts on the nature of friendship, she began to reflect on her time at the University.
“The major question I had was about the friendship between teachers and students — and the place where I experienced this in such a profound way was in the SJLA program. So, philoso-phy seemed like the right discipline for me to go into,” Kazemi said. “Eventually, it gave me the topic for my dissertation, which will center around the topic of enchantment in education, and the role of the teacher as enchanter. … As an educator, I want to create the same type of environment that so benefited me in SJLA. I was given this incredible gift and now I have to pay it back to someone.”
Marseglia expressed a similar sentiment.
“I’m very grateful for my whole experience at the University,” she said. “If I look at who I was versus who I am now, I’ve grown in ways that I can’t imagine would have happened otherwise. Every aspect of my life has been touched in a very positive way thanks to my education.”
