Bruce Taub ‘10

Doctoral candidate, Philosophy Department, Boston University

After decades as an executive in the banking industry, Bruce decided he wanted to teach. Bruce—who left college for Wall Street at the age of 19—enrolled in an undergraduate degree completion program, where he took his first ethics course. That class inspired him to seek out the Ethics & Public Policy master’s program at Suffolk.

Although he had planned to teach business ethics, he was bitten by the philosophy bug in the very first week of the program. “We started with Antigone,” he says, “and I was done for. The world was a wonderful lab unfolding around us that we analyzed through the lens of ancient, medieval, and later thinkers.”

Bruce found his professors to be “real scholars—intellectually accomplished, energetic, and curious.” He collaborated with Professor Nir Eisikovits to develop a curriculum for a course on conservatism. Professor Gregory Fried provided support and encouragement as Bruce spent months further researching and revising a paper on Heidegger—despite having already earned an A.

The revision served Bruce well. He used the Heidegger essay as his writing sample when applying to PhD programs. Bruce is now a doctoral candidate at Boston University, where he is studying philosophy.