Janet Broughton is Emerita Professor of Philosophy and former Vice Provost for the Faculty at the University of California, Berkeley.
Her academic research focuses on early modern philosophy, in particular that of David Hume and René Descartes.
Following that, she worked as a programmer and announcer for a classical music show on WRVR (now WLTW) in New York City.
Broughton earned her Ph.D. in philosophy at Princeton University with a dissertation on Descartes' theory of causation.
In 2006, she was appointed Dean of the Arts and Humanities division of Berkeley's College of Letters and Science in 2006.