 After graduating from UCSB, he continued his education in a doctoral program at Princeton University, where he studied philosophy and social theory as they relate to the field of religious studies.After studying for three years at Princeton, having completed his preliminary exams, he taught at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro for two years.Upon completing his doctorate from Princeton, Cladis taught at Stanford University with a joint appointment in Philosophy and Religious Studies, and then at Vassar College.