Has there been “a marked decline in faculty participation in seminars, colloquia, reading groups, and other intellectual gatherings that once formed the core of academic life”?
Annalisa Costella (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam) and Kritika Maheshwari (Delft University of Technology) think so.
In the following guest post, they share views about the importance of various in-person events and activities typical of philosophy departments, as well as their observations about the extent of faculty of participation in them.
They have also constructed a brief poll on the topic, which you can find at the end of the post.
This is the fifth entry in the 2025 Summer Guest Post Series. (It will stay pinned to the top of the home page for a few days.)
[archived image unavailable] [Tadashi Kawamata, “Avalanche”]
Philosophy Departments as Sites of Collective Intellectual Activities: a Decline?
by Annalisa Costella and Kritika Maheshwari
This post was born out of a series of conversations between the two of us, as well as with other colleagues, senior and junior, tenured and non-tenured, from a variety of institutions. One of the reasons why we entered this profession is the unique promise it offers: the chance to pursue the “life of the mind”. Academic philosophy seems attractive not only because it offers the prospects of a career spent doing research on what one finds puzzling, fascinating, or daunting, but also because it provides a platform to think deeply about pressing challenges surrounding our societies.
Doing research, we take it, is not just about sitting at one’s desk and rewriting the same sentences over and over in the hope of getting one’s papers published. It also, and perhaps crucially, involves engaging in intellectual exchange: discussing ideas with one’s peers, taking part in seminars and workshops, providing feedback on drafts, broadening one’s horizons by trying to get the nitty-gritty details of a talk given by someone who works in a different area of philosophical expertise, and so on. This active engagement with one’s research community seems to us an important component of intellectual life, and more appealing than the image of the solitary philosopher alone at their desk, perpetually toiling away in isolation.
While we are aware that some of our peers would rather spend their work life typing away by themselves than engage in face-to-face discussions with colleagues, we take believe our sentiment is sufficiently widespread. As often witnessed at conferences or even more informal social gatherings, it seems that many of us find great joy in discussing philosophy in person.
And yet, despite this seemingly shared sentiment, we have the impression that many philosophy departments seem stuck in a kind of bad equilibrium. Since Covid-19, our own impression is that faculty participation has seen a marked decline. By faculty participation, we mean the more or less regular, meaningful presence of faculty members in both formal and informal scholarly events—those that contribute to intellectual exchange, research development, collegial support, and community-building within departments. Faculty members seem generally less inclined to and arguably feel less compelled to show up at faculty events; reading groups seem to be quite poorly attended; and spontaneous exchanges among colleagues appear to be less and less frequent.
Rather than being one of the main reasons for partaking in the profession, actively participating in the life of the faculty appears to have become just as burdensome as doing administrative work: something to be avoided, unless one is explicitly forced to. We, too, contribute to the realization of this bad equilibrium: we have failed to show up at faculty seminars due to time constraints, and at times, we, too, perceive reading groups and informal exchanges as yet another additional burden to our list of tasks. But we also usually end up finding these actions and thoughts of ours regrettable.
We don’t know what the reasons for this apparent decline in faculty participation may be, but we have speculated that a few factors may have an influence. People could be burned out, or overburdened by other tasks (such as teaching, admin, family responsibility or political activity). They may have experienced dissatisfaction by noticing the lack of commitment on the part of their colleagues. They may be outsourcing their research interactions to conferences happening outside the university. Or they may have become used to working from home and thus are less inclined to show up physically at the faculty (or feel an integral part of their research community). We don’t know if any of these speculations hold, but we are keen to find out! And we are even more looking forward to learning what measures can effectively counter this trend.
We have the impression that the phenomenon of declining faculty participation is not idiosyncratic to us or the peers we have been talking to. It has arguably been experienced by many departments. But we fail to fully understand why that is so. After many informal discussions, we have decided that it may be worth to open the issue to the broader community and gauge whether people share our impression about this (perhaps their experiences indicate something completely different?) and learn what they think contributes to or partly alleviates the phenomenon.
You can find a brief poll at the end of this post which we hope you take.
Further, we would be extremely grateful for discussion in the comments on this post about the subject, including on the poll questions, and more generally:
- What are your impressions of the extent of faculty participation in departmental events?
- What do you see as the main barriers to initiating or sustaining faculty participation in your department?
- Have you personally taken steps to counteract declining participation? Has your department taken any? What were the results?
- Do you have other thoughts or suggestions you’d be willing to share on this topic?
Thank you.
* * * THE POLL * * *
The poll aims to explore a trend we’ve observed in our own and other departments: a marked decline in faculty participation in seminars, colloquia, reading groups, and other intellectual gatherings that once formed the core of academic life. We’re interested in whether this trend is widespread, what factors might explain it, and whether particular interventions have helped counteract it. We think that decline in faculty matters matters—not only for particular individuals and their work, but importantly for students, departments, and the health of the academic community as a whole.
We plan to share a summary of the poll results in a post on Daily Nous about a month after the survey closes. These results are not part of any formal study, but we hope they can serve as a springboard for further reflection. Our aim is to share some preliminary reflections and potential ideas for interventions that might stimulate a broader, constructive discussion within the academic philosophy community.
Disclaimer: This poll is conducted solely by Dr. Maheshwari and Dr. Costella in their individual scholarly capacities. It is undertaken independently and does not represent, nor is it affiliated with, any official position or endorsement of their respective universities or any other institution. By completing this poll, you acknowledge and consent to the public availability of your responses on the website through which the poll is administered. Please refrain from including any personally identifiable or sensitive information in your submission. Note that none of your personal information (i.e., name, gender, email address, country of origin) will be recorded or traceable.
Archived poll interaction omitted during migration; historical article prose retained.
