Academia
CategoryLoneliness & Academic Life
The Philosophers’ Cocoon has had a pair of posts on loneliness in the academy recently. (more…)
A Philosopher’s Role in the Texas A&M Debacle (updated)
Texas A&M University will be paying Kathleen McElroy $1 million as part of legal settlement over the university’s botched efforts at trying to hire her, and then trying to not hire her. (more…)
If You’re An Egalitarian, How Come You Teach At An Elite College?
The title of this post, a riff on G.A. Cohen’s If You’re An Egalitarian, How Come You’re So Rich?, is one way Jonny Thakkar (Swarthmore) described to me the question at the heart of his recent essay, “Elite Education,” in The Point. (more…)
“Liberal Bias” in Academia: Media Narrative vs. Social Science
“Available data do not support the claim that university professors are excessively and disproportionately liberal, much less that a majority of students are being educated by left-wing professors. So why do so many people have the impression that they are?” (more…)
Grieving Academic Philosophy (guest post)
The following guest post* is by “S”, a philosopher who recently lost his tenure-track position because of his university’s budget cuts. (more…)
Philosophical Research after the Virus (guest post by Eric Steinhart)
The following is a guest post* by Eric Steinhart, professor of philosophy at William Paterson University, on the possible consequences of the widespread disruptions to ordinary life being caused by the pandemic and reactions to it. (more…)
“A Tale of Two Philosophy Students” (and other poems by Felicia Nimue Ackerman)
The following is a guest post* of poems by Felicia Nimue Ackerman, professor of philosophy at Brown University. (more…)
“The problem is not that humanities jobs are disappearing”
In an interview at Inside Higher Education, Jason Brennan (Georgetown) and Phillip Magness (American Institute for Economic Research), answer a question from interviewer Scott Jaschik about their view that universities are admitting too many PhD students. (more…)
The Making of the Disaster at the University of Tulsa (Updated)
Last week, I reported on the proposal of the administration of the University of Tulsa (TU) to reorganize the school, reorient it towards vocational training, and eliminate departments and majors in philosophy and other disciplines. It turns out that the making of this disaster was itself pretty disastrous. (more…)
Hypatia and other Journals Successfully Tricked Into Accepting “Fake” Papers (Updated)
Three writers, working as a team and using pseudonyms, produced and submitted to academic peer-reviewed journals 20 “fake” papers—papers written with the intent to spoof certain areas of research and trick or embarrass editors and reviewers working in those areas. Seven of the papers were accepted, and four have already been published. (more…)
Advice for Mental and Physical Self-Care
A reader has requested “a post about soliciting physical and mental health tips for overworked early career scholars (or any scholar, really).” (more…)
Generosity and Kindness in Academia
“Generosity is not impossible in today’s precarious times. It can be embedded in the small acts we perform every day and in the behaviors we model across the profession.”
Leave Room for Uncertainty and Confusion
“My trouble is usually… that I don’t entirely know what I think. And not knowing what to think is itself sometimes cast as shameful.”
Fawning Sycophancy Is Unprofessional, Gross, and if Ongoing, the Professor’s Fault
“I only now your beautiful and exquisite message… I thank you for your infinite understanding and sensitivities which are always beyond measure.” (more…)
American Catholic Philosophical Association Issues Statement Defending Philosophy
The American Catholic Philosophical Association (ACPA) has issued a public statement defending the role of philosophy in higher education. It is a response to a perceived increase in threats to the existence of philosophy programs and presence of philosophy requirements in curricula at colleges and universities, especially Catholic ones. (more…)
AAUP and AAC&U Issue Statement in Defense of Liberal Arts Education
“We believe that institutions of higher education, if they are truly to serve as institutions of higher education, should provide more than narrow vocational training and should seek to enhance students’ capacities for lifelong learning” (more…)
Media Reports on Campus Free Speech “Out of Kilter with Reality”
“The press accounts of widespread suppression of free speech are clearly out of kilter with reality,” says a new report on free speech at universities by the UK Parliament. “Any inhibition on lawful free speech is serious, and there have been such incursions, but we did not find the wholesale censorship of debate in universities which media coverage has suggested.” ..
APA, Others, Issue Statement Opposing Program Cuts at UW Stevens Point
The American Philosophical Association (APA) and 22 other academic organizations issued a statement today opposing the plans of administrators at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point (UWSP) to cease offering degrees in the humanities and social sciences. (more…)
2018 QS Philosophy Rankings
The 2018 “QS World University Rankings” have been published, including rankings of philosophy programs.
Professors Dating Students, Professors Harassing Students
“As for the fact of being a lecturer in bed with undergraduates in particular, there was no possibility of avoiding the charge that this was an abuse of my position.”
The Double Loss When Someone Departs Academia
Erin Bartram was revising a manuscript when she received an email informing her that her “last (and best) hope for a tenure-track job this year had evaporated.” (more…)
Tax Proposal Would Make Getting a PhD in the US Very Expensive (Multiple Updates)
The tax plan introduced by Republicans in the U.S. Congress last week would have drastic effects on graduate education in the United States, according to reports at The Chronicle of Higher Education and Inside Higher Ed.
When You Should Have Been Cited, But You Weren’t
A philosopher writes in with a query at the intersection of research ethics, publishing norms, and academic etiquette. (more…)
How Academia Handles Objectionable Ideas: The Case of Jongen at the Hannah Arendt Center
Earlier this month, the Hannah Arendt Center for Politics and Humanities at Bard College hosted a conference, “Crises of Democracy: Thinking in Dark Times,” on the various questions posed by the current “worldwide rebellion against liberal democracy.” Among those invited to speak at the conference was Marc Jongen, who has a PhD in philosophy and is known as the “par..
Against Letters of Recommendation for Academic Jobs (updated)
“The practice of soliciting letters of recommendation for academic positions is both foolish and immoral.” (more…)
Originality and Failure in Philosophy
To what extent do philosophers’ quite understandable social needs and fears of failure compromise their capacity for originality? A lot, according to Costica Bradatan (Texas Tech), in his epistle to academic philosophers in the Los Angeles Review of Books, “Why We Fail and How.” (more…)
Reimbursement Ethics
A reader writes in with the following query about reimbursement for academic travel: (more…)
Asking Questions at Talks and in Seminars
“It is better to remain silent at the risk of being thought a fool, than to talk and remove all doubt of it” (Maurice Switzer). Thoughts like that have inhibited many a young academic from asking questions in seminars or at talks. (more…)