Academic Labor
CategoryA Norm for How Much Service Work You Should Take On
In a post about work-life balance at Crooked Timber, Ingrid Robeyns (Utrecht) writes: “it would help if we would all agree that we should do our fair share of the slack & service work, and what that would entail”. (more…)
New Academic Interview Site: “The Workbench”
The Workbench is a new site for “conversations with academic writers on their craft,” created by Nathan Ballantyne, associate professor of philosophy, cognition, and culture at Arizona State University (ASU). (more…)
Temple U. Philosophy Faculty Express Support for Striking Grad Students
Graduate students at Temple University have been on strike since the end of January, seeking an increase in wages, more affordable healthcare, longer parental and bereavement leave, and better working conditions. (more…)
Reports from Striking University of California Philosophy Graduate Students
A strike by approximately 48,000 academic workers at the University of California’s 10 campuses is in its second week. The main issue is compensation, with graduate workers and others calling for major pay increases, improved parental leave and benefits, subsidies for public transportation, research funding, support for international scholars, and increased support ..
Work-Life Balance
Times Higher Ed (THE) has released results from its 2022 Work-Life Balance survey. (more…)
Potemkin U. (guest post)
“We are mired in inevitably betraying and ignoble practices, obliged to pay mindless obeisance to useless cant or to perform pantomimes of actually important values made ridiculous through endless, unanswered repetition…”
Campus Controversies and “Inclusion… in the Activity of Knowledge Seeking”
Last September, when the Department of Philosophy at Rhodes College invited Peter Singer (Princeton) to participate in a webinar on pandemic ethics, faculty in other units on campus objected and urged that the event be canceled. (more…)
Sabbatical Resources and Ideas Sought
A philosophy professor at a small liberal arts college with his first sabbatical on the horizon writes in seeking advice about “resources and best practices for sabbatical planning.” (more…)
The Problems with Philosophers: A Reply to Weinberg (guest post)
Last week, I posted about an exchange between historians Amna Khalid and Jeffrey Aaron Snyder (both of Carleton College), and philosopher Michael Veber (East Carolina), using Veber’s contribution to highlight some things philosophers sometimes do that might contribute to a negative impression about them. (more…)
What Professors Do
With Winter Break coming, professors, you have some time—maybe a month or so—to kick back and just relax. And let’s not forget those three months during summer when you don’t have to work. And don’t you get a fall break and a spring break, too? Sweet. (more…)
Columbia Grad Students Striking, University Striking Back (updated)
Graduate students at Columbia University went on strike last month, for the second time this year, as they attempt to negotiate a labor contract with the university. (more…)
What You Like About Your Philosophy Department
Sometimes you need to remember the good things in life, including your professional life. (more…)
Philosophy Professor Resigns to Protest University’s COVID-19 Plan
Jeremy Fischer, who until yesterday was a tenured associate professor of philosophy at the University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH), resigned from his position to protest his university’s COVID-19 policies for the coming term. (more…)
Liverpool Philosophers Object to Planned Layoffs at University, Call for Support
The members of the Department of Philosophy at the University of Liverpool have authored a letter in support of the actions being taken by their union in response to planned layoffs (redundancies) of colleagues in the Faculty of Health and Life Sciences (more…)
Junior Yearly Progress Reports in Pandemic Times
A junior faculty member has questions about the assessment of faculty on the tenure-track over the past year, particularly regarding how such faculty should, if at all, discuss how the challenges of the pandemic affected their progress. (more…)
Tenured & Tenure-Track Profs: Take the Summer Off from Teaching (guest post by Ted Shear)
In the following guest post*, Ted Shear, lecturer in philosophy at the University of Colorado, Boulder, suggests a way that those with secure positions in academia can help out their more vulnerable colleagues during this time of increased economic insecurity. (more…)
Philosophers On Reopening Colleges and Universities in a Pandemic
Six philosophers discuss various issues related to the operation of institutions of higher education this fall, in this edition of Philosophers On, guest edited by Lisa Fuller. (more…)
BU Philosophers Object To University’s Fall 2020 Plans
Two philosophy professors at Boston University (BU), Russell Powell and Daniel Star, have authored a statement objecting to their administration’s plans for how teaching during the Fall 2020 term will proceed, in light of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. (more…)
Fordham Grad Students Seek Support
Graduate students at Fordham University are seeking support in their call for their administration to take various steps to help them, in light of the COVID-19 pandemic and its broader effects. (more…)
Cambridge: All Lectures Online Until Summer 2021
There will be no in-person lectures at the University of Cambridge until the Summer of 2021 owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, the school announced today. (more…)
University of South Carolina Announces Plan to Restart In-Person Classes the Fall
Yesterday, my school, the University of South Carolina, announced it is planning to restart in-person teaching this fall. This seems like a good move. (more…)
Villanova Graduate Students Seek Assistance
In March, doctoral students in philosophy and theology at Villanova University wrote to their administration seeking support in light of the economic effects of the COVID pandemic. Their request was acknowledged as received, but the semester is winding to a close and they’ve not yet heard much in response. (more…)
Scholars Threaten Boycott in Solidarity with Graduate Students & Non-Tenure-Track Faculty
A number of scholars, including over forty philosophers, have signed onto a statement saying they “will not accept invitations for speaking engagements, workshops, and conferences” at universities and colleges that have failed to include non-tenure-track faculty and graduate students in their pandemic-prompted plans for extensions and accomodations to tenure-track a..
Universities Announce Furloughs and Salary Reductions
The University of Arizona, The University of Wisconsin system, and Valparaiso University have all announced they will be instituting furloughs—mandatory unpaid days off from work—or salary reductions for at least some of their employees. (more…)
Lasting Lessons of the Academic Lockdown
Most university and college campuses have been mostly closed for a month or so at this point, with professors teaching their courses online from home and meetings happening via videoconferencing. (more…)
COVID-19 and Teaching Evaluations
The abrupt transition to online teaching, the hasty reorganization or course schedules in light of cancelled classes, and the move to pass/fail grading options characteristic of many schools’ responses to the pandemic will likely affect students opinions of the courses they’re taking and the instructors teaching them. (more…)
AAUP Faculty Compensation Report Released
The American Association of University Professors (AAUP) has published the results of its 2019-20 Faculty Compensation Survey. (more…)
Concerns About The Sudden Move To Online Teaching
As some schools are now responding to the spread of the coronavirus by cancelling in-person classes and replacing them with online teaching, faculty are beginning to voice concerns. (more…)