Academic Labor

Is Someone Selling Your Dissertation Without Your Permission?

A lecturer in philosophy at a UK university discovered that a company has been selling his recent dissertation as a book online through Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Waterstones, and Blackwell’s, complete with a cover.

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Over 1000 Academics Sign Onto Pending Work Stoppage at the Journal of Political Philosophy

Over 1,000 academics have added their names to a resolution pledging that, as of the end of 2023, they will not submit manuscripts to, review articles for, or accept invitations to join the editorial board of the Journal of Political Philosophy, unless its publisher, Wiley, meets certain conditions, including rescinding its decision to fire the journal’s editor-in-c..

Rutgers Strike Suspended; Unions Accept “Framework” for New Contracts

“The leadership bodies of our three unions have voted to accept a framework for new contracts and to suspend our strike and return to work immediately.” (more…)

Rutgers Faculty on Strike; Most Philosophy Faculty Support It (Updated)

Rutgers faculty yesterday began a strike, halting teaching, research, and service activities as part of the effort to obtain pay raises, more job stability for adjunct professors, living wages for graduate student workers, increased support for caregivers, greater security in academic freedom, and other improvements. (more…)

A 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…”

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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…)

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