teaching
“Not Really A Philosopher”
Chris Eliasmith holds a Canada Research Chair in theoretical neuroscience at the University of Waterloo. He has a joint appointment in philosophy and systems design engineering. He also holds an appointment in computer science there. Over at the Ideas Can blog he discusses the challenges of interdisciplinary work. He says:
Not really a philosopher. And not really..
Bioethicist Live-Tweets Her Son’s Sex-Ed Class (updated)
Alice Dreger, a professor in medical humanities and bioethics at Northwestern, sat in on her son’s sex-ed class at East Lansing High School and live-tweeted commentary about it to the world. The tweets were simultaneously disturbing and hilarious.
The kid has invited me to his health class on sex ed to see how bad it is, so I’m going. But hands over my mouth m..
Data on the Humanities
The American Academy of Arts & Sciences has published its Humanities Indicators report for the United States, “The State of the Humanities: Higher Education 2015.” Among its findings:
- Humanities represent a little more than 10% of all Bachelor’s degrees, slightly more than 8% of all doctoral degrees, and just under 4% of all masters degrees.
- The number of stu..
Answering the Taxpayers
I am a professor of philosophy at a public university. What is the value of philosophy to the taxpayers who subsidize my teaching? Philosophy is an abstruse and difficult field. Many of those whose taxes support higher education probably would have a hard time seeing the point of most philosophical debates. Why ask people to pay for discussions of seemingly arcane a..
On Warwick’s Outsourcing (a few updates)
A few days ago news surfaced of the University of Warwick’s plan to outsource some of its teaching to a company called Teach Higher. According to the website Fighting Against Casualisation in Education (FACE):
Hourly paid academic staff… will no longer be employed directly by the university but by a separate employer: ‘Teach Higher’. Teach Higher has been set u..
Hobbies of Philosophers: Steff Rocknak
For this installment of “Hobbies of Philosophers”, I talked to Steff Rocknak, professor of philosophy at Hartwick College. Steff works on Hume, Quine, philosophy of art, and philosophy of mind. But she also has a successful career as a sculptor—it is certainly much more than a hobby, so in this case, the title for this series is terribly inapt given the central im..
“The Best Students I Have Are Inmates”
Christia Mercer (Columbia) reports on her experiences teaching philosophy to inmates as part of the new Justice-in-Education Initiative, sponsored by Columbia University’s Center for Justice, and calls for greater attention to the educational needs of prisoners, in an op-ed in The Washington Post. She writes:
My incarcerated students differ radically from the one..
Times Higher Ed University Rankings
Times Higher Education has released its 2015 “World Reputation Rankings” of universities. As its title suggests, this a reputational survey, so, subject to many of the same concerns and cautions that all such surveys raise. THE site says:
Some 10,507 senior scholars took part in this year’s invitation-only Academic Reputation Survey. They provided their time and ..
John Arras (1945-2015) (updated)
John Arras, professor of biomedical ethics and philosophy at the University of Virginia, has died. Professor Arras was known for his work in bioethics. Prior to moving to Virginia, he taught at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine-Montefiore Medical Center and Barnard College. In addition to his research an teaching, Arras was known for his public service. He was..
The Lost Women of Modern Philosophy
A new website aims to provide comprehensive information about women philosophers from the modern era (roughly 1600-1800). Called Project Vox, “the website will be the virtual hub for an international network of scholars to work together in expanding our research and teaching beyond the traditional philosophical ‘canon’ and beyond traditional narratives of modern phi..
Jan Boxill Resigns
Jan Boxill has resigned from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, effective February 28th, 2015. Dr. Boxill, who had been implicated in an academic fraud scheme largely involving student athletes at the school, and whose appointment the university had initiated steps to terminate, had been a teaching professor in the department of philosophy, director of..
TAs at York and Toronto Strike
Approximately 6000 teaching assistants (TAs) at the University of Toronto are currently on strike, and around 3700 TAs and adjuncts at York University, also in Toronto, just last night voted to go on strike. The main concerns appear to be pay and job stability for the adjuncts. An article in The Star has more details. The Canadian Union of Public Employees is repres..
Can We Save Philosophy? (Guest Post by Robert Kirkman) (updated)
The following is a guest post* by Robert Kirkman, associate professor in the School of Public Policy at Georgia Tech and director of its Center for Ethics and Technology, in which he takes up the problem of academic philosophy’s seeming irrelevance to others both inside and outside of academia.
Can We Save Philosophy?
by Robert Kirkman
I write this from the ..
Irving Singer (1926-2015) (updated)
Irving Singer, professor emeritus of philosophy at MIT, has died. He had been at MIT since 1958. The following is from an obituary posted by MIT:
Singer was an eminent philosopher whose academic career spanned 65 years — with more than half a century as a professor at MIT. Singer was the author of 21 books in the field of humanistic philosophy, focusing on topic..
The Intellectual Costs of Misconduct (guest post)
The following is a guest post* from a woman graduate student in philosophy who wishes to remain anonymous.
Lately, I’ve been reflecting on the complicated ways issues of equity connect with intellectual and professional respect. On philosophy blogs there has been extensive discussion regarding the climate for women in philosophy, issues of sexual misconduct, ..
Thoughts on Academic Freedom
It seems to me we need some clarification of the idea of academic freedom, so I am throwing out these thoughts, rather tentatively, to get the ball rolling. I welcome discussion on this, though keep in mind this is a blog post and not an academic paper. Links to helpful resources as well as discussions elsewhere are also welcome. Ok, so here goes:
Academic freedo..
Marquette Seeks to Fire McAdams
John McAdams, the Marquette University associate professor of political science who posted demonstrably false and damaging statements about philosophy graduate student Cheryl Abbate and her teaching on his blog (see here, here, and here), has been told that the university is starting the process to revoke his tenure and fire him.
The Dean of Marquette’s Klingler ..
Hobbies of Philosophers: Meg Wallace
For the second installment of our Hobbies of Philosophers series, I talked with Meg Wallace (Kentucky). Meg works on metaphysics and philosophy of language, and her philosophy is super bad-ass. But today we are talking about her other life as an equally bad-ass aerialist. I spoke with Meg about what aerialism is all about, how she got involved with it, and how she c..
Yik Yak Yuck
Margaret Crouch, a philosophy professor at Eastern Michigan University, was team-teaching a large group of students with two other professors, while, unbeknownst to the three, many of the students were using the class time to post hostile and vulgar remarks about them via Yik Yak. (If you don’t know Yik Yak, think of it as a local anonymous twitter feed in which old..
A Good Offense (updated)
When it comes to teaching philosophy, how offensive may we be, and in what ways? Recent discussions here, particularly regarding teaching same-sex marriage, have raised this issue, but those conversations have been dominated by discussion of the plausibility of arguments regarding that substantive matter. Though it has cropped up, the issue of the role that offensiv..
Same-Sex Marriage and Philosophy Revisited
“How Academic Philosophers Are Trying to End the Gay-Marriage Debate—and Getting it Wrong” is the title of a new article in the National Review. Written by University of Colorado Ph.D. student Spencer Case, the article picks up on a discussion had here at Daily Nous about the matter back in November.
Despite their field’s reputation for interminable controversy..
How Do You Want Your Students To Assess You?
Most colleges and universities have students fill out forms to evaluate their instructors’ performance at the end of the term. Semesters are just beginning around now, but it is not too early to start thinking about those evaluations. One study found that “students’ ratings 2 weeks into the semester did not differ from end-of-semester evaluations.”
There are lots..
Mapping Philosophical Arguments
The students sit in pairs at a computer terminal, and after reading Cullen’s synopsis of a particular argument, they try to map it. The room fills up with whispered suggestions, lines tested and rejected, double negatives made positive. Most of the boxes into which they enter text are red or green. The green ones contain evidence supporting the above premise; the re..
Lessons for Philosophy from Economists on English?
“Over the last 35 years, less than half of graduated Ph.D. students have gotten tenure-track academic jobs upon graduation. The result is a large pool of residual job seekers, which places even more pressure on the job market for existing students.”…
“The data are pretty straightforward,” the paper says. “While students in top-10 programs might have a reasonabl..
Philosophy of Police Violence and Mass Incarceration
Lisa Guenther, associate professor of philosophy at Vanderbilt University, has developed a new philosophy course, “Police Violence and Mass Incarceration,” which she will be teaching this coming term. I think it is a great way of showing students a way in which philosophy can interact with current events. I asked her about the course, and in an email she writes:
..
Bye, 2014
I wasn’t quite sure how to wrap up the year. A parody of Taylor Swift’s “Shake It Off”? Too cheesy. A video montage of action sequences from a year of blogging (me, staring at phone; me, sitting in front of laptop; etc.)? Too boring. An ironic play in which an enormous baby keeps whining about infantilism? Too realistic. A grandiose statement about progress in the p..
Philosopher is State-Level Winner in Professor of the Year Contest
Karen Hornsby, associate professor of philosophy at North Carolina A&T, has been recognized by the Council for Advancement and Support of Education and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching as the North Carolina winner in their Professors of the Year competition. You can read more about Hornsby and her approach to teaching here. She was the only ph..
Directory of Philosophers from Underrepresented Groups
The UPDirectory is a new website that provides a directory of philosophers from traditionally underrepresented groups in philosophy. From the site:
The purpose of the directory is to provide an easy-to-use resource for anyone who wants to learn more about the work of philosophers who belong to underrepresented groups within the discipline.
The directory includ..