The following is a recent email from Merleau-Ponty Circle:
Preparing Undergraduate, Graduate, and Post-Doc Philosophy Students for the Job Market.
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Thursday, June 30, 2011
Merleau-Ponty Circle Conference: "Flesh, Truth, Sacred Life."
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Community College Position is Death?
A question sent to the Philosophy smoker:
I've heard several times through the grapevine that accepting a position at a community college is career death poison. Is that right? Right now I have a part-time position at a well-ranked university, but the pay is shite and the possibility of advancement nonexistent. I look at the pay at some community colleges and see that it is double what I make now. Would accepting one of these positions be career suicide, even if only temporary?
Some very illuminating answers HERE
Join me on Twitter or Facebook for updates. Please email suggestions, links and questions to PhilosoraptErs@gmail.come University of Nevada, Reno saved for now
June 28, 2011
Dear colleagues and friends:
I am writing with good news regarding the Department of Philosophy.
We received official notification on Friday, June 24, 2011, that the University of Nevada, Reno, budget
proposal recommended by President Johnson and approved by the Regents on June 17, 2011, did not
include any reduction of faculty or elimination of programs in the Department of Philosophy.
More HERE
Join me on Twitter or Facebook for updates. Please email suggestions, links and questions to PhilosoraptErs@gmail.comUC Irvine Philosophy Graduate Guide
I may have posted this before but if not here it is:
http://www.lps.uci.edu/home/graduate/grad-placement.htmlYou can email Suggestions, Questions, and Links to PhilosraptErs@gmail.com
Join me on Twitter or Facebook for updates. Please email suggestions, links and questions to PhilosoraptErs@gmail.comTuesday, June 28, 2011
60 Years Worth of BBC Radio 4 "Reith Lectures" Now Available On-Line
(copied from Lieter Reports)
Here, including Bertrand Russell, John Searle, Onora O'Neill, and many other literary, cultural, and intellectual figures of note.
An Non-standard way to Support Graduate students
This summer Crispin Wright (NIP Director and Professor at NYU) will walk The Pennine Way, 268 miles across the Pennine mountain tops.
The Aim To raise money to support graduate students from elsewhere to visit the Northern Institute of Philosophy and to support Northern Institute of Philosophy graduate students to visit other institutions. This is in line with a general mission of the Institute to support early career philosophers to develop their interests and skills through collaboration and philosophical interactions. The costs of such visits and exchanges are seldom adequately provided for in the budgets of grant giving authorities, and philosophy departments, even when in principle willing to support research-related travel by graduate students, are less and less able to do so. We hope to build a Trust Fund at NIP to enable us to provide such support as a part of the regular working routine of the Institute.
Website with more information HERE
Children's Philosophy Class: Student Interviews (video)
I thought this was interesting. One child who usually runs wild at my work had a very interesting conversation with me. When asked about his use of the terms "good" and "bad" he suggested that they are not necessary qualities inherent in objects but are only meaningful in our use of the objects or our practice of manipulating them. I see an 4 year old pragmatist with a great future. =)
Join me on Twitter or Facebook for updates. Please email suggestions, links and questions to PhilosoraptErs@gmail.comResources for Teaching Children Philosophy
A great resource for teaching philosophy to children; Books, Courses, videos, teaching tools and more.
This website is dedicated to helping adults conduct philosophical discussion with and among elementary school children.
Contrary to what many people think, young children are both interested in and good at discussing philosophical questions. Picture books are a great way to initiate a philosophical discussion with young children and this site will help you get started.
Site HERE
Join me on Twitter or Facebook for updates. Please email suggestions, links and questions to PhilosoraptErs@gmail.comSaturday, June 25, 2011
Journal Surveys
Friday, June 24, 2011
Philosophy Job Seekers Advice
"When I was doing the job search this year, I thought of a couple of points that would be worthwhile for job seekers going on the market to know."
Article basically suggest getting outside letters of recommendation and having a positive (rather than purely critical) writing sample. Some of the comments are quite interesting
Full article HERE
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You can email Suggestions, Questions, and Links to PhilosraptErs@gmail.comAdvice to Philosophy Graduate Students about Publishing (Brooks)
Abstract:
Newcastle University - Newcastle Law School
Graduate students often lack concrete advice on publishing. This essay is an attempt to fill this important gap. Advice is given on how to publish everything from book reviews to articles, replies to book chapters, and how to secure both edited book contracts and authored monograph contracts, along with plenty of helpful tips and advice on the publishing world (and how it works) along the way in what is meant to be a comprehensive, concrete guide to publishing that should be of tremendous value to graduate students working in any area of the humanities and social sciences.
Thom Brooks
Newcastle University - Newcastle Law School
Full essay HERE
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You can email Suggestions, Questions, and Links to PhilosraptErs@gmail.comThursday, June 23, 2011
Advice to philosophy graduate students about publishing
Some really great comments:
Advice to philosophy graduate students about publishing (Leiter 2004)
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You can email Suggestions, Questions, and Links to PhilosraptErs@gmail.comJoin me on Twitter or Facebook for updates. Please email suggestions, links and questions to PhilosoraptErs@gmail.comWednesday, June 22, 2011
Getting Published in Philosophy by Peter Smith
A really good suggestion letter for graduate philosophers. explains how journals work, which journals to publish in, why it important to publish, how to increase you chance of being published, and other advice
From: http://www.phil.cam.ac.uk/teaching_staff/Smith/students/published.htmlTuesday, June 21, 2011
Florida State 'Sells' Economics Department
Basically Florida State University Sold out their economics department. With a 1.5 Million dollar donation, they created two chairs which now have Veto power over the department. This essentially puts a lot of power behind those two chairs who are to some extent Bought. Academic freedom down the drain?
I hope this does not begin to happen in philosophy.
Full article:
Monday, June 20, 2011
CUNY's Introduction to Professional Philosophy FAQ
This is a great resource for introducing yourself to professional philosophy and the job market:
Many students who are near completing their graduate studies want to enter the job market but are unaware of what sorts of placement service they can avail themselves of, both here at the Graduate Center and through the American Philosophical Association. This information pamphlet will provide that information by addressing those questions most frequently asked by students who are looking for a job.
Full article: CUNY's Placement Services FAQ
Questions (with links):
Duke Philosophy Graduate Placement Guide (Great checklist!)
The following initial checklist is broken into three stages: those several years from the market, those one year from the market and those going on the market. I highly recommend the full PDF which can be found HERE. I wish I ran across this simple format and explanation earlier.
More#
From:
Initial Checklist
For those several years from the Market:
– Make a long-term plan for finishing your course and exam requirements,
coming up with a special area committee and a dissertation director,
developing a dissertation proposal, etc.;
– Present papers at conferences (there are a lot of them). Make
connections;
– Try to publish at least one paper (e.g., from a seminar or part of
dissertation);
– Keep records of everything you do that may be in your CV or application
(teaching evaluations, committees, service, etc.). Think about what you
can do now that will make your CV look good.
– Go to the APA at least once;
– Begin to think of yourself as a professional philosopher, not just a student
of philosophy.
For those one year from the Market:
– Determine that you will be at least halfway through your dissertation by
the time you begin applying for jobs (i.e., the following October);
– Start working on one central chapter that can serve as your writing
sample;
– Start developing and writing a teaching dossier that includes a teaching
statement along with a portfolio including syllabi, descriptions of courses
you could teach, course evaluations and/or summaries of evaluations,
letters from students, etc.);
– Determine who will write your letters of recommendation. There should
be at least 4. Interdisciplinary folks will want a letter from a nonphilosopher in a relevant field. If possible it would be good for people to
have a letter from a philosopher external to our Department, although it is
not unusual, and perhaps even is still the rule, for candidates to have recommenders only from their home institution. In any event, you will
need to approach your recommenders during the summer before they will
write them, and then send materials to them by September 1.
For those going on the Market:
– Make it absolutely clear to yourself and your recommenders that you will
be done by May (if you can defend before the APA, it will help your
chances);
– Arrange for your letters. The best way to prod your recommenders is to
give them two completed chapters from your dissertation in the late
summer (as well as your CV) so that they can write detailed letters that
can honestly say that you will be done by May and that your project is
interesting;
– Complete your CV (make it look good in both form and content): after
education, short dissertation summary and AOS/AOC, try to get
publications and presentations on page 1, then include teaching
experience, course work, service and list of references;
– Have people read your writing sample and make sure it captures the
reader’s attention quickly and has a self-contained and interesting
argument. It should be 15–20 pages;
– Complete your teaching dossier (perhaps two versions, long and short, for
different jobs).
– Draft your dissertation abstract (1–2 pages), and work on your
dissertation spiel;
– Join the APA (the Department will pay the membership fees);
– Get Jobs for Philosophers (available only to APA members) and make a
list of all possible jobs to apply for. Apply for any job you think you
could possibly get and would possibly take. Remember that the more
interviews and offers you get, the better, even if they are ultimately jobs
you might not take;
– Find a way to keep your application materials organized so that you make
sure that exactly what needs to be sent to each position is sent by the
deadline;
– Ask for help from family, staff, peers, friends, family, and your pet to
make sure your application materials look as good as possible; – Have a job talk complete by the end of November, for presentation to the
Department;
– Prepare for your mock interview in December before the APA. You will
need to have your dissertation spiel ready and to work up something to say
about your teaching “philosophy,” experience and abilities;
– Try to treat the process as a game of chance and skill, like Blackjack.
Know the rules and tricks to make your chances as good as possible but
understand that there are many factors beyond your control. Both the
(very) few successes and the (very) many failures you will face should be
viewed in this way. The Stoics’ perspective may be the most appropriate
here!
Philosophy Graduate Mock Interviews
Mock interviews are designed to help you prepare for your first interviews for positions in philosophy departments. Usually this happens early-mid December. Apparently the best way to prepare for them is to read about what real interviews are like and practice with friends.
Thursday, June 16, 2011
Heather Douglas (philosophy of science), Tennessee at Knoville, moves to University of Waterloo,
Copied directly from Leiter Reports. I wasn't sure how to summarize this more so here it is:
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Heather Douglas (philosophy of science), Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Tennessee at Knoville, has accepted the Wolfe Chair in Science and Society at the University of Waterloo, effective January 2012.
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You can email Suggestions, Questions, and Links to PhilosraptErs@gmail.comWednesday, June 15, 2011
"New Books in Philosophy" Podcast
Interviews with authors who recently published their books on/in philosophy. The website is HERE. The first pod cast with Eric Schwitzgebel on his “Perplexities of Consciousness” (MIT Press, 2011) is HERE. If this is interesting to you, check out Notre Dame's Philosophical Reviews, which supplies weekly emails of their reviews.
Both of these are great ways to keep yourself up to date! I look forward to more from New Books in Philosophy Podcast.
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Monday, June 13, 2011
The Plight of Adjunct Faculty and Academic Freedom as a Justification of Tenure
There are two articles included in this post.
1. There is a very interesting article about the plight of the adjunct faculty member which I have mentioned before, the original article is HERE. Basically you work harder (teach more classes), are paid less, have not job security, usually have to hold positions at multiple universities and it hurts your career prospects.
2. Another article (HERE) suggests that the connection between academic freedom and tenure is no so tight as it may be thought to be. Tenure provides academics security in doing "risky" work, but now tenure is not happening at the age of peak productivity. Perhaps tenure should be reevaluated.
Both of these situations seem important. The first one reestablishes my point in a recent post (HERE #6) that we need a way for professors to dig themselves out from their pedigree. It also seems that #MORE we should create a way for philosophers to dig themselves out from their employment history. one solution may be a further focus on publications.
The second one seems like at least a start to a reevaluation of the concept of tenure. Why do we give tenure and who should we give it to. The article seems to argue that productivity should be the main criterion but good ideas can take time to stew and writing a book is a much larger undertaking than being published. So even if this criterion is accepted, how do we measure it?
- Any thoughts?
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You can email Suggestions, Questions, and Links to PhilosraptErs@gmail.comSunday, June 12, 2011
CALL FOR PAPERS: Environmental Ethics Sessions at the Central APA
Submissions are invited for the International Society for
Environmental Ethics (ISEE) sessions at the 2012 Central Division
Meeting of the American Philosophical Association (APA). The meeting
will be held at the Palmer House Hilton hotel in Chicago, Illinois,
from Wednesday, February 15 to Saturday, February 18, 2012.
Saturday, June 11, 2011
Video: Does Philosophy Still Matter? | The New School
This is a very interesting video on a panel of philosophers talking about the future of philosophy and the problems of academia. It's a long video but its pretty interesting. Discussion really starts at 8:50.
PhilosoraptErs now on AllTop
Alltop's Philosophy section is one of the resources I use to keep myself and this blog up to date and in tune with the rest of philosophy. It takes the rss feeds and gives you the latest 5 posts from each resource and if you hover over it will give you the first paragraph.
PhilosoraptErs was submitted to their review process an was just admitted to their philosophy section
http://philosophy.alltop.com/
http://philosophy.alltop.com/
Friday, June 10, 2011
The professionalization of philosophy
This is via Wikipedia, so be sure to hold a bit of skepticism, but from what I have read much of it is accurate. This is an interesting non-over-analyzed history of philosophy as it underwent the process of academic professionalization in the 19th and 20th century. This blog is hopefully helping you to acclimate and understand the current expectations of professional philosophy today.
Comments on accuracy are welcome.
Thursday, June 9, 2011
CFP: Derrida Today
CFP for 3rd Derrida Today Conference
Venue: University of California, Irvine, USA.
Host: Professor Stephen Barker (UCI)
Date: 11th -13th July, 2012
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
Some Concrete Suggestions For Racially Underrepresented Students of Philosophy
These are some good ones from Leiter Reports, particularly about financing you education.
Some Concrete Suggestions about How to Increase the Racial Diversity of the Philosophy Profession
You can email Suggestions, Questions, and Links to PhilosraptErs@gmail.comJoin me on Twitter or Facebook for updates. Please email suggestions, links and questions to PhilosoraptErs@gmail.comPublishing Philosophy: a Beginner's Guide
Neil McKinnon has put together a great resource for graduate students HERE. It's an outline of the procedure of publishing in professional philosophy. Publishing as a graduate student is one of the most important things to focus on except for possibly those at the top of their class at Rutgers or NYU.
Overview/Lecture notes on Heidegger's Being and Time
I found this a nice overview for when I reread a section. While It seems that some of the interpretations are a bit non-standard almost all are understandable.
Lectures on Heidegger's Being and Time
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
Video: Conversations with History: John R. Searle
HERE
Thanks to Lorenzo Bottai for this link
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You can email Suggestions, Questions, and Links to PhilosraptErs@gmail.com
Kaufmann Lectures on Kierkegaard, Nietzsche and Sartre
3 Lecture from Walter Kaufmann now available online on Kierkegaard, Nietzsche and Sartre.
Kaufmann Lectures on Kierkegaard, Nietzsche and Sartre
3 Lecture from Walter Kaufmann now available online on Kierkegaard, Nietzsche and Sartre.
Monday, June 6, 2011
Moving away from Anonymous Review
Apparently American Economic Review has decided to stop doing anonymous reviews. I argue for the continuation of rigorous double blind process. Some nice arguments at Feminist philosohers
New Micro-philosophy Podcast
After a hiatus, I’m replacing my Philosophy Monthly podcast with a new series, microphilosophy. Each one will be an interview, talk, discussion or feature, no longer than half an hour but usually much shorter.
Also another pod cast
Philosophy monthly --
Join me on Twitter or Facebook for updates. Please email suggestions, links and questions to PhilosoraptErs@gmail.com- Related Articles:
- List of Philosophy podcasts
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You can email Suggestions, Questions, and Links to PhilosraptErs@gmail.comSunday, June 5, 2011
Philosophy Teacher ASAP Preperation for Fall
A nice check list for teachers to mark off. These are all simple things, but if forgotten or left for the last minuet they could prove frustrating if not destructive to your fall class.
Saturday, June 4, 2011
Socrates for Six Year Olds - BBC
Pre-University philosophy: The Philosophy Shop
A charity in the UK which teaches children about philosophy:
Roundtable on Philosophy for Children
Pre-University philosophy here
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The aim of this event is to examine the practical implications of teaching the subject to children in primary and secondary school settings, and to look at what the philosophical tradition - from Plato to the Enlightenment through to the present day - has had to say on the question.
#More
We also want to look at the policy implications of instituting philosophy into the educational system, be it as an extra curricula activity or as an integral part of the school curriculum.--
- Related Articles:
Teaching Philosophy in High School
How to Teach Pre-College Philosophy (APA)
The Delphi Report - Philosophy (Critical Thinking) in High school- Teaching High School Philosophy
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You can email Suggestions, Questions, and Links to PhilosraptErs@gmail.comNotre Dame Philosophical Reviews Sample
The Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews send out reviews by email once or twice a week. It's a good way to keep your self in the loop. Subscribe for free HERE.
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Martin Heidegger, Being and Truth
Reviewed by Miguel de Beistegui, The University of Warwick
The two lecture courses collected in the volume entitled Being and Truth were delivered during Heidegger's tenure as the first Nazi rector of the University of Freiburg and thus in his darkest hour as a philosopher.
Thursday, June 2, 2011
Philosopher's Sausage
Apparently all we philosophers do is make asses of ourselves... with sausage.
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Original article HERE
A very entertaining commentary from 'Jaded' at the Philosophy Smoker (HERE)
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Wednesday, June 1, 2011
Resources in the Study of Character
In a past post The Character Project at Wake Forest university offered up to $100,000 for research funding regarding the topic of character. In philosophy, particularly virtue ethics, we study character and so much of this study is being taken on by philosophers.
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Wake Forest has now released a site dedicated to publishing resources for those studying character. On their site they publish journals, articles, events and more.
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