Final call for mentors

This is a just a quick update on the Cocoon's job-market mentoring program, and a final call for mentors. The good news is that Helen and I have been able to match over twenty mentees with mentors so far this summer. Many thanks to all of the mentors who signed up! The bad news is that we are having some difficulty finding mentors for our remaining applicants. With this in mind, we'd like put our a 'targeted' call for mentors in the following areas:

• Philosophy of Science
• German philosophy
• Islamic philosophy
• Early Modern
• Continental Philosophy
• Experimental philosophy
• Metaphilosophy
• Cognitive science
• Bioethics
• Philosophy of language (European market)
• American Philosophy (e.g. pragmatism)
• Middle-eastern personal background
• Asian/international personal background

If you are tenure-track or tenured and any of the above apply to you, please do consider signing up as a mentor!

Comments

[Daniel Brunson]

Unfortunately, I am not TT, but I shared this with the Society for the Advancement of American Philosophy Facebook group, so hopefully someone will step up.

[Marcus Arvan]

Wonderful - thanks so much!

[Eric Thomas Weber]

Very cool. Thanks to Daniel Brunson for calling my attention to this.

[Amanda]

I think I said this before, but if there are left over mentees and mentors, it seems they should be placed together even if their aos's don't match. Less and less schools are asking for research statements. And if someone is trying to get a teaching job, then it is super important that their materials are accessible to non-specialists. So having a mentor that is not in your AOS is only a slight disadvantage.

[Marcus Arvan]

Hi Amanda: Thanks. Yes, this year we gave mentees the option to request to be paired with another mentee if we cannot find a mentor.

Because we think mentors are likely to be more useful, we have decided to prioritize that first, and will turn to matching mentees with each other as a last resort--probably in the next couple of weeks!

[Amanda]

Hi Marcus,

I think you misunderstood my point. I was not suggesting mentees be matched with mentees (although that is fine as a last resort. ) I was suggesting mentees be matched with mentors even if those mentors do not share the same AOS.

[Marcus Arvan]

Hi Amanda: oops, sorry! Anyway, yes we do try to seek out matches even when AOS’s don’t match. However, what we’ve tended to find is that mentees and mentors seem to prefer being matched with people with similar interests and backgrounds. More often than not, when we propose matches between people of different AOS’, someone—usually the mentor, but in a few cases the mentee—asks for a better match. Given the volunteer nature of the program, there’s not much we can do about this.