Publishing fiction and the job-market?

In our July "how can we help you?" thread, an Author writes:

This might be a silly question but here goes. What would you think of a philosopher publishing fiction in addition to publishing philosophy? If their work has philosophical themes - if a character was a philosophy professor, or if characters explicitly discussed philosophers' work - would you think that was evidence of un-seriousness or lack of dedication to really doing philosophy? Would you assume the work was autobiographical? Would peers or mentors or hiring committees care? I studied creative writing in college and have been working on fiction projects in my spare time on and off since then and there's one I want to publish. But if there's even a little chance it would hurt my prospects in philosophy, forget it...

I don't think this is a silly question at all. On the contrary, I think it is a great set of questions, ones that draw attention to aspects of the profession and job-market that graduate students and job-candidates should be aware of and think about. Allow me to explain.

In response to Author's query, PT responded:

This sounds great to me! I'd definitely read a novel like that, and I'm really sure a lot of people (both academics and non-academics) would enjoy well-written characters like that.

I'm less sure that hiring committees would care, and I wouldn't expect it to count for much by way of tenure and promotion. Maybe there'd be a way to sell it as "public-facing philosophy", which is beginning to get counted more and more, but even so, that seems like a stretch.

But if it's something you want to do just for fun, then why the hell not? Seems like a great idea!

Then 'reader of fiction' added:

There are professional philosophers who have published fiction. Alex Rosenberg published a novel about a woman trying to survive during the holocaust, and Craig DeLancey publishes science fiction. Talk to them - e-mail them and get their impressions.

I think both of these comments are helpful. But let me to add some thoughts based on my experience. How are search committee members likely to regard a candidate who publishes fiction? I have no clear idea how search committees at R1's are likely to think about this. For all I know, they may not care at all, or they might take it to indicate that the candidate is 'less serious' than they should be, or they may find it interesting. I just don't know, and think it would be great to hear from people who work at R1's. But what about teaching-focused liberal arts colleges and universities? Here I do have some experience, and my experience here is pretty clear: all things being equal, interesting stuff like being a fiction author is only likely to help you. Why?

The answer here (again, at least in my experience) is several-fold.

First, search committee members at SLACs can care a great deal about attracting students to the classroom and to the major. If you have two job-candidates who are roughly equal in your minds but one does something super interesting that students might gravitate towards (like philosophical fiction writing), then that is a huge plus. The committee might imagine all of the interesting ways the person could merge their creative work into the classroom, student engagement outside of the classroom (e.g. philosophy club, etc.), and so on.

Second, search committees in philosophy at SLACs also tend to involve at least one member from another department--say, English, film, or whatever. There are a number of reasons for this, not the least of which is that colleges (such as my College of Arts and Letters) can see themselves as an interdisciplinary whole. We are looking to add people to the College that reflect well on the college. So, if you do something cool like write and publish fiction, you may well seem like an extra-attractive candidate to the outside committee member.

Third, given that colleges tend to see themselves as interdisciplinary wholes (with college tenure-and-promotion committees including representatives of many different departments across the colleges), 'research productivity' is often understood in a very broad way in the faculty handbook to include things like creative works. So, while you might not make it past your department T&P committee well if you don't publish any journal articles, publishing creative work on top of publishing articles is liable to only work in your favor.

Fourth, this kind of stuff looks great to Deans and other administrators--who, let's be frank, care about their college's/university's image, including selling it to prospective students, their parents, and donors. Which college administrator at a SLAC wouldn't want to feature the fact that a member of their philosophy department is a published fiction author?

Finally--and this may understandably frustrate some job-marketeers who would prefer the market to be all about concrete work accomplishments--it has to be realized that members of search committees are human beings who have an interest in the kind of person they are hiring. In my experience (and I expect others who have served on search committees will attest to this), oftentimes search committees have a very hard time deciding between two or more candidates. This, in brief, is because so many candidates are roughly equally qualified for the job and accomplished in their formal work areas (research, teaching, service, etc.). At this point, as an individual search committee member, you begin to look for 'tie breakers'--like, "Why should I hire this candidate over that one when they are more or less equal in my mind?" It's at this point that 'human factors' may play a decisive role. Is the one candidate nicer and more engaging than the other? Would they plausibly be a better colleague to work with on a day-to-day basis? Is there anything especially interesting about them...such as [cough] the fact that they write philosophical fiction and you love philosophical fiction? In this regard, the philosophy job-market is like just about any other job-market. Qualifications and accomplishments matter--but (for better or worse) human factors matter too. And doing something interesting that make you seem particularly compelling can do that (especially when, in a search committee member's mine, being interesting in the particular way in question may also attract students, be well received by Deans and administrators, etc.).

One final note: I don't know how mentors (e.g. grad program faculty or dissertation committee members) are likely to regard stuff like fiction-writing--but if what I wrote above is right, then I think it would be a big mistake for them to discourage things like it (at least if they care about their mentees getting jobs). 

But these are just my thoughts and experiences. What are yours, particularly those of you who have served on search committees and/or T&P committees?

Comments

[SLAC Associate]

I agree with everything Marcus said; at many SLACs, I think this would be seen as an asset, rather than a liability, so long as it doesn't get in the way of doing sufficient research publishing to meet department tenure criteria.

One caveat: don't do what Ralph McInerny did in *Irish Tenure* and cast an untenured member of your department as a murder victim in your fiction. That probably won't go over as well with colleagues.

[Michel]

If it were me, I'd be delighted to find out that a candidate was a published author, too. I certainly wouldn't hold it against the candidate. A few additional comments are in order, however:

1.) I hope the OP doesn't feel like they can only do this if they pursue "philosophical themes" or have philosopher-characters. If that's what they want to do, great, but they shouldn't feel like they must. (My own personal preference would be for unrelated themes, plots, characters, etc., but that's just me and my own idiosyncracies!)

2.) I don't know whether that's information I'd put on the academic CV, however. I think it's better placed as cover letter information, especially since yes, the best targets seem like they're going to be teaching-intensive and liberal arts-focused institutions.

3.) The obligatory cautionary note: it's best if you also have lots of solid philosophy publications, to head off the potential criticism that you're "not serious" or focusing on the wrong things. (Avoiding this assumption is part of the reason I'd leave it off the CV.)