Call for guest posts: 'Non-traditional paths into philosophy'

A reader writes in:

I have a suggestion that I think would be very nice to have. This would be a series on people who have started doing philosophy later than their peers, maybe only going to graduate school in their forties, with the idea of showing people alternative career paths and encouraging people who feel out of place because they are older than the average graduate student. I also know someone who has done an MA in philosophy and has started on philosophical work (not yet published) in his 60s after retiring from a permanent position in a psychology department. The literary magazine The Millions started a series like this about ten years ago about authors who published their first book in their 40s or later. This includes many of my favourite authors, eg Barbara Pym. This has now grown into a separate website called Bloom https://bloomsite.wordpress.com/

I think this would be a great feature to have, showing that being an early career academic does not necessarily mean being young by age and you don’t have to be some kind of wunderkind to succeed. This could also showcase alternative career paths, like starting to publish philosophy after retirement or writing philosophy alongside an alt-ac job. I think there is a good chance that if I cannot get an academic job, I would try and continue research and writing alongside another (paying) career, so it would be nice to see other people doing this.

I think this is a great idea! If you took a non-traditional path into philosophy and are interested in contributing a guest-post on your experience and path in the profession, please just email me at [email protected]. Also, if you know someone else who took a non-traditional path who might be interested in contributing a post, please feel free to direct them to me or to this post. 

Comments

[Lance S. Bush]

Would people with backgrounds in other disciplines be appropriate candidates for non-traditional paths? Or people who work in philosophy outside of an academic setting?

I have a few people in mind who might offer interesting perspectives, so I wanted to get a sense of who to send your way.

[Marcus Arvan]

Hi Lance: absolutely!

[Alex Grzankowski]

Here is a good example from Birkbeck. The college traditionally specializes in nighttime education for working Londoners (though now the student body is broader). You’ll find lots of “non-traditional” paths amongst our students.

http://blogs.bbk.ac.uk/bbkcomments/2021/02/19/finding-new-paths-with-lifelong-learning/

[Zsuzsanna Chappell]

I was wondering if you could change it from reader to, well, me?