Visiting jobs for TT people?

In our January "how can we help you?" thread, a reader writes:

I'd really appreciate a post that summarizes opportunities / postdocs / fellowships that early career people who already have a TT job can apply for. I often hear from people who spend a year somewhere, but it's often unclear to me how to find out about these opportunities. Examples are fellowships with the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford, Visiting Fellowships at the University of Pittsburgh’s Center for Philosophy of Science, or Harrington Faculty Research Fellowships at UT Austin.

This is a good question. I'm on sabbatical next year, and applied to some of these kinds of things--but I expect there are probably other opportunities than those listed on PhilJobs. Anyone have any tips?

Comments

[visitor]

The ones which come with money are often quite competitive, so the higher up you are on the food chain the more likely you are to get one. And if it is FULL salary replacement, or you have full salary replacement from another grant, then home institutions will sometimes let you go, pre-tenure. If you have a sabbatical leave, and have your own support, many institutions will welcome you. What support they give varies. But I was a visitor at a few great places, and it has really helped my career. Most importantly, it has helped my philosophical development. So that is the real reason to go somewhere.

[Rosa]

These are only for folks in Ethics/Political Philosophy, sorry.

Tulane Murphy Institute ($67.5k plus benefits if you want them and some travel money - definitely more than my pre-tenure salary was when I did it a few years ago) - https://murphy.tulane.edu/center/faculty-fellowships

Princeton Center for Human Values visiting Fellowship (half your salary and no benefits, so best if you have a pre-tenure sabbatical) - https://uchv.princeton.edu/open-positions/laurance-s-rockefeller-visiting-faculty-fellowships

Safra Center for Ethics, at Harvard (half of your salary up to $75k, so also good if you have a pre-tenure sabbatical) - https://ethics.harvard.edu/fellows-in-residence

[interested party]

@Rosa, thanks very much! @visitor and Marcus Avan, thanks a lot for your insightful posts, but I'd especially interested to hear the specific opportunities/postdocs you know of and list them (like Rosa did). @visitor, you said you've been a visitor at a few great places--would you mind sharing which ones / which fellowships you applied to / know of? This page can then serve as a resource page for people who are interested in these positions. E.g., it's often quite nontransparent on PhilJobs which positions are of this kind (because there isn't really a separate category for these things, and VAPs are often for people who don't already have a job). And, as Marcus said, often these opportunities aren't even listed on PhilJobs.

[Bill Harrison]

Let me disagree with "visitor." I am certainly not "higher up the food chain" yet I have been successful at securing three fellowships in the last five years.

Finding opportunities, however, *is* difficult, and applying for them is a time-suck.

Keeping an eye on PhilJobs is one means of finding opportunities for philosophers. But don't forget that philosophy is classified as an art, a discipline in the humanities, and sometimes as a social science. So, secondly, there are subscription based aggregators that are available through the University's Research Office or Academic Affairs. Contact an administrator and get subscribed to them. A third recommendation is to search the web for "fellowships or grants in the humanities." Johns Hopkins University, for a long time, published a comprehensive list of fellowships and grants available to those working in philosophy and the humanities. Finally, ask others who have been successful at securing fellowships what fellowships or grants they have applied to.

Securing external funding is not easy. While I have been successful three times, I probably have been unsuccessful 12-15 times. Like a job, like publications, you have to keep applying. Also, bounce your project description and the application off of someone who is NOT a philosopher. Many fellowship opportunities are reviewed by those outside philosophy. What I have found is that people outside philosophy comprehend my projects very differently than I do, even if I have removed all of the philosophical jargon and technical terms from the description.