In our new "how can we help you?" thread, a reader asks:
How common is it to feel the lack of a sense of belonging (to the profession of philosophy)? How do you handle it?
I am a mid-career (tenured but not "senior" if it makes sense) philosopher at a small, non-elite school. My job is teaching-oriented, and teaching takes most of my time. I have published maybe 1 article per year on average. I have had less and less a sense of belonging in recent years. I occasionally saw posts here complaining about the unpaid work (and overwork) in the profession. I feel like, "I am sorry for your experience but, hey, I feel jealous in an odd way!"
For example, I have not received any invitation to give a talk or to attend a workshop anywhere. I receive review requests probably like 2-3 times per year. My department does not have a graduate program, and I never served as an external member for a thesis committee. I have received one book review request (which I declined because I did not have time). When I was at APA meetings, I was not part of any already-established circles, and I usually ended up talking with some graduate students who were similarly lost and awkward.
Maybe this is just a fact for me to accept. I am introvert and I do not like (and almost have never done) self-promoting. I am curious, though, is there any way to create some sense of belonging other than publishing more articles/books as a way to let others know you?
Good questions. I suspect this is pretty common, and I empathize. I've definitely felt it at times, particularly earlier in my career when I didn't know many people in the profession. Also, as an introvert myself, getting to know people isn't my greatest forte. Still, I've found that going to conferences helps, as over time I've been able to make friends in the profession.
I guess that would be my biggest tip: send stuff to conferences and try to get to know people. Other than that, I've always just tried to enjoy my work locally--that is, my research, teaching, and friends and colleagues in my own locale.
What do readers think? How common is a lack of a sense of belonging? If it's something you grapple with, how do you handle it?
Be careful what you wish for.
Posted by: Cecil Burrow | 07/31/2024 at 07:32 AM
This is basically me. I publish about an article a year--sometimes more, sometimes less. Some big names in my subfield know me, but I'm not well known, and I lack the energy/motivation to do much more than contribute here and there. I dabble in more fields than I probably should. I don't go to APAs anymore, or to specialist conferences. I'm at a teaching school. I loathe self-promotion.
I don't have a strong desire to feel very connected, though I'd like to feel more connected than I do. One thing that's helped is joining writing groups in my city, even if that just means giving good comments and getting together for philosophy and drinks sometimes.
Posted by: slac assc | 07/31/2024 at 08:17 AM
I worked for a while at a smaller State College which was principally concerned with undergraduate teaching. It was isolating at times - my research connections were dispersed and far away. Here is something that helped. With a number of other colleagues in the area (ranging from 70- 150 miles away) who taught at other colleges, we organized a group that met periodically (once or twice a year) to present our work to each other. The meeting was followed by a dinner together. In fact, you might get some modest support from a university administrator for such an event, if you frame it properly. One of our group was able to get money from their dean to pay for our dinner. Initiatives such as these take some energy, but the rewards are quite high.
Posted by: one thought | 07/31/2024 at 08:18 AM
So first I will say that by most metrics I am pretty successful in the profession (tenured at an R1, get invitations to give talks and occasional keynotes for small things, have been invited to apply for jobs, pretty regularly travel for conferences/workshops/etc) and I *still* often don't feel like I belong - I *still* feel impostor syndrome and worry that people don't know/like my work and that any success I have is just a fluke. So, part of this might just be existing in our very status-driven profession filled with constant rejection.
That said, the thing that has helped the most with all of this is to focus on smaller conferences and workshops - in particular, I generally go to the same two small annual workshops (15-25 people each) every year. At this point I do feel much more like these people like me as a person and respect me as a philosopher, and that I have a home in the profession (and they are - mostly - wonderful people and incredible philosophers, so I look forward to the workshops enormously, too!). If you can find a smallish thing like this that lets you spend time with the same people routinely, I highly recommend it. It's hard, though, and you're not alone - good luck!
Posted by: Tenured now | 07/31/2024 at 10:42 AM
It sounds like I am struggling with this less than you are--something that is probably helped by the fact that I work in a smaller country (the UK) where it is easier to be, or at least feel, connected. But FWIW I find it better (in the sense of more psychologically helpful) to think in terms of finding like-minded people in the profession who you can talk to, meet up with, organise things with, etc, rather than in terms of belonging to "the profession".
That probably doesn't help much, so I would also second one thought's advice.
Posted by: RJM | 07/31/2024 at 11:04 AM
I completely understand where you're coming from and I'm in a similar boat. For me, conferences have basically been a waste of time, aside from getting the lines on my CV which the job market demands. I've never benefitted from a conference philosophically, either as a presenter or as an audience member (this could just be something idiosyncratic about me; I'm very slow on my feet and I need a lot of time to process philosophical ideas. When I present, I feel like my view is rarely understood and I end up just re-explaining my view in Q and A, usually after getting frustrating and unhelpful questions). And, also being an introvert who can't stand professionalization and self-promotion, I've never made connections at them.
Here are some more positive tips: I have kept in touch with friends from grad school and we often do zoom-based reading groups or works-in-progress type things. This is something that I only do with people who I actually like; I just can't explore and have fun with philosophical ideas with jerks or hyper-professionalized careerists. One downside is that these sorts of things aren't translatable into CV lines, alas.
I have also rarely (only on two occasions) made connections with others from outside my friend group in grad school. I have zoomed with these two and we keep in touch about professional things periodically. These relationships were established in different ways. For one of them, I emailed a published paper of mine to someone whose work I was engaging with in the paper. This triggered further emails and eventually led to our setting up a zoom meeting to chat, which then led to sharing work, etc. For the other one, my Ph.D. advisor put me in touch with someone who had reached out to him. This person had similar interests as me and we ended up connecting, sharing work, and meeting over zoom.
I'm a big fan of reading groups and I wish I had more opportunities to participate in them. Engaging with someone's else's view takes the pressure off of me, and it can be fun to just talk through my confusions with other (friendly, down to earth!!) people.
In any case, this post really resonated with me, wishing you luck!
Posted by: same | 07/31/2024 at 01:09 PM
I feel many of the same feels!
I think some of it is just structural. Things like invites are inevitably high-peak long-tail: a small percentage of people get the vast majority of the invites, and most people get little to none. Committees and reviews too: you'd almost never be on them if you're not at a peer-to-aspirational institution, which has a high-peak long-tail distribution structure.
But I think some of it is personal too. There are people who make arguments for self-promotion, including on this blog in the past, but I too feel pretty uncomfortable with that. That said, I think if one's sense of belonging depends on things that correlates with being known, then well, you gotta decide which you like/dislike more. It doesn't even have to be "promotional": just be involved in conversations on the internet under your name (like leaving comments on a blog) might be a start to being more involved in some vague sense of community. Can't really complain about not belonging without doing some things to belong. Sorry if this is a bit harsh, but it's something I struggle with myself too.
Finally, I agree with the comment on going to smaller conferences and being involved in more topical / subdisciplinary conversations. This is also a struggle for me since I feel like I have many interests and my interests have changed, and there are serious financial and time constraints that come with being at a less well-off institution.
Posted by: Shen-yi Liao | 07/31/2024 at 01:29 PM
Midcareer professor who publishes a similar amount here. I think my advice would be to try to attend more conferences in your area since you will, thus, have more to contribute to the discussion and people will respond to that. More connections = more people will think of you to review/invite/talk to. Also sometimes people will just email a friend elsewhere and ask "hey can I come give a talk there?" I don't do this much but it can be a way to get invited places to give various kinds of talks (even to student groups). I think some people also serve a members of organizations in their area---like as the Secretary, or whatever---and you can meet people that way. Worth a shot perhaps.
Posted by: Anynyon | 07/31/2024 at 03:12 PM
[Edit}
some people serve AS members
Posted by: Anynyon | 07/31/2024 at 03:16 PM
I also found conferences to be the best way to build friendly relationships with other philosophers. This gets easier once you start seeing familiar faces because yall share topical interests.
@same: to be honest, it sounds to me like you need to work on your presentation skills if people regularly don't understand your view after the talk. People just not understanding you will of course make the Q&A less helpful and so the conference less philosophically rewarding. I would suggest you get feedback on your presentation styles by a trusted friend/colleague, and find resources that may help you make your presentations more audience-first and -friendly. Is this 'professionalization'? No. This is actively caring about your audience and respecting their time.
Posted by: sahpa, the professional | 07/31/2024 at 03:30 PM
@sahpa, while I think you got a point (and probably very helpful for some people), I know a few people, myself included, who are decent speakers (and/or excellent teachers) but never benefitted from conferences. Surprisingly, I don't even find commonality among us beyond that! So there are lots of different reasons that could contribute to the outcome.
To speculate a bit more: the effect of a talk is often relative to an audience, and what audience you get can be a matter of luck, unless you start with some right connection or have great people skill. In any case, i have had bad luck in conferences (and I don't have enough social experience as a first generation college student?)
Posted by: mid-career | 08/02/2024 at 12:58 AM
@mid-career: I was responding specifically to @same's complaint about being rarely understood, as should be clear in what I said. I didn't say that my suggestion would make everyone benefit from conferences. However, early-career folks often struggle to thrive at conferences and sometimes write them off prematurely, which from my point of view is a personal waste and a professional hazard. (It's still a little magical to me that we regularly manage to get dozens or hundreds of philosophers from all over the place in one building, because I still view us as a very small, scattered band of social misfits. And I have made some lovely friends conference-going.)
Agreed that the quality is partly luck, though. Conference-going is always a bit of a gamble. (In my experience, the 'stroke of good luck' vibe makes good conferences feel even better.)
Not sure what you mean by 'social experience' regarding conference-going. I rarely see the children of professors at conferences, so I'm not sure what benefits you think non-first-gen scholars have there that you don't. Do you mean like general experience being around academics?
Posted by: sahpa | 08/02/2024 at 08:47 AM