The Philosophers' Cocoon

Struggles talking about your dissertation?

In our newest "how can we help you?" thread, a reader asks:

I hate talking about my dissertation/research and wish it felt easier. I like my topic, but when people ask me about it, I get defensive even though people usually ask out of good will, interest, or politeness. The fact that it's somewhat upsetting for me to be asked about it makes me not want to discuss it because I don't want to accidentally be rude. I don't know if I'm just sick of my dissertation at this stage, if it feels more vulnerable because I'm more attached to the project, or if I'm overly anticipating combativeness. This even comes up when people outside of academia ask me about my dissertation. Has anyone had this experience and worked through it?

Good question. I recall struggling with this too, though I'm not sure I ever came up with a good solution other than simply practicing (very reluctantly) with grad faculty, other grad students, and later, my spouse. 

Do any readers have any helpful tips to share?

Accept a TT job at a struggling college or stay in grad school?

In our newest "how can we help you?" thread, a reader asks:

I have a scenario for which I would like some advice. Let's say you're ABD, and have just a couple (just OK) publications, though with a lot of teaching experience. The remainder of your papers are still under review, and you expect one or two to wind up at more prestigious journals over the next year.

You get a TT job offer, but at a small & struggling liberal arts college, and with less than competitive compensation. You could take it and attempt to move laterally, or push your defense back a year, and use your final year of funding, going on the job market again. Is there any scenario where the latter course of action would be advisable?

This is a tough scenario, but if it were me, I'd take the TT job and try to move laterally. To me, the job-market is simply too unpredictable to pass up a TT offer. There's no guarantee you'll ever get another one, and you could spend years suffering on the market trying to get another one, especially given a "just OK" publishing record. Of course, there's also no guarantee that you'll be able to move laterally, or that the struggling college you go to won't cut your position at a later date. But at least this way you've secured something and given yourself some time in a full-time tenure-stream job (which is good experience on a CV) to find something elsewhere.

But these are just my thoughts. What are yours?

Major Medieval Philosophy Journals/Rankings?

In our newest "how can we help you?" thread, a reader asks:

Does anyone know what the major Medieval Philosophy journals are? Or a resource for ranking (though I understand the great limitations to ranking)? I not so much asking about the main History of Philosophy journals, but specifically the "area" journals for Medieval Philosophy. Thank you all!

I don't work in history of philosophy, so I have no idea. Do any readers?

Examples of good job-market materials?

In our newest "how can we help you?" thread, a reader asks:

I know that one or two recent job market candidates (for example Elise Woodard) have shared examples of their successful materials, and I was wondering if there was anywhere a compendium of others who've done the same. I find the concrete examples exceedingly helpful for writing cover letters & research/teaching statements (significantly more so than generic advice).

Does anyone have any examples (or a compendium) to share?

Conversations on academic writing: Nathan Ballantyne's 'Workbench'

This is just a quick note that Nathan Ballantyne (Arizona State University) has a really interesting site, The Workbench, which features "a series of conversations about the craft of academic writing."

Here is a wonderful interview on "Relentless Adjuncting, Existential Graphs, and Non-Rejection" with philosophers Richard Atkins and Charlie Lassiter.

Changing job-market conventions and applying to senior-level jobs?

In our new "how can we help you?" thread, a reader asks:

How have the requirements for job documents changed (if at all) in the last decade? What should documents for associate professor positions do differently than documents for assistant professor positions?

Some context: I'm a TT Assistant Professor who is readying documents for promotion to Associate, and also applying for jobs. In preparing my applications, I noticed that the most cited advice for job application materials is the same (e.g. Karen Kelsky) as when I was as a graduate student. Kelsky's "The Professor is In" is almost a decade old now, and it regurgitates blog posts that were out for several years prior. A lot has changed since then. The book is also written specifically for newly minted PhD's, and gives little to no advice on how job documents should change as one progresses in their career. Can you say how conventions have changed since TPII was published? What conventions exist for those applying for jobs later in their careers?

All good questions. Are any readers in the know able to weigh in?

Desk-rejection boiler-plate from editors?

In our new "how can we help you?" thread, a reader asks:

As an early career scholar just starting to publish, does it really mean anything when you get a desk rejection and the justification emphasizes it's not about quality but scope? Or is that just boilerplate?

I sent a paper to a journal the publishes specifically on X philosophy. My paper dealt with that, but could also be said to deal with Y philosophy and the editor felt it was more a Y paper than an X paper--which is fair.

I'm just wondering whether I should put any stock into "the topic's important" and the emphasis it was not rejected because of quality only scope.

Hmm...not sure. I've had plenty of desk-rejections accompanied by boilerplate that sounds a lot like this. But, from the OP's description, it seems like the editor may have said something more specific.

What do other readers think?

Handling journal reviewers who request a book's worth of changes?

In our new "how can we help you?" thread, a reader asks:

How does one handle reviewers asking for so much information it would take a book to address it?

I asked one person that, and they half-jokingly but entirely seriously said, "Maybe it's a book project and not an article."

But the paper states as clearly as possible that the article is concerned with a specific portion of Famous 20th century Philosopher's argument, but the reviewers throw in vague objections from the philosopher's corpus. Neither reviewer actually touched what the actual paper said.

Has anyone deal with the issue where you're dealing with a particular part of a famous philosopher's thought, but it feels like reviewers go into rebuttal mode instead of analysis mode?

Hmm...in this case it sounds like the OP had this experience with a couple of reviewers at a single journal. If I were in their position, I might revise the paper to address any objections that seem like good ones, and then just send it to another journal. Hopefully the next set of reviewers will be different! But what if they're not? What if the same thing occurs? Then I'm not quite sure. 

What do readers think?

Navigating departmental culture as a junior faculty member

In our new "how can we help you?" thread, a reader asks:

This might be an odd question but I’m relatively new to a smallish department. I want to have collegial relationships with my colleagues in the philosophy department and would love to have support building my teaching skills. I can’t get a handle on the culture, though, and it seems the current department members operate largely independently. What kinds of support can I directly ask for that would be socially appropriate even if they all seem quite busy?

I would love to sit in on their classes for observations and have them sit in on mine, I would also love direct feedback on my syllabi, rubrics, and assignments, but they seem so busy and I don’t want to make waves. In the long term I’d love to organize philosophy specific talks to the wider college, book circles, events etc. But so far I’m just getting a general sense of…. I don’t know. Maybe it’s that they were understaffed before my hire so they are all tired.

Is there a low stakes way to reach out and make it clear I’m interested in collaboration without putting pressure or making it come off as criticism? Or should I seek support elsewhere in case my hunch is right that they prefer to work independently? This might be an odd question since it’s about social norms, I’m not sure if this is unique to our discipline or if any small department would have this sense of uncertainty.

These are great questions. As a member of a relatively small department myself, my sense is that it may be good to begin by simply having an honest conversation like this with other faculty the OP senses they have a good and supportive rapport with (hopefully there are some!). It could well turn out that the "culture of working independently" really just is something like people having too much on their plate, perhaps both at work and at home. For example, in my own case, my spouse and I welcomed our first child into the world 14 months ago. Since then, my life priorities have been basically (A) meeting my professional obligations (viz. teaching, service, research) while (B) devoting every other spare minute to child care and being a good father and spouse. Similarly, I know other senior colleagues who have teenagers, etc., and I can only imagine how much of priority their children are to them.

Anyway, I suspect that in a lot of cases, faculty in small departments would love to do things like organize talks, book circles, etc., but may simply not have the bandwidth to do these things. So, I suspect they would have no problem at all with a junior faculty taking the initiative on these kinds of things, while being honest about what they (the colleague of the junior person) can do. Which brings my back to my initial suggestion to the OP: just try to approach faculty you are comfortable with and have an honest discussion about what you're hoping for, while recognizing that others in the department may for whatever reasons have limits on the kinds of things that they can do. At least in a healthy department, I am pretty sure that faculty would take no offense to discussing the kinds of things the OP mentions, and probably love a junior colleague with so much passion and initiative for taking part in and supporting a collegial life in the department!

But these are just my thoughts. What are yours?

Do's and don'ts for applying to grad programs in philosophy?

A reader writes in with the following anonymous query:

I've a student who is applying to grad programs in philosophy and I wonder if you'd post a question about general dos and don'ts for that. I write a lot of recommendations for scholarships, internships, and our own competitive admissions programs like those in health services. But by the very nature of our institution this is a new one for me.

I'm not sure whether we've ever run a thread on this before, so I'd be keen to hear people's responses too!

Do any readers with experience in philosophy grad admissions have any do's or don'ts to share, or other tips?

How to interact with observers during teaching observations?

In our new "how can we help you?" thread, a reader asks:

How should you interact with faculty visiting your class to evaluate your teaching?

Should you pretend they are not there, or should you invite them to participate in in-class activities?

Hmm...I've seen both done, and I'm not sure it makes all that much of a difference. Maybe ask the observer how they'd prefer you to go about it?

What does everyone think?

Saving (some) dissertation chapters for a book?

In our new "how can we help you?" thread, a reader asks:

I've reworked 2 chapters from my dissertation and sent them to journals. There's another chapter that I could possibly rework to send off to a journal. But I also want to eventually turn my dissertation into a book, and I think that if most of my dissertation already appears in print, I wouldn't be able to do that. Should I save that chapter?

This is a good question, particularly in light of yesterday's thread. I've heard that (some?/many?) book publishers may be reticent to publish dissertations, but then again, I've heard of more than a few cases of people publishing them, so I'm not sure exactly what to believe. In any case, I'm not sure what to recommend here. Maybe it depends on how long the dissertation was? If it was a short (e.g. 4 or 5 chapter) dissertation, then publishing half or more than half of it in journals could well be a problem. But, if the dissertation was longer, maybe not.

What does everyone think? It would be great to hear from those with some experience here.

Reusing material published in journals in a book (and when to contact journals for permissions)?

In our new "how can we help you?" thread, a reader asks:

I am in the early stages of writing my first academic book. I have already published a series of pertinent articles from which I hope to borrow for the book, not by copying and pasting in their entirety, but certainly with enough continuity where I think it'd be necessary for me to reach out to journals for permission.

My question is just about when I ought to contact journals. I suppose the simplest answer would be "as soon as possible", but then again I do not even have a book contract yet. Is there some stage at which book publishers will expect written permission from the journals?

Good question, though I think the reader should be aware that book publishers often appear to have limits on previously-published work that they are willing to republish in book (sometimes only a chapter or two, or alternatively 10% of a book's contents). I'm not sure how flexible they may be, whether these matters can be negotiated, or whether there's a salient difference between reprinting and "borrowing" from work published in journals. 

Do any readers have any helpful insights or experiences to share on these matters?

Interfolio costs and the job-market

In our job-market discussion thread, readers have been discussing the costs of Interfolio. One reader wrote:

Some of us use interfolio for letter uploading. I know this is probably beyond the capacity of philosophy search committees, but if not, please ask for letters at later stages of application. a) You probably won't read any of them until later stages; b) each uploaded letter actually financially costs the applicant.

(The paid basic subscription to interfolio allows us to upload letters 50 times, then we will have to buy more quotas.)

Other readers provided some counterpoints, such as:

FWIW I think people in many (maybe most?) searches read letters even on the first pass (at least skim them). While I'm sorry for the costs to candidates, I personally find letters really valuable on even a first pass (I know there's variety in this and also disagreement about whether they are just noisy, but, at least at the extreme ends of the spectrum, my experience is that they are NOT just noisy.)

And one reader pointed out that Interfolio only seems to charge for some ways of sending letters but not others:

Just since the cost, of Interfolio deliveries was mentioned above, I thought I'd emphasize: when a candidate bundles up some files and has Interfolio send those files as an "email delivery" to a specific address, it shows up as a "free email delivery" in their account history.

(this is how it goes for me, anyways)

By contrast, when an application system has various little slots for email addresses of my letter writers, and when I input an email address and Interfolio sends them a letter, this is what makes the paid credits total go down and eventually cause a person to get more paid credits.

So it comes down to whether HR forces you to do things the second way. The first way is better.

This has been mentioned before, maybe even on Letier reports. But it seemed to me that some of the above commenters may not have been aware, so I thought I'd put it out there.

In any case, I wanted to amplify the issue, as hiring committees may not be well-aware of these issues. I seem to recall some online discussions of Interfolio in the past suggesting that hiring committees consider steering away from the service for these kinds of reasons, but maybe I'm misremembering.

If anyone would like to discuss these matters further here, please do comment below!

What stands out to search committees in a good teaching portfolio?

In our new "how can we help you?" thread, a reader asks:

A teaching-portfolio question for all, but especially recent search committee members:

What stood out about good teaching portfolios in your applicant pools? How many pages, syllabi, and complete course evaluations do you recommend including? How many of each are too much or too little? What are some things no one should ever do?

I know teaching portfolios have been discussed here and elsewhere in the past, but I find that disciplinary norms change from year to year, and I'm also dragging my feet in trying to figure out how to improve my own teaching portfolio. So advice would be appreciated.

All three are great questions. Are any readers (particularly those who have served on search committees) willing to weigh in?

Tips for getting on an APA main program?

In our new "how can we help you?" thread, a reader asks:

Does anyone have any idea how the review process for getting onto the main program of an APA actually works?

(I assume some of you out there have been reviewers before - fwiw, I've never heard from a friend in the field of being asked to do this. So who does it? What do they ask you to look for? Overall it seems there's a serious lack of transparency here. It's also obvious to anyone who looks that there is something that an 'APA paper' looks like. Follow that formula, write on a trendy topic, and you'll probably get in eventually. But who is doing all this reviewing?)

I've never heard any concerns like these before, and I've gotten on main programs a few times without doing anything out of the ordinary--but maybe I'm missing something.

If anyone does have any helpful tips or other insights for the OP, please share!

Hurricane hiatus

This is just a quick note that I will take a hiatus from posting this week due to Hurricane Milton. I live in Tampa and had to board up my house and evacuate with my family. I should be able to moderate comments provided the area we are in continues to have power. Wishing safety to everyone in the storm’s path.

'Micro-working' strategies?

In our new "how can we help you?" thread, a reader asks:

If an idea strikes me I can sit down with a notebook for 5 minutes and jot it down, but if I’m trying to write an essay then I find it really difficult to make any progress in spits and spots - I like to have multiple hours set aside. These are less available these days. Any tips for making use of the odd 10-15 minutes here and there?

I am not an effective 'micro-worker', so I don't have any helpful tips. 

But what about the rest of you? Any tips for the OP?

When to leave a university with budget problems?

In our new "how can we help you?" thread, a reader asks:

How do you know when it's time to jump ship at a university with budget problems?

Sadly, I think the answer may be: as soon as you find out it has budget problems. If recent events in higher education (e.g., the closure of one college and university after another) are indicative, budget problems tend not to improve but rather worsen.

I had a friend at university that, much like other universities that have closed down, proceeded rapidly from "budget problems" to something like a budget death-spiral. It went something like this. The university was poorly-off financially because of some bad strategic decisions by its administration, coupled with a drop in student enrollment. The way it addressed those problems (presumably, the only way available) was to cut faculty and programs. But, of course, as soon as students and parents found out about its budget problems and cuts to programs, this led to even lower enrollment ... which, you guessed it, made the university's financial situation progressively worse.

Maybe the OP's institution is a different situation--I can't know without knowing more details. But, in any case, given that the situation at my friend's institution changed rapidly (and unexpectedly to many people working there), my sense is that the prudent thing to do is to probably begin looking for alternative prospects of employment sooner rather than later. But perhaps I'm overstating things? Given that I don't work at an institution with issues like these, I don't have any direct first-hand experience.

It would be good to hear from readers who have worked at a college or university with budget problems. How did things go at your institution? And when do you think it's good to "look toward the exits"?

How to list 'teaching competencies' in job-application materials?

In our new "how can we help you?" thread, a reader asks:

For on the job market as a new PhD holder: what is an appropriate amount of teaching competencies to list in your application fresh out of grad school? I assume teaching competencies can be claimed by showing one's interest in developing and willingness to develop courses for these on short notice, but that number for me would exceed the number and kind of courses I've taught or TA-ed for thus far. (I imagine the answer will vary, so anecdotes are more than welcome to show the possible range of competencies claimed and how those applications went)

It seems to me that search committees are going to be interested in what a candidate has actually taught, what their graduate training makes them qualified to teach (even if they haven't taught in an area before), how they teach in general, and perhaps any syllabi they've drawn up for courses they haven't taught before. But, it seems to me, virtually all of this can be gleamed from portions of a CV that enumerate courses one has taught, perhaps a list of graduate-level coursework, and any syllabi or course outlines in a teaching portfolio. Beyond this, I'm not sure what listing "teaching competencies" might look like.

What do readers think?

Separate sections for teaching-related publications and presentations on a CV?

In our new "how can we help you?" thread, a reader asks:

CV question. If I have a some pedagogy-related presentations and/or publications, do these go in a different section from my research-focused publications & presentations? If so, what do I title the pedagogy-related and the non-pedagogy-related sections to make that clear?

Note: I would like to be competitive for teaching jobs. But I already have a significant number of research-focused pubs & presentations, and so I'm worried the teaching stuff will get lost inside if they are not separated.

Good question. I suspect it's probably best to lump all publications together when applying to any job, but that maybe having distinct sections for teaching presentations on a CV could be good when applying to teaching-focused institutions. But I'm really just speculating here.

What do readers think?

In our new "how can we help you?" thread, a reader asks:

CV question. If I have a some pedagogy-related presentations and/or publications, do these go in a different section from my research-focused publications & presentations? If so, what do I title the pedagogy-related and the non-pedagogy-related sections to make that clear?

Note: I would like to be competitive for teaching jobs. But I already have a significant number of research-focused pubs & presentations, and so I'm worried the teaching stuff will get lost inside if they are not separated.

Good question. I suspect it's probably best to lump all publications together when applying to any job, but that maybe having distinct sections for teaching presentations on a CV could be good when applying to teaching-focused institutions. But I'm really just speculating here.

What do readers think?

Is it appropriate to assign some of your own publications in a class?

In our new "how can we help you?" thread, a reader asks:

Is it appropriate to use my own papers while teaching? I have relatively little teaching experience but a strong publication record, and I thought it would be useful to assign some of my own work for students to read. The course is within my area of specialization, so my papers would be relevant. I’ve once taught a similar course before, and students mentioned they enjoyed reading the papers I chose for the course. However, a colleague recently suggested that using my own papers in the curriculum would be 'iffy'. For what it's worth, I would also include papers by other scholars and not solely rely on my own work for the course.

This is a great question. I recall seeing a discussion on social media where a bunch of academics came out very strongly against this, saying they didn't think it is appropriate and would never do it. But I don't recall their reasons for the position.

What does everyone think, and why?

How can we help you? (October 2024)

Now that it's been several months since our last "how can we help you?" thread, it's time for a new one.

For those of you unfamiliar with this series, this is a chance for you to post openly or anonymously in the comments section below on anything you could use help with related to the profession. After you post your query in the comments section, I will then post new threads for readers to discuss your query. 

As usual, feel free to ask questions on anything (within the Cocoon's mission) that you could use help with, including but not limited to:

• The job-market (applying for jobs, etc.)
• Issues in the profession (including issues of social justice)
• Graduate school
• Publishing
• Teaching (including in the age of A.I.)
• Work-life balance
• Mental health & well-being
• Personal struggles
• Etc.

Ask away - we're here to help! 

Finally, a quick reminder of the following RULE: Please do not submit replies to other comments in this thread. It makes these threads unwieldy and difficult for me to keep track of which queries I've posted new threads on. If you'd like to respond to a comment in this thread, please wait until I dedicate a new post to the person's query myself and comment in that thread instead!