How can we help you? (December 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!

Comments

[Jealous]

I would like to hear more about the "real" differences in teaching load between a research-oriented program and a teaching-oriented program.

I am curious about this because I feel that the numbers of courses could be very misleading. I work in a teaching-oriented, undergraduate-only program, and the standard teaching load for us is 3/2. The typical teaching load in a research-oriented program seems to be 2/2 (I could be wrong though). However, I feel that my teaching load is way more than just one course, and I almost have no time doing research during the semester. I have never gone to more than one conference during a semester: simply canceling classes for conferences seems less acceptable in my institution, and I usually fell behind on grading/teaching if I went to a conference.

I have never taught in a research-oriented department, and my impression of the teaching load at such a place is mostly from my time in graduate school. It seems to me that professors at research-oriented programs usually have TAs for service courses, so they only need to teach in the classroom and done with teaching, leaving grading for their TAs. TAs can also cover classes so professors go to quite a few conferences during semesters. They can also teach on topics that align well with their research. So, the actual teaching load in a research-oriented program is way lighter.

Am I right? I would like to learn more about this. Thank you!

[Senior and confused]

I could use some advice on navigating the job market as an associate professor. Unfortunately, my university is going through a budgetary crisis, and so I'm going back on the job market. This season, I applied to a few open-rank positions, but is it common practice for senior candidates to apply also to tenure-track jobs? Do committees hire senior candidates into t-t positions? Do they then grant those candidates tenure in the new position, or do the new hires have to start all over again on the tenure track? Thanks in advance for any advice you can give.

[asking for feedback]

Is it ever okay to ask a hiring committee (e.g. the chair) for feedback on your job market materials if you were denied an interview? Here's the scenario I have in mind: a school posts an ad which is a very good fit for you, you spend a significant amount of time on your materials (e.g. tailoring cover letter to the job, etc.), but they don't even interview you. In that situation, is it okay to ask the hiring committee for feedback and advice, purely in the spirit of trying to improve your materials? Or is that too much of an ask?

[Alice Watson]

First-year PhD student here. What are my prospects for academic employment in philosophy at R1 institutions given my PhD in social sciences from a top 3 globally ranked university? Would publishing 2–3 papers in leading political philosophy journals before graduation outweigh the lack of a formal philosophy PhD? Also, how might publishing in non-philosophy journals be perceived—would it strengthen my interdisciplinary appeal or work against me? For context, I hold a master’s degree in philosophy, but my undergraduate degree is in another field.

[Doxastic Doxing]

Many of my colleagues and especially students are being drawn to a kind of philosophy that strikes me as bad for them and for the field. It's basically a sort that redrescribes practices that are obviously harmful, especially to marginalized people, in novel epistemology-ish terms, and piles on about how bad they are, maybe in newish but less novel social justice-y terms. It doesn't really teach us anything new. The harms, though obvious, aren't empirically investigated, and the fancy new terms only redescribe what needs no redescription. It's exactly the kind of circle-running that gives us all a bad name, at a time when we can least afford it. And for students, I feel like it stifles their growth (and I've seen some awesome ones go in for this stuff).

The problem is, when you're the only one standing against it, you seem like you are insufficiently behind the social justice program that allegedly drives it, even when you're fully on board. Why, folks wonder, are you in such a tizzy about this, of all things? It must be you, not them...

Any advice? Anyone else feeling this, too??

[lmk]

Preparing myself for the market next year. Wondering if anyone could give me their sense of my chances based on my overall profile: PhD candidate from a top-10 leiter program, 2 publications in good, but not tip-top journals, and a person of colour.

[Anonymous]

I've been having difficulties tracking essay competitions in Philosophy. Although I already receive some updates from the Philosophy e-mail list, many of these competitions are annual and sparse throughout the internet so it would be interesting to have an idea about when they are receiving papers to better organize myself

[A Philosopher Named Slickback]

With deadlines coming up for graduate programs, I am wondering if I, in my academic statements, should include professors that I would like to work with. I have got conflicting advice on this, some say "do not name drop" other say "name drop! So long as you know that they align with your research interests."

Second, on my application, I have been told NOT to add the schools that I am applying to, i.e., applying to UCLA, do not add that I am also applying to x, y, or z schools so that it either 1. build some competition or urgency at the school you're applying too? 2. It makes them think, "Oh well, they will get into x school. They will choose us." I have also heard naming other schools is good because they are more likely to choose you; they can have some sort of vision as to who they are competing with. Again, these are all things I have heard, and I have no idea what to do...

[Zili Dong]

I would like to hear people's opinion about co-authorship in philosophy. To make my question more concrete, let me cite a specific example. In a manuscript by Samuel Elgin (https://philarchive.org/rec/ELGTGO) who is the single author, Elgin says in a footnote that "I am especially indebted to Pauliina Rumm, who first raised the puzzle of the grounds of nonground to me. Though the theory I develop here is my own, credit for identifying the puzzle goes entirely to her."

Elgin is very generous to give the credit for identifying the puzzle entirely to Rumm, but I was wondering whether Rumm deserves to be listed as a co-author. If the above information is not enough to answer the question, then hypothetically, what kind of contribution to the paper is sufficient for Rumm to earn a co-authorship in philosophy? What do people think?

PS: I notice that Pauliina Rumm had given a presentation earlier in July at the International Wittgenstein Symposium entitled "A Puzzle About Grounding and Specification" (https://centerforgermanphilosophy.uchicago.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/International-Wittgenstein-Symposium-Program.pdf). But I didn't attend the Symposium so I don't know what Rumm has said in her paper. Perhaps someone who's attended the Symposium can provide some more information.

[first-time job hunter]

Where can I find job ads for other countries? (I'm US-based) I know sometimes philjobs or insidehighered will post some international jobs and jobs.ac.uk posts UK-based jobs. I'd also like to apply for jobs in Canada, and Europe, but haven't really seen much.

[Hermias]

Grading with a straight bat? I have a couple of students this semester who have been completely dire; numerous absences, zero participation, no posts on the discussion board, late and poor writing assignments. On paper, based on the syllabus, they should get Fs. It’s an intro class that is required for all students. Am I a teddy bear for wanting to just give them Ds and send them on their merry way?

Relatedly, any advice about the “end of semester begging email” - this other kid last attended 10/31 then emails me to say that they’ve been struggling mentally, that a friend of theirs died. Hard to verify any of these claims, or what to do if true. Another kid emailed me to say that their parent had died, another that their parent was sick in the hospital, etc.

[ScaredEarlyCareer]

Philosophy is such a harsh and judgmental field and as an early career philosopher, it's debilitating to think that I am constantly being nitpicked at when I apply to jobs, submit to journals, give talks, etc. (I have friends who are scarred from hearing faculty discuss job candidates). Can anyone give me tips on how to overcome this fear of judgment, especially since this is what makes/breaks your career?

[Specialist]

As someone who writes mostly in a "specialist" field of philosophy (in my case, philosophy of religion), I was wondering if anyone out there has good thumb rules about what kind of "specialist" philosophy to send to generalist journals and where. Obviously the material needs to be understandable to non-specialists, but maybe someone can say more?

[Preemptive Mid-Career Crisis]

I have a couple of questions about the transition from the early-career stage to the mid-career stage, particularly with respect to research:

(1) How do sabbaticals realistically work? It seems like almost everyone goes to visit another institution for a long time, but I don’t see how that’s feasible if you’ve got young children, or a spouse or partner with location-specific work, or elderly family to take care of. I also do not understand if these visits are typically like “official” visiting positions or something less formal. When I have asked about this, I feel like I do not get the kind of detailed answers that would be helpful for planning.

(2) I’ve been told that this early-to-mid-career time is when you should start thinking about a book project, and that you should have some publications out in support of your book project.” I can see that often whole chapters of books are drawn on material from published papers. But how many papers should one draw on? How do you know when you have an established enough body of work to satisfy a well-regarded press?

(3) I’m also wondering if anyone else has felt like they kind of messed up their early career. I feel weird and bad about feeling this way, as I am lucky enough to have a tenure-track job, I have met all the relevant requirements for promotion and tenure, and I have really supportive colleagues. But I kind of think that nobody is reading my work, and I don't know how to engage with other people whose work I admire. I feel like I missed the boat on setting up good professional networks. So much of “professionalization” seems to be about surviving the “publish or perish” years rather than setting up a flourishing intellectual life with other people in the profession. How weird would it be for me to just cold-email people to say, “Hey, I really like your work. I've discussed your work in my work. Can we talk shop sometime?” or "Hey, we've interacted professionally a bit. I'm working on this paper and I would love to get some feedback from you, given your really cool paper on the topic." Obviously, conferences can be great for this, but the same practical constraints mentioned above about sabbaticals are relevant here, too, if to a lesser degree. Any advice, emotional and/or practical, would be greatly appreciated.

[a masters student in phil]

I am a masters student in philosophy and I currently have a paper under external review at one of the "top-25 general philosophy journals" listed on this webpage:
https://leiterreports.typepad.com/blog/2022/07/best-general-philosophy-journals-2022.html

Of course, I am happy and excited and nervous and somewhat terrified about this at the same time! And I have a couple questions about this kind of experience:
1. Since I'm applying to PhD programs in the upcoming cycle, I wonder if it would be appropriate for me to list the paper in the "under review" section of my c.v.? (I've seen many early career philosophers do that, so I was curious.)
2. If the answer to the previous question is affirmative, then what is the best way for me to do that? (I.e., should I list the journal title? should I indicate what stage it's in?)
3. How do I cope with the anxiety associated with waiting to hear back from the journal? Any tips, advice, suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
4. Lastly, what does it mean to have a paper under external review at a journal at the Masters stage? (I know that there are many people who have done this, but I just don't know any of such people personally, and so I was hoping to get a better, general sense of what this whole publication thing means at this stage in my career/life.)

Thank you so much in advance!!

[mossy]

I am curious about how non-philosophy teaching on a CV is perceived by search committees.

In other words, is teaching a person may have done in other disciplines irrelevant or is it seen as a positive indication of teaching experience that gets lesser weight than philosophy teaching experience? In particular, I am curious about a scenario where a person might have more teaching experience in a different discipline than in philosophy. Is that person evaluated only according to the philosophy teaching experience or is the non-philosophy teaching experience also factored in somewhat.

[Manuscripter]

Is it advisable to post unpublished manuscripts online (assuming one has already perfected them based on much feedback from many colleagues)? I have noticed that some philosophers do this, but most don't. What are the pros and cons?

[RA]

Does anyone have any advice about how to engage with undergraduate research assistants? How can I make this relationship mutually fruitful? How can undergrads help with philosophical research? What sort of support does such a relationship require?

[LLL]

I am an international student. I have a paper published in a well-regarded journal, though not top-tier (I am the first author, and my supervisor is the second author. His contribution was to provide feedback and suggestions; the paper was written by me). Despite this, I intend to use this paper as my writing sample for application. I would like to know if this is acceptable.

[Seeking to understand]

Hello, I'm wondering what the difference is between SPEP Continental philosophy and Leiter Continental philosophy? I saw someone reference this distinction on a comment on this website. I can kind of intuit that there's a difference, but don't really understand what it is. For the record, I don't do continental, but I'm fairly sympathetic.

Also, in general, does anyone have any insight into what SPEP (Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy) is all about?

[Curious Teacher]

I’m interested in trends for teaching-only jobs. I know that Lecturer/VAP positions have been around for many years, and I’ve held these myself. In recent years, I’ve noticed an increased number of ads for “Instructional Assistant Professors,” “Assistant Teaching Professors,” etc. Some of these seem to have more expectation of permanency than the Lecturer positions, and I’ve seen some with promotion schedules. But the position titles are not consistently applied.

Have others observed this trend? Do others perceive that these are more permanent than Lecturers? Those of you chairing searches or involved in obtaining permission to run searches, what considerations prompt you to seek a teaching-only position? I wonder, for instance if they are less common in schools with graduate programs, because perhaps the grad students fill some of those needs. And what determines the position title?

I ask because, after a decade in the profession, teaching philosophy is my greatest strength. As I make some decisions about my future, I’d love to hear about trends in teaching-only jobs.

[Anonymous TA]

I would like some advice about how to deal with student complaints. I’m a TA at a university which, to my eye, has some pretty serious issues with grade inflation. Recently, I submitted participation grades for my students and received an unexpectedly large influx of complaints, despite the fact that the average mark I assigned was an A-. Unfortunately, the academic culture here among the undergraduates seems to be to complain until someone capitulates. As much as I would like to counteract this uncharitable sentiment, my feeling has been that many students take a very transactional approach to their classes which is dispiriting. As a TA, I feel I am in a difficult position considering that I don’t have authority about the academic and grading standards for the course.

[first impressions]

I have a question about web presence. I'm in my second year on the job market.

I know that some committee members google candidates, because they leave a footprint on linkedin, academia.edu, philpeople. I do not use social media apart from those sites.

If you google my name, one of the first things to come up is a reddit comment from a student in the first week of classes in the first class I taught, a year ago. It expresses extreme frustration at my shaky lecturing. It also expresses frustration at the fact that their department (biomedical sciences) requires them to take this philosophy course -- but that's mentioned as an aside. Two other students from the same class chime in, agreeing. A student from another course I was teaching the same term, in which I had a better first week, expresses disagreement, but that's a ways down the thread.

The reddit thread is a year old. My teaching evaluations are so-so and can't entirely counterbalance it. Students tend to give fairly balanced critiques that reflect the real weaknesses in my lecture style -- though they also say other things that reflect strengths in the facilitation of classroom discussion. In other words, the reddit thread expresses (though also sort of caricatures) a genuine shortcoming.

Since this thread, which has been dormant for almost a year, is still at the top of my google results, I've started to think that it might be a good idea to ask for advice about the effect that this might have, and whether there is anything I can or should do to counterbalance it. (The problem is partly related to the google algorithm, which places reddit results near the top of the results, but that's not within anyone's control.)

[Carmen]

I’m a few years into my first job and I have a semester-long sabbatical coming up next year, and I’m trying to figure out what to do for it. I have heard of people doing visiting fellowships and stuff like that while on sabbatical but I don’t really get how this works, how to get them, or where they would be advertized, what the application cycle looks like, and what constitutes a good position/what I should look for. Can anyone offer some guidance on this?

[OS]

I'm wondering if there are any periods in the year when it is simply not worth submitting to a journal and instead sitting on a finished draft in case, e.g., you spot something that needs tweaking. I am thinking of the fact that right now many people are potentially taking a break for Xmas, and so very few editors or potential referees are actively checking their inboxes. Can anyone speak from personal experience here?

[VAP]

How different should a cover letter for a VAP position should be from a TT position? Should one talk about research at all (or minimal)? I'm guessing one should focus on teaching and that's about it?

[PhD student]

I'm a PhD student, with two pretty fancy publications and nothing else published so far. I have another article draft prepared but it got rejected from the top journals in the relevant subfield. Is it risky to send it to a medium-ranked journal or even a lower-ranked journal? Will that look like a stain on my CV that lowers my average, or will it just have an addititive affect considering I already have two other fancier publications?

Thank you!

[anon]

I've heard some discussion of getting a JD before a PhD in philosophy (e.g., on Leiter's site), but I haven't heard anything in reverse: going from a PhD in philosophy to a JD. So, I'm interested in answers to any/all of these questions:

A) Would having a PhD in philosophy give an applicant a significant advantage in law school admissions?

B) Would this route make one more or less competitive at schools with AOS in political philosophy or philosophy of law?

C) Is going from a PhD in philosophy to practicing law a viable alt-ac route that others have taken?

[teaching philosophy?]

I have seen several religious SLACs ask for Teaching Philosophies rather than Teaching Statements. I don't think they are using philosophy and statement synonymously; it seems like they really want your philosophy of teaching and not just the standard fare statement where you list 1-2 pedagogical goals and give concrete examples of how you achieve them.

So, I'm wondering: how do you write an excellent Teaching *Philosophy,* especially for religious SLACs?

[handouter]

Is the convention for job talks to use slides, either instead of or in addition to a handout? Really hoping the answer is no, as I hate slides, but I've heard this from enough people that I wanted to check...

[David]

Is it better to have more publications when going on the job-market, or fewer? I'm not from the fanciest of PhD programs, most of our graduates end up teaching at smaller regional colleges/universities. My question isn't whether it is best to have more/fewer publications in order to "publish into getting" a job at a Research Universities or a prestigious SLAC, but whether it is better to have more/fewer when applying in general.

[anon]

i recently got ‘conditional acceptance’ for my paper. what exactly are the norms here? Should I separetely write a report in which I address the reviewer comments and the changes I made? Or should I just revise the paper and send the final version without any report? Also, are small changes (that are not mentioned in the reviewer’s comments.. such as changing the title a bit) okay?

[editor]

I'm co-editing a volume, and we're interested in making it open access. Unfortunately the fees are exorbitant and our respective institutions offer no financial support.
(1) Are there grants for funding open access and, if so, which bodies give them out? (We're based in Europe and the US in case it matters.)
(2) Can one negotiate open access fees with a publisher and, if so, what's a good way to go about this?