The Philosophers' Cocoon

Disclosing PTSD to a hiring committee?

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

Should someone recently diagnosed with PTSD disclose this to hiring committee. When they are not military but a refugee and the PTSD comes from violence and other sources experienced as a kid and growing up in an environment like that (so not veteran).

Please be honest and straightforward. They are not looking for sympathy or niceness. They want to know the brutal truth so they can make an informed decision.

Obviously, there's a worry that this just opens the door to potential discrimination. If the OP is willing to run that risk or thinks they owe it to a potential employer to make them aware of their diagnosis, then they can choose to disclose. But I guess I think it depends on what matters more to the OP: principle (honesty) or pragmatism (avoiding potential discrimination).

What do other readers think?

Scholarships for disabled grad students?

In our newest "how can we help you?" thread, Tomas Albergo writes:

Are there any significant scholarships for disabled graduate students? I kind of fell apart over the last year because of my neuropathic pain (in my dominant arm and hand, sustained from a surgical error 12+ years ago) and am concerned I’m eventually going to need to take medical leave. But I can’t really afford to do that (re insurance) given my medical situation. I’m likely going to have a serious operation in the next few weeks to fix or remove a broken implanted spinal cord stimulator. Ideally I want to stay in school so that I can catch up on things and have the good insurance I’m currently lucky to have through Pitt. If my situation doesn’t improve, I doubt I’ll be able to catch up adequately once my teaching responsibilities begin again.

This is an excellent question. Do any readers know of any scholarships like this or otherwise have any helpful tips?

Philosophy of disability reading list (by AH Rheaume)

On Twitter, A.H. Rheaume shared the following reading list in philosophy of disability and Crip theory, and kindly offered to allow me to share it here:

• Feminist, Queer, Crip by Allison Kafer
• Brilliant Imperfection by Eli Clare
• Foucault and the Feminist Philosophy of Disability by Shelley Tremain
• Foucault and the Government of Disability by Shelley Tremain
• Ableist Rhetoric: How We Know, Value, and See Disability by James L. Cherney
• Fantasies of Identification by Ellen Samuels

Social & academic initiatives for conversations regarding mental health?

In our newest "how can we help you?" thread, Javier writes:

There have been many posts about isolation, anxiety and mental health issues, and professional instability, all due to covid or not, and mostly between graduate students. Does anyone know of online social initiatives that are created to bring people together and have a conversation on this issues? Or of initiatives for people in academia who wish to just have a conversation with each other and might not have peers to do so at their uni?

This is an excellent and important query. In response to last week's thread on the question of whether it is a good idea or too risky to be open about one's mental health (particularly as an early-career scholar), Alex Bryant (PhD student, McMaster) posted a related thread on Twitter:

Thinking a lot this morning about a conversation I had with @biopoliticalph yesterday: It may be that there are many working philosophers who are in fact disabled are "in the closet," so to speak. But what changes will be made to make it viable for disabled philosophers to come out of the closet about disability (including those like bipolar)?