The Philosophers' Cocoon

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Job-Market Reporting Thread (2025-26)
Job-Market Discussion Thread (2025-26)

  3. The simply answer … just follow up with the editor

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  • In our new “how can we help you?” thread, a reader asks:

    I was at a conference and began talking with one of the reps from OUP. I got to talking about a few of my articles, a couple of places the articles had been picked up, and then decided to just take the plunge and gave a broad overview of a book idea (only two sentences). Then I asked if that was something it may be worth talking to OUP about. The rep gave me the email of one of the area editors and told me to get in contact.

    Is this just a polite, “Please go away” thing that reps sometimes do? Or is it worth it to go ahead and reach out to the editor?

    I don’t know exactly how much to take away from a meeting with a press’s “rep” at a conference (are they an editor?), but in any case I would definitely follow through. The worst that can happen is that the editor isn’t interested. The best that can happen is that they are!

    Do any readers have helpful insights to share?

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  • Teaching writing in the AI/LLM era?

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

    I am curious how other people teach writing in the age of LLMs. I am teaching in a political science department and have to teach students some philosophical writing in order for them to be able to write term papers and theses in political theory/philosophy.

    Previously, my strategy would have been to give students a couple of small writing tasks during the semester and provide some feedback on those tasks. However, with what LLMs are currently capable of and with the degree of LLM-use I have seen, I am pessimistic about the prospects of that strategy. My expectation is that anything like “Summarize the argument on p. 2” or “Write a brief response to argument X” will yield a large number of machine-generated responses.

    So I would be curious to hear how others are teaching writing now. In particular, I am curious how you can integrate it into a regular seminar for students that might only take a small number of philosophy courses. Do you do writing exercises in class? Do you just stop teaching writing?

    I am curious to hear about this too. How (if at all) do you teach writing now?

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  • How can we help you? (February 2026)

    Now that it’s been over a month 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
    • Work-life balance
    • Mental health & well-being
    • Professional or 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! I have not been enforcing this rule consistently recently, but need to recommit to it as it has been hard to manage these threads. Thanks!

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  • Asking for feedback after a fly-out if not offered the job?

    In our January “how can we help you?” thread, a reader asks, “Is it appropriate to ask for feedback after a flyout where you did not ultimately get the job?”

    Another reader submitted the following reply, which seems right to me:

    Not sure about appropriateness (I know HR at many places would not allow this especially by email), but about usefulness. Although it feels to candidates like these decisions are appraisals of how well we did, for committees it is often a close call between candidates who did equally well on the scorecard, such that the decision comes down to teaching or research “fit”, or things that could not be offered as reasons to the candidate’s face, such as personality, predictions about whether you’d stay, internal politics, whether someone in the room thought you were a total embarrassment, who the big cheese got behind. It seems probable you would get an incomplete explanation if you ask. Even if you do get constructive criticism of your performance, that should be discounted by the fact what place A dislikes might be exactly what place B is looking for, and we tend to overemphasize negative feedback internally. That is, because we are rejection sensitive, you may make changes to yourself or your candidacy to try to appeal more to that kind of place in future, when in fact that kind of place was not your best bet anyway. So it might be like asking someone why you didn’t get a second date — not that useful as information and likely to hurt your feelings!

    What do other readers think? It could be especially helpful to hear from candidates who have asked for feedback, as well as from search committees/search chairs.

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