The Philosophers' Cocoon

I'd like to draw Philosophers' Cocoon readers' attention to this compelling personal story by Elisa Caldarola, an Italian philosopher who has relocated several times in pursuit of her dream to become a professional analytic philosopher working in aesthetics: https://www.che-fare.com/philosophy-women-english-as-a-second-language-and-international-careers/. 

She tackles several issues that are familiar to European (non-UK) philosophy PhDs: the lack of good training in analytic philosophy in one's home country, the challenges of writing articles in English if it is not one's first language, the feeling of not belonging anywhere if it turns out your home country's academic job market is dysfunctional, non-existent or deeply corrupt, the loss of focus on one's original passion for philosophy to one's employability. As she writes: 

Will I get a job as a philosopher? I don’t know. This is the big question that is bothering me right now. Where did all the other questions go? Some are still here and I’ve come to realize they’ll be with me forever if I keep doing this job, although they now look less scary, domesticated, partially answered in the affirmative: can I master English well enough to work at the international level? Can I consider myself an analytic philosopher? The question about pictures has allowed me to learn much, and to learn that I wanted to know more about art than about pictures, in the end. So it’s not really a pressing question anymore. What of the question about the meaning-conferring power of art? I think I know a lot about that now. Perhaps I even have something to say. It feels good.

Check it out!