The Philosophers' Cocoon

A safe and supportive forum for philosophers.

Owned & Moderated by Marcus Arvan (University of Tampa)

Contact: marvan@ut.edu

Blog mission & moderation policy

IMPORTANT NOTE on how to ensure anonymity in commenting
Job-Market Reporting Thread (2025-26)
Job-Market Discussion Thread (2025-26)

recent posts

about

How can we help you? (February 2025)

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!

Posted in

43 responses to “How can we help you? (February 2025)”

  1. EOs Galore

    I teach at a state school. In light of recent developments at the executive level, I am worried about potential blowback from teaching a class on the philosophy of race (in addition to content on race in my other classes).
    I’m open to strategies as to how to minimize my exposure to negative attention. More fundamentally, though, I’m also considering not teaching this content until I get tenure. Assistant Professors are vulnerable, and I just worry that, at best, I won’t get hurt by teaching this material, and at worst, I will get hurt.
    Thanks!

    Reply
  2. grad

    I am a grad student and I find conferences difficult, particularly the social aspect. I have found myself getting lunch or dinner alone when I would have rather been able to talk to others. Do others feel this way? How do I better spend my time at conferences so that I can connect with others?

    Reply
  3. early career

    I am an early-career philosopher from a non-Anglophone country. After earning my PhD from an institution in my home country, I secured a tenure-track position here. The academic publication system in my country has its challenges; submissions are rarely blind-reviewed, and editors often desk-reject papers from junior philosophers due to concerns about citation potential. Consequently, I prefer to publish in English.
    However, I face difficulties obtaining feedback on my manuscripts. The community of analytic philosophers here is small, making it hard to find individuals with the expertise to provide constructive feedback. Additionally, I don’t have many personal connections with philosophers from Anglophone countries, and I feel it might be presumptuous to ask for comments on my drafts from those who don’t know me. Currently, I submit my manuscripts to journals and wait for several months, hoping to receive helpful comments from reviewers.
    Given these circumstances, I wonder if there are more effective ways to obtain feedback on my manuscripts. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

    Reply
  4. Niche Dissertation Writer

    I’m currently writing a dissertation on a niche topic (in a popular AOS but the specific topic is underexplored). I am finding it a bit difficult to get work on the dissertation published (as I was helpfully warned about by my dissertation committee). I am on track to have 3 chapters done by the end of the semester.
    I am going on the job market soon, and have two paths I could do down.
    In general, I could spend less time polishing my dissertation and more time working on developing other papers that are more publishable. For example, I could try and write a fourth chapter on the same niche topic (and eventually try and get it published) or I could try and write a paper that is still in my AOS but less niche and more obviously suited for a generalist philosophy journal.
    Any advice on which path might be better job-market wise?

    Reply
  5. ChastenedAuthor

    How does one protect ownership of a potentially big idea?
    How realistic is a fear that someone in the peer-review process will sabotage a paper and steal its idea if they think it is potentially a big idea?

    Reply
  6. AI User

    What AI tools have you found most useful for doing philosophy? What philosophy-related tasks have you found them most useful for? (I am asking because I use very few AI tools but want to start using more.)

    Reply
  7. teaching question

    I teach several undergraduate courses which require me to assign short papers. I have been struggling to come up with good topics for my students to write on, especially in areas of philosophy that I am less familiar with, but I am still required to teach. I don’t want to make the assignments too easy nor too hard. And I want to make sure that AI will not do well on them and that students somehow go beyond what we discussed in class/lectures. Do you have advice/ know of resources that would be helpful in regard to designing paper topics?

    Reply
  8. Grad student

    How does it look for the job market to have an emeritus adviser? If there are any disadvantages, what exactly are they? And what should you do if your dissertation adviser is planning to retire and your department doesn’t have any other senior faculty working in the area?

    Reply
  9. tenure q

    How are philosophy tenure cases handled when the candidate is interdisciplinary (e.g., publishes in both philosophy and science journals)? I’m worried that I won’t be perceived by external reviewers as sufficiently philosophical. Suggestions for mitigating this?

    Reply
  10. Burningrock

    Sometimes I hear people describe some philosopher as a “superstar”, but what exactly does that mean? Is it about publications? Or fame? What is it like to be a superstar, and is it worth trying to become one? If so, how does one go about trying?

    Reply
  11. question for a student

    We have a super talented junior philosophy major with an interest in going to graduate school. They have a special interest in a historical period of philosophy, but they are worried they don’t have enough language yet to be competitive for grad programs in that area.
    I am not super informed about this, so I wanted to ask this community. Are there really admissions committee members who would hold it against an undergraduate that they don’t have much language competence in the period they are interested in given all the opportunities they’ll have to get caught up in graduate school? I’ve tried to assuage their worries, but I want to be sure I am not misinforming them.

    Reply
  12. Hyperventilating

    When publishing for the job market, do I really need to try and publish at least one article in a too generalist journal? Or will publishing in specialty journals be enough?

    Reply
  13. overthinking?

    I’m an ABD person on the job market for the first time. I had a fair number of first round interviews this cycle–some went well, some were complete disasters. Besides being totally embarrassed by them, I’m also worried about the near- to long- term impact of these disastrous interviews. Am I right to think that faculty gossip about such things, and that this could negatively impact my status on the job market/in the profession going forward? Or am I overthinking this?

    Reply
  14. letter confusion

    Here’s a question for other people who spend multiple years continuously on the job market. How often do you ask your references to update their letters? What do committees expect as far as how recent letters are? In addition, once you’ve done a postdoc or two you’ve probably accumulated more than 3 references. Do you keep a super up to date letter on file from all your references, even if you have 5-6? In particular, I have one reference whose letter I haven’t been using for several reasons (e.g., they are less senior than my other references). I feel bad asking them to update their letter knowing I probably won’t use it, but is there some reason I should do this anyway?

    Reply
  15. lonely at the mid

    I’m mid-career (tenured ~2021), and I’ve enjoyed doing some mentoring of grad students and early career folks. But I’m running into issues for which I could use a mentor of my own! Some of these issues involve dept politics, others are about how to navigate commitments and opportunities, balance teaching and research… Are there any resources for mentoring for mid-career women?

    Reply
  16. candidate

    In light of the ongoing political/economic chaos in the United States, it’s not surprising that we’re seeing some warning signs that upcoming hiring may reach new lows (see, e.g., here: https://leiterreports.typepad.com/blog/2025/02/canary-in-the-coal-mine-uc-san-diego-suspends-all-faculty-and-staff-hiring-for-the-indefinite-future.html)
    As a candidate planning to go on the market for the first time in the fall, I’m wondering what people’s current beliefs about the fall job market are and if people have any ideas about the best practical response. Are there things to do to prepare for a market where a much larger percentage of openings are non-American? Is anyone else considering the possibility of adjusting strategy or giving up the market entirely?

    Reply
  17. Non-blogger

    Is it advisable for an early-career philosopher (or philosophy graduate student) to blog about philosophy? How does one tell which philosophical ideas are bloggable?

    Reply
  18. Mentor

    I have a student who is applying for a PhD programs in philosophy, and in case none of this year’s applications work out, they are wondering if it would look “bad” on future applications if they adjunct in the meantime (they have a MA which lets them do so). I’m not sure of the answer!

    Reply
  19. G

    I would like to hear people’s experience of changing AOS(s), especially from mid-career philosophers.
    I do not have a specific question. But this is why I ask. I am an early/mid career philosopher (recently tenured, 8 years out of grad school). I have been losing interest in my AOS in the past few years. Part of the reason is that I hold a teaching heavy position, and I find it really hard to keep up with the ongoing literature in my AOS, so I am already falling behind. At the same time, most questions that I was interested in have been discussed pretty thoroughly and I do not feel I have much to add (again, partly due to my struggle in keeping up with the ongoing discussion).
    Meanwhile, I become interested in an area that is totally different from my AOS. But I have not done any serious research, and my only background in this new area is from a graduate course I took a decade ago and a couple of undergraduate courses I have taught. I am not sure if I should devote more time in further developing my interest. Given my limited time, maybe it is more reasonable for me to just work in my previous AOS and publish a few papers (hopefully). Starting working in a new area always scares me. And realistically, I may not be a competent scholar in this area in the near future (maybe never).
    Anyway, thank you for reading, and I am curious to see what you think.

    Reply
  20. Plan B Prepper

    This is very much related to the posts on having a Plan B given the chaos of the market, but figured it deserved its own thread.
    There may have been a time when investing in building up alt-ac skills or having a website advertising yourself as more than a philosopher would have been seen as not being fully committed to philosophy, and could have been a mark against someone applying for a TT job
    I would hope that these days are over. However, over the years I have been disappointed time and time again to learn that the attitudes of philosophers are often not as accommodating/flexible/understanding as I expected them to be. I have also heard some people say or imply that only those who can imagine nothing else but doing philosophy should pursue a job in it (which, in my mind, is quite a toxic mindset, but still might be operating within some departments).
    So, I am curious as to whether there are any risks to publicly preparing for an alt-ac job while also being on the academic job market. Should one have two websites? Obviously one should have a CV and a resume, but is it risky to have both in the same place? Should one pursue their alt-ac Plan B in private? Should one wait until after the TT cycle in the fall to add their alt-ac materials? etc.
    I am not talking about whether it should be risky re: academic jobs (it clearly shouldn’t be), but I would love to know if anyone knows of people in their department who would look down on someone who has built up a strong alt-ac resume, is clearly open to leaving academia, appears to be looking for alt-ac jobs, etc.

    Reply
  21. Navigating offers

    With PhD offers starting to come in, I wonder if people have thoughts on the degree to which offers are negotiable? If you have better funding from one school, are you able to use this to negotiate with another? Is this a common practice or frowned upon? And if it’s common, what works?
    Thanks!

    Reply
  22. anon

    Generally, how long should our single-spaced job market materials be?
    The advice from the Job Market Boot Camp is to keep RS and TS to one page, and TPII suggests a 2-page limit for CLs. But I’m wondering if this is still the norm.
    E.g., I have had friends read my one-page TS and say it needs to be another page that includes my general teaching philosophy (and not just my goals and methods to achieve them w/ examples). I also recently encountered Jeff Russell’s job market advice that suggests a one-page CL and a 2-page limit on TS.
    It’s frustrating to try and get a sense of job document norms when they all seem controversial!

    Reply
  23. teaching is tough–too tough?

    I’m a grad student on the market, and I have a lot of teaching experience (as TA and as lecturer at my degree-granting institution as well as others). I’ve had success getting first-round interviews at institutions that really care about their students, and I do think I’m pretty good at teaching (though I admit I have plenty to learn). However, I’m beginning to doubt that I enjoy teaching at all, or that I want to do it for the rest of my career. (This is making interviews tough, where I have to work hard to conjure my former feelings about teaching being rewarding, etc.)
    It’s possible that my doubt and discouragement stem from my current teaching gig (tough to admit, but I dislike many of my students at my current institution, and I actively dread preparing for class, etc.), or from feeling demoralized by students’ dependence on generative AI. (Is there just something about students “these days”?)
    What I’d like to know is how others here feel/have felt about teaching. Have others gone through phases where they actively disliked teaching? Is there light on the other side? Is it worth pushing through? Or am I exhibiting symptoms that mean I should look for something else to do career-wise?

    Reply
  24. Katherina

    Do you have any advise on pursuing interdisciplinary projects in Philosophy? I have discovered that within Philosophy, it seems like interdisciplinary projects are looked down on as “diluting” philosophy, especially in the areas I’m interested in (social science vs “hard” sciences). One of the challenges I am facing is finding a suitable mentor (who is familiar doing both empirical work/research as well as Philosophy). Any advise is much appreciated!

    Reply
  25. Is sitting bad for you?

    This is really a molting-season question, but for those of us who are near, on the cusp of, or just barely past the tenure line, new service asks are showing up.
    I’m particularly curious about folks who have stepped into a chair role at or relatively soon after tenure. Were you able to keep your research productive through that? Did you negotiate anything for accepting the chair role to keep yourself from getting swamped? Other strategies? Advice?

    Reply
  26. Advice

    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.

    Reply
  27. Tenure negotiations

    I will soon be coming up for tenure (yay!). I think I have a good understanding of the process at my university (R1), and confident of my chances. But I know there are unknown unknowns, so my first question is whether anyone tenured wants to share about thoughts about things they wish they knew beforehand.
    But my main questions are about what I can negotiate: Should I expect, for example, to be able to negotiate on salary, research funds, or teaching leave? (What are standard raises like?) Is my ability to negotiate parasitic on having external offers, so that I should plan to apply to certain jobs next year?

    Reply
  28. Anon

    For most searches, does it matter how early an applicant applies? I’ve heard on an APA panel recently that one prof says it looks good to have things in early, whereas another on the panel says they can’t look at any applications until the deadline passes.

    Reply
  29. Freeze city

    Would it be useful to have a post pooling experiences with recent freezes? I’m thinking it might be useful for folks to hear and anonymously share things such as freezes not reported in the news, whether extended offers are being honored, any inside word on when searches might resume, whether offers are being rescinded, that kind of thing.

    Reply
  30. bad writer

    I’m a grad student struggling with writing philosophy. No one in my department has explicitly discouraged me from pursuing this path, but many have pointed out that my writing isn’t where it needs to be, without offering much help in improving it. They engage with the philosophical ideas in my work, which is valuable, but they don’t help with the writing itself.
    I’ve tried various strategies (reading writing guides, books on writing, and even creative writing textbooks), but nothing seems to translate into better philosophical prose. I worry that this is a sign I’m not cut out for this profession.
    Has anyone faced similar struggles and managed to overcome them? Or do those who struggle with writing ultimately not make it in academia? Given how tough the job market is, I wonder if it would be better to accept that and move on.

    Reply
  31. Trying to decide

    I’m an international student recently admitted to a top 10 PhD program in the US that was also my top choice. One thing I’ve been wondering when trying to make my decision is whether the US job market is extra tough for international scholars.
    I know that there’s a fair amount of international scholars working in US institutions. But my personal sense from going over faculty lists is that the ratio of international faculty over faculty is much lower than the ratio of international graduate students over graduate students.
    I’m sure a lot of that difference can be attributed international students willingly going back to their home country, perhaps wanting to pursue an academic career there. Some of it can be attributed to the ratio of international graduate students over graduate students increasing over the years.
    But what I’m wondering is whether there are issues that uniquely or disproportionately affect international students in the US job market. For instance, is having an understandable but very noticeable accent a disadvantage? Do hiring committees worry that international scholars might become homesick and quit?

    Reply
  32. First sabbatical

    I received tenure recently at a research university and am very fortunate to be starting a 12-month sabbatical in July. Because of family circumstances I am not going to relocate during my sabbatical, so I will be working from home, aside from a few conferences. I already know what I will be working on in terms of my actual research projects (primarily, my first book manuscript). But I would love some advice from those who have had a sabbatical already about how to structure my time. As I look ahead at the 15 months I have away from teaching, it seems like so much time. And so I have this feeling I should be able to get all sorts of personal/family projects done too. But I know that time could easily slip away, just like summers did before I got better at managing my time. I would be grateful for advice about how to manage my time each day (did you follow a set schedule? Or track getting certain tasks done each day?). I would also be grateful for advice about managing my time across the months. Did you map out the whole sabbatical month by month in some way? And also some advice about living well during this time when my routine is gone. I’m a little worried I’ll get too much into my own head, which sometimes leads to anxiety for me.

    Reply
  33. Postdoc

    I’d be interested to hear any thoughts about best practices for coauthoring. I’m starting a new position in the fall for which I’ll be expected to coauthor with faculty members on a significant number of papers. I’v coauthored a few times in the past, but the process varied significantly for each one depending on the people involved, the topic of the paper, and the target journal.
    Is it just inevitable that every collaboration is idiosyncratic? Or is there a standard approach for collaborations in philosophy?

    Reply
  34. pre-tenure

    I’ll go up for tenure in a year or so, and I have no idea how I’m supposed to identify who my letter writers ought to be. I’ve heard that it might be a good idea to start “cultivating” them. People who went through this process, how did you pick your potential letter writers, what did you do/say to them (if anything) before your schools asks them to write about you, and is there any way to know who might be able/willing to write positively for you?

    Reply
  35. Is US still good for phds?

    I’m a political philosopher working in the UK. I teach many good master’s students. I used to strongly encourage them to consider applying for programs in the US, as well, there are many good ones that I would have been thrilled to attend myself had I had an offer.
    But I’m not sure whether I should still encourage my students to do so. Of course they are adults who can make up their own minds, but I don’t know, I feel that I want to offer them good advice.

    Reply
  36. Eek

    I resubmitted a paper of mine to a journal, after a round of revisions, back in October. Yesterday, I finally received the verdict of “acceptance with minor revisions” with a few comments from the editors’ that should be easy to accommodate. However, since giving this paper as a job talk, I’ve come to think that a few portions of it should be reframed/rewritten.
    Do people have recommendations for how to approach doing this? The options, as I see them, are to either (1) just go ahead implement the revisions and resubmit the paper with a note or (2) email the editors with (something like) a request for permission to make the changes I want to make. Is one of these approaches likely to be better received?

    Reply
  37. JuniorGrad

    I’m a junior grad student, planning to give a talk about the philosophy of a prominent political philosopher. I emailed him to get feedback on my talk notes, which was critical of his position. He responded with some helpful comments, which I appreciated. But he also seemed to think my own position could be seen as cruel to certain minorities and insensitive of their concerns/problems, and urged me to rethink it. Of course I was horrified, since the theory I suggested was meant to help that very minority. Needless to say I quickly rewrote my paper to make it much clearer that I wasn’t advocating for anything bad, since I evidently didn’t make it clear enough. But now I am worried that he will think of me badly and remember my name in that context, and since he’s prominent in the field, I worry word will get around and I’ll have a bad reputation. Am I overthinking this?

    Reply
  38. ask for a friend

    want to gather wisdom from cocoon on how to handle lack of appreciation.
    Some explanation:
    1. past peers in a field that you left behind and who you perceived as less quality have risen to stardom and received extreme praise from your own chair who does not even know what you are working on
    2. past phd students who were kinda loud bros without matching ideas but who you continued to nourish for 7-8 years are now going to excellent positions (and partly taking credits for your joint work) while you are left behind in a gut.
    3. you work extremely hard on researching and supervising and did well in talks for 15+ years, but none of this culminates to anything (getting 0 job offer)
    ……
    Maybe some readers will doubt whether the above is true. But if it is true, how do you handle this feeling of being defeated and perhaps some mild resentment of successful peers that you feel produce inferior work?

    Reply
  39. Temporary unemployment

    I have managed to secure a job for at least another year, and I am very happy about this. However, my current position finishes at the end of May, and my next position won’t start until September. So, I’ll be unemployed for three months. I’m wondering if anybody has any experience or ideas about kinds of temporary work that might be available to help make this transitionary period a little easier on my finances?

    Reply
  40. Question

    For those who (likely) struck out on the market this year and don’t already have a permanent academic job – what are you going to do now (and why)?

    Reply
  41. Grumpy

    How do you deal with students not showing up for office hours appointments? I feel like the pattern is MUCH worse recently than it has been in the past.
    I find the no-shows are more prevalent for virtual appointments, but it happens for in-person appointments, too. They book an appointment through Google Calendar, and then either don’t show up, or send an email (or RSVP “no”) a minute or two after the appointment is supposed to start.
    How do I communicate that this is extremely rude behavior without coming off as a total grump? I am considering just not taking appointments anymore, and not offering virtual office hours at all. I am tempted to penalize students for no-shows somehow (a point off their participation grade?), as it does hurt their colleagues – although I also worry whether this might be taken as vindictive. FWIW I’m a young female prof.

    Reply
  42. AIruinedeverything

    I’m required to teach a remote asynchronous course this summer. Rather than pretending AI does not exist, I plan to conduct oral exams instead of written assignments (I can administer the exams synchronously). Does anyone have any suggestions about conducting oral exams? FWIW, the students who enroll in this course know it also satisfies a communication requirement.

    Reply
  43. ChastenedAuthor

    Is it acceptable to list serving as a reviewer for a textbook as “service”?
    I would like to mention it, as it seems to support that one has at least a certain standing in the field, but I also don’t really know if it actually does support that.

    Reply

Leave a Reply to EOs GaloreCancel reply

Discover more from The Philosophers' Cocoon

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading