The Philosophers' Cocoon

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

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  • Grappling with the shortage of highly regarded philosophy of religion journals?

    In our November “how can we help you?” thread, a reader writes:

    I find it pretty frustrating that there are relatively few journals that publish philosophy of religion, and only few of those are highly regarded. If a paper is rejected from Faith and Philosophy, you have one more shot at Religious Studies, and then it’s down to the lower-tier journals.

    Aside from them, Oxford Studies only takes like 10 articles once in two years, and the “generalist” journals seem to desk-reject almost everything that isn’t heavily in a “core” area of philosophy and instead primarily in philosophy of religion.

    One thing that’s frustrating is that getting unlucky with a bad reviewer can almost doom a manuscript in philosophy of religion, whereas in “generalist” philosophy you have about 15 more tries until you need to try with less prestigious journals.

    A second thing is that unless someone goes for lower-ranked journals just for the sake of variety, a CV in philosophy of religion will just have a long list of publications in Faith and Philosophy and Religious Studies, and an occasional one in Oxford Studies. I feel like this looks weird.

    Does someone have advice for dealing with this, or a different outlook?

    Not sure–though I suspect some other philosophical specializations may be similar.

    Does anyone have any helpful tips for the OP?

    22

  • How to address loss of an academic job on the market because of a university’s financial crisis?

    In our November “how can we help you?” thread, a reader writes:

    My appointment as a tenure track assistant professor was recently terminated. This was not for cause or otherwise poor performance but simply because of a severe financial crisis at my school. How should I address this as I apply for other jobs, including tenure track academic jobs, non-tenure track academic jobs, and non-academic jobs? Members of upper administration have offered to write letters of recommendation that address my employment and provide context for my termination. Most applications request three or four letters, but those spots are already accounted for by other letters about my research and teaching. How should I incorporate the new letter(s) from administration into my applications without sacrificing my other letters?

    I’m so sorry to hear this happened to the OP. Personally, I’m inclined to think that just mentioning it in their cover letter is probably enough. They could even list contact information for an administrator if search committees wanted to confirm, I suppose. But I don’t think recommendation letters are necessary.

    What do other readers think?

    4

  • How much time to devote to job apps?

    In our newest “how can we help you?” thread, a reader writes:

    I’m applying very widely for jobs this cycle. I feel like all my time is going to this and I’m just barely getting by teaching-research-and side gig wise. How much time should I be spending on preparing an application on average?

    I empathize with the OP, as I remember spending a ridiculous time on job apps in my many years on the market. Unfortunately, my sense is that tailored job apps (particularly cover letters) probably have a better chance than non-tailored ones. But I also suspect this may be more true for jobs at teaching-focused institutions compared to research jobs (where people will probably pay most attention to your publication list, writing sample, and recommendation letters). Anyway, if the OP is looking to dial things back a bit, then I might suggest focusing on tailoring materials for jobs they seem to be an especially good fit for. But this isn’t exactly what the OP asked…

    So, how much time do people spend on job apps? How much time should the OP?

    5

  • Australian Catholic University’s litany of job ads … after laying a litany of people off?

    In our job-market discussion thread, an anonymous reader asks:

    What’s up with Australian Catholic University posting so many ads for permanent positions? Didn’t they just lay off a bunch a faculty after having hired them only a few years before? Do they think we have no memory?

    These are good questions. I don’t know all of the details about ACU’s layoffs a few years back, but I do know they happened, as I am social media friends with number of philosophers who were there for just a few years who did lose their jobs.

    Do any readers have any helpful insights to share?

    7