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

  • Tips for moderating a panel discussion?

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

    I’m a graduate student who has been asked to moderate a panel discussion at an upcoming philosophy conference. The organizer has given me guidelines with respect to format and time (brief introductory remarks by each panelist then a moderated discussion then open Q&A), but I am a little unsure about how I should approach my job otherwise. Does anyone who has done this before have any general advice or guidance?

    Great question! Do any readers have helpful tips to share?

    4

  • Bargaining a TT position into a part-time position with a doubled tenure clock?

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

    Someone recently told me they landed a TT job that they bargained to a full rank but part-time position (i.e., the job title remained ‘assistant professor’ but the job was only part-time hours, with double the tenure clock, half the pay, etc). How frequently would this kind of deal be seriously considered?

    I have never heard of anything like this before, and would be stunned if it’s something that a university or department would consider without truly exceptional circumstances.

    Have any readers ever heard of this before? Any insights to share?

    5

  • Thoughts on Asian Journal of Philosophy?

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

    I’ve been seeing more people publish in the asian journal of philosophy. I’m not familiar with this journal, what are people’s impression of it? Is this considered a good generalist journal?

    I have to confess that I wasn’t aware that the Asian Journal of Philosophy is a generalist philosophy journal until now (and I appreciate the heads-up!).

    Any thoughts from readers?

    7

  • Important note: how to ensure anonymous commenting on WordPress

    Several readers have contacted me saying that they intended to comment anonymously on the Cocoon, but their comments displayed their identity anyway. I looked into it and apparently it is a feature of WordPress that if you are signed in to the platform, it automatically displays your identity. Apparently there is also no way for me to turn the feature off–which is yet another frustrating aspect of migrating to this platform (of which there have been many).

    I will post a prominent button linking to this post with the hope of making as many readers as possible aware of this feature. While I can try to keep an eye out for potential cases (and try to anonymize comments before approving them), the problem is that there is no way to know for sure who intends to comment under their own name and who wants to remain anonymous. So, please take care in commenting by logging out of WordPress if you’d like to ensure anonymity!

    1