The Philosophers' Cocoon

A safe and supportive forum for philosophers.

Owned & Moderated by Marcus Arvan (University of Tampa)

Contact: marvan@ut.edu

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Job-Market Reporting Thread (2026-27)
Job-Market Discussion Thread (2026-27)

  1. Just saw that there’s a new editorial assistant at AJP. Is this related to what Anonymous of Oct. 10 says…

  2. I have some courses I’ve taught many, many times. With those, every time I teach it I try to pick…

  3. I have had two very different tenured jobs: one at a typical 4 year state college, and one at a…

  4. Does anyone know anything about delays at Mind and Language? I have had a paper under review for 18 months,…

  5. I do a mix. I usually teach the same classes each year (but they’re diverse, some in my aos and…

recent posts

about

  • Should CVs flag publications that are part of a special issue, etc.?

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

    Is it okay to list a publication in a journal without noting that it’s in a special issue or special edition or symposium (but still peer-reviewed)? I realize that doing so is less than fully revealing about the pub, and that in asking the question here I’m calling attention to that fact, perhaps thereby inviting a more disapproving response. But I ask folks to please try to look past that, and just imagine seeing it listed as a publication in that journal (on a CV or website), and then later learning, through some other means, that it was in a special edition. Would you then judge the author as deceptive or shady, even if the piece was fully peer-reviewed and accepted by the journal?

    Thoughts from readers?

    12

  • Visiting other institutions while dissertating (after one’s supervisor leaves for another university)?

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

    I’m a graduate student whose supervisor recently left the university. I’m done my coursework and working on my dissertation, and due to an okay funding situation for a few more years, am thinking of doing visiting semesters at a few places. Is spending a semester here and there working with people at other institutions, especially more prestigious ones, particularly helpful to have on one’s CV? Do people even care – if you did your PhD in a top 20-30 PGR program, which hiring data seems to suggest might hurt you compared to the top programs, does having these visiting semesters help on the job market?

    Needless to say, I do plan on doing one or two visits to work with some people whose work I find very interesting. I’m just curious about the job market impact/CV.

    This seems to me like it could be worth doing. I’m also curious whether the person’s supervisor is still supervising them after leaving their program (I would hope so, but I’m not sure what the norms are in situations like these).

    Do any readers have helpful experiences or insights to share with the OP?

    4

  • PhD dept. prestige and hiring in the US & UK

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

    I’d like to know the extent to which the prestige of one’s PhD-granting institution (or even master’s or undergrad) affects hiring in the very top UK and US universities. I struggle to find examples of people graduating from less prestigious universities getting postdocs or jobs at these more prestigious universities. This is unfortunate in the UK in particular, as even if you get accepted into a more prestigious university, funding is rare and some cannot self-fund. Would people who have sat on hiring committees have any insights or impressions on this matter?

    The late Helen De Cruz (R.I.P.) published some good work on this in 2018. As discussed here in 2020, there do seem to be pretty serious prestige effects across the academy:

    • Eric Schwitzgebel found in 2019 that elite philosophy PhD programs mostly admit students from elite undergrad institutions, and that only 11% of students in the elite PhD programs he studied were from institutions not nationally ranked in US News & World Report.
    • Helen De Cruz found in 2018 that philosophy PhDs from low-ranked departments rarely secure employment in high-ranked departments.
    • This 2015 study found steeply hierarchical inequality in faculty hiring across three disciplines, with just a quarter of all universities accounting for 71 to 86 percent of all tenure-track faculty in the U.S. and Canada. The study also found that “18 elite universities produce half of all computer science professors, 16 schools produce half of all business professors, and eight schools account for half of all history professors.”

    That said, I am sure there are exceptions. Are any search committee members able to weigh in to share helpful insights?

    9

  • Job market reporting thread (2026-27)

    Now that it’s late September, some job application deadlines have already passed and apparently some interview invitations have been extended, I’d like to launch this season’s job-market reporting thread.

    For those of you new to this, each year the Cocoon has two different job-market threads: one for job market discussion/commiseration, and another for reporting job-market news (interviews, on-campus invites, offers, rejections, etc.). As noted in previous years, the reason the Cocoon has two threads is simple: some people only want to discuss/commiserate but not hear about interviews, offers, etc., other people only want news, and other people still want both!

    So, please feel free to bookmark or otherwise follow this thread throughout the job season (this fall and next spring), and post any news you have! Also, please do feel free to report on news for jobs in other departments that philosophers can be expected to apply to (political theory jobs in political science departments, AI-ethics jobs in interdisciplinary departments, etc.). Just make sure you specify the institution and department so that other readers and commentators don’t confuse them with jobs in philosophy departments.

    Two quick reminders:

    1. This thread is only for reporting news on the market (i.e. reporting interviews, flyouts, offers, hires, and so on), so please, report away! If you would like to discuss the job-market, please comment on the discussion thread.
    2. Please adhere to the convention of beginning comments with a tag (e.g. “QUERY”, “UPDATE”) so that other readers can easily search the page for the type of comments they are most interested in. 

    Permalinks to both job threads will remain on the right side-bar of the blog through the end of the job season. Because of Typepad’s functionality limitations (which only permits 100 comments before starting a new comment page), readers may elect to bookmark each new page of comments as each new page emerges. I recognize that it can be frustrating to scroll through page after page to get to new comments, and I think this is probably the best solution given Typepad’s functionality limitations.

    Finally, commenters are asked to please remember and abide by the Cocoon’s supportive mission while reporting. Thanks, and best of luck to all on the market!

    17