The Philosophers' Cocoon

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

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  • Tips for TT faculty applying for non-TT jobs?

    In our most recent "how can we help you?" thread, a reader asks:

    Could members of search committees for non-tt positions weigh-in on their reactions when they see an application from someone in a tt position come across their desktop? How much rationale do you care to see in the cover letter as to why such a candidate might be applying too your job? I ask because as someone in a precarious tt position in a red state who has already made cuts (maybe you can guess which one), I am interested in applying to attractive, stable non-tt teaching positions when they pop up; in fact, I've applied to such positions, but have had no luck. So I am looking for tips.

    Good questions. My sense is that some kind of explanation like the above in a cover letter may help.

    What do other readers think?

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  • Helen De Cruz (1978-2025) – Support Helen’s Children After Her Passing

    Many readers may have heard by now the devastating news of Helen De Cruz’s passing.

    Words cannot express the magnitude of this loss. Helen was an incredible philosopher, a truly wonderful person, and a good friend. I spoke to Helen several months ago after learning the seriousness of her prognosis. Her primary concern was for their children’s future, particularly their education, as she and Johan had been depending on their discounted tuition as a faculty member at St. Louis University.
     
    With her blessing, Helen, Johan and I agreed to circulate a GoFundMe on her children’s behalf. Please feel free to share and circulate widely. Eric Schliesser has also posted a beautiful tribute to Helen over at his Substack.
     
    Rest in peace, Helen—you will be missed and remembered by so many. In honor of Helen's life, friendship, and many years of support and contributions to this blog, her books will be featured on the Cocoon's sidebar. Helen's most recent book, Wonderstruck, is a personal favorite of mine – Taylor Carman published a great review of it here.
     
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  • Journal word limits: “notes and references”

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

    This seems like it should be an easy question to answer, but I've had a surprisingly hard time figuring it out. If a journal says submissions should be no longer than 10,000 words, including notes and references, do the "references" here mean in-text references, or the actual reference/bibliography list at the end of the article? It would seem that including the full reference list in the word count would encourage under-citing, which is a problem. The particular journal I have in mind is Mind & Language, which makes this even weirder, since empirical-adjacent journals tend to have papers with more citations.

    It means everything, bibliography included–and yes, it may encourage under-citing. Should journals rethink this kind of requirement, so as to omit bibliographies from word limits?

    What do readers think?

    2

  • Presenting a paper: how many times is too many?

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

    How many times is it normal to present the same paper at conferences/workshops? There are several talks that I have presented twice–both in order to get additional feedback and to network at conferences–and I'm now at the point in my career at which I'm being invited to give lectures at other departments, so I'll likely continue to do so. But I'm wondering at what point, if any, it looks bad/weird on one's CV to keep "milking" the same talk.

    Personally, I don't think people pay too much attention to that part of a CV, but in any case I'm inclined to think that the more salient question is whether continuing to present the paper improves it. That's sort of the point of giving a talk (to get feedback), right?

    What do readers think?

    7