Evolving Thoughts

Jobs for philosophers

The incredibly baroque, elite and Nortamericano-centrist Jobs for Philosophers [accessible by members only here] is being replaced by a free, online and internationally available website: phylo: Job Openings in Philosophy. So far, there are 62 positions advertised in just a few weeks.

The Eastern Division of the American Philosophical Association has for years run interviews for prospective philosophers, especially of those who are close to finishing their dissertations. [The US system is curious and different to elsewhere. In the Rest of the World, one finishes one’s PhD or equivalent and then goes looking for a job. In the US one finishes the class component and is classified as All But Dissertation (ABD) – the most important part of a PhD in the RotW, and in some cases like mine, the only component – and applies for jobs accompanied by a letter from your advisor that you will, indeed, finish your thesis).]

These meetings are held in cold places at the worst time of the year – between Christmas and New Year. They are (by report) hasty, arbitrary, and occasionally inappropriate, and always on the East Coast of the US. To apply for jobs you need to be a member of the APA, no matter where you are from in the RotW, in order to receive a copy of their (paper, just now online) publication advertising the jobs (unless you know someone who is a member). By default, this was the main source of Anglophonic philosophical employment.

But, as Leiter has discussed*, more and more departments even in the Eastern APA catchment are interviewing distant candidates by Skype, and so advertising through JfP and travelling to Boston or wherever is no longer necessary. Hence phylo.

The next step is for departments in the RotW to advertise there as a matter of course. I would even suggest a moderate fee per position (say $10?) to ensure that the site is maintained indefinitely. There are sites like the jobs.ac.uk site that list all academic positions in Britain and the European context, but this has the potential to improve employment communication in philosophy on its own. This can only be to the benefit of the profession, which contrary to New England assumptions is an international enterprise

I understand that the Eastern APA system developed in a period in which travel was easier than telecommunications, and the meet was a central fixture of every department’s calendar. In case nobody’s noticed, Things Have Changed.

* See also here, here and here for postings relating to the APA and employment in the US.

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Comments (5)

  1. Yes, JFP could at minimum use some competition, or approximately-complete alternatives.

    Things have indeed changed, and I don’t want to stick up for the APA or JFP per se, but it’s worth remembering as context that the JFP was created not all that long ago primarily as an anti-elitist project. Barely one academic generation ago, jobs weren’t advertised at all, and were gotten through some version of “Hello, old buddy, have you got a position there for young John?” JFP was designed to eliminate that (I am told, as I am not old enough to remember.)

    Also, at least in the US context, JFP currently serves a couple functions not yet implemented in the Phylo listings, and requiring a little more effort than running a wiki does. APA screens—and in some cases I think rejects—ads for institutions that discriminate in hiring (e.g. against gay faculty), and it flags ads for institutions censured by the American Assn of University Professors as guilty of academic-freedom-infringing conduct, noting the details of the censures.

  2. … and applies for jobs accompanied by a letter from your advisor that you will, indeed, finish your thesis

    I don’t know about philosophy. In the fields where I am familiar with hiring practices, you would not get that letter from the adviser unless the major work on the thesis had already been completed.

    These meetings are held in cold places at the worst time of the year

    I’m pretty sure that’s because hotel rates are lowest in those places at those times.

  3. Have you tried Craigslist? Something like, “Will philoshophize. No job too big or too small.” You know, cut out the middle-man and work for yourself. That’s where the big money is. I’m pretty sure, anyway.

    1. When I was young I was a printer, so of course I printed my own cards. They read something like “John Wilkins, person extraordinaire. Dragons slain, crises averted, antinomies resolved.

      I never got a dime from that, nor did I get laid…

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