January 2010
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Writers of Letters of Recommendations for Job Candidates: You Are Probably Well-Advised to Include Comparisons
That's the takeaway it seems from our poll the other day: with not quite 400 responses, nearly 75% of respondents are positively disposed to such comparisons, with fully 19% thinking they are "essential in evaluating the strength of the recommendation" and 36% deeming them "useful but not essential." If one out of five philosophers think…
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Philosopher’s Article on Wheaton College and Its Religious Identity Stirs Controversy
Story here. The philosopher in question is Kant scholar Andrew Chignell (Cornell), himself a Wheaton alumnus. (Thanks to Kevin Elliott for calling this to my attention.)
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Anti-Gay Bigots Never Rest
No surprise, I guess, though one might have thought they'd be a tad self-conscious about how lame their "arguments" are. (Thanks to several readers for the pointer to this one.) UPDATE: A reader tells me someone using the name 'brian' is posting on that thread; needless to say, it is not me. UPDATE 1/26: A reader points out that the…
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“So that poor and working people may lead lives of decency and dignity”
Cornel West's video message for President Obama. He may bea naricissist–there's an element of that in even this video–but I'd gladly swap him for Obama in the White House.
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Pacific APA *May* be Moving Out of San Francisco Due to Labor Dispute
More information here. If you have not yet bought plane tickets, it might be prudent to see what develops in the next 7-10 days before making arrangements.
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Spitzer from USC to Texas
Matthew L. Spitzer, holder of the Packard Trustee Chair in Law at the University of Southern California, and also Professor of Law and Social Science at the California Institute of Technology, has accepted a senior offer from the law school at the University of Texas at Austin. He is a leading scholar in law and…
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42% of Kids in Capitalist America Wish for “Money” or “Possessions”…
MOVING TO FRONT FROM JANUARY 20–SEE 2ND UPDATE …8% wish for a "better world." E-mail me if you know of comparable surveys from other countries. I am curious whether this is an artifact of some of the extremities of American culture, or something else. UPDATE: Reader Jonathan Hunter fairly points out that, "at least one of the…
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Comparative Judgments in Letters of Reference: A Poll
There is a modest sentiment emerging from the small number of commenters on the other thread against statements in letters of reference of the form, "X is one of our three best students in the last ten years" or "X's work is as good as the work Professor Y at Stanford and Professor Z at Wisconsin" and so…
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Tenure and Promotion Timelines at 41 Law Schools
Readers thinking about careers in law teaching might find this information useful and interesting. UPDATE: I'm told by a colleague at Rutgers-Camden that the information about that school at the linked site is not accurate.
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What about the fees for other AALS Meetings?
Ann Laquer Estin (Iowa) writes, raising an issue noted by others: Thanks for taking up the AALS registration fee issue. What about the comparably huge fees for the AALS midyear meetings? Call me an idealist, but I think those more substantive conferences are especially important to make readily available to faculty at all levels. I…
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Signs of the Apocalypse, Part 314
A Republican has been elected to the Senate in the most Democratic state in the nation, Massachussetts, to fill the seat of one of the most liberal Senators, the late Ted Kennedy. This scathing commentary before the victory (but with the catastrophe in sight) sums things up pretty well. (Mr. Stewart fails to recognize, however,…
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Research Impact Measures in the UK: No Need to Worry, the Tories Will Get Rid of Them
John Gardner (Oxford), who notes pointedly that he is "still a Labour voter in spite of everything," writes: You say that the idea of impact measurement for research funding is' gaining ground in the UK'. Only it isn't. It's a twitching corpse. At the 2010 election the Tories will win, unless that huckster Cameron is exposed as…
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Angry about the AALS Fee and Salary Issues We’ve Been Covering?
A reader points out that some may wish to voice their concerns directly to the AALS Executive Committee about these issues; he kindly supplies the pertinent information: Members of the Executive Committee: Michael A. Olivas, University of Houston Law Center molivas@uh.edu Dorothy Andrea Brown, Emory University School of Law dorothy.brown@emory.edu Ann C.…
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Confucius: The Movie (MOVING TO FRONT from JAN. 12)
Move over "Avatar". 1/19 UPDATE: Turns out I was right! (Thanks to Manyul lm for spotting this.)
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Do PhD Admissions Committees “Google” Applicants?
A student applying to PhD programs writes: I follow your blog, and I thought of a potentially useful topic for applicants to graduate schools. It is commonly believed (or at least feared) that Internet activity can influence one's chances of getting jobs and into colleges. Is it really a common practice for admissions people to…
Georgy Maksimovich pointed me to this article in Russian: https://novayagazeta.ru/articles/2026/05/25/antisovetskie-filosofskie-kontratseptsii