October 2025
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In Memoriam: Thomas Carbonneau (1950-2025)
Professor Carbonneau was a leading expert on arbitration–domestic, comparative, and international–and taught for many years at Tulane University and, most recently, at Pennsylvania State University. There is an obituary here.
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Today in authoritarian America: Pentagon training National Guard to manage “civil unrest”
The “civil unrest” will, of course, be created by Trump and his fascist minions, no doubt to coincide with the 2026 elections.
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More on UT Austin
Following up on this, CHE has run an interview with the new Provost, who is conservative, but anti-Trump. I would say the interview is somewhat hopeful for UT Austin and its faculty, especially because the Provost indicates he has read and appreciated my former Texas colleague David Rabban’s authoritative treatment of academic freedom under the…
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“Businesses have a moral responsibility to stand up to autocracy”
So argues philosopher David Silver (UBC). My sense, alas, is that Marx and Milton Friedman were right: business under capitalism only recognizes “moral” responsibilities that are profitable. I would love to be wrong!
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Another piece on UChicago’s financial difficulties
This one, by two non-UChicago faculty, is more factually accurate than the Ando intervention, but it still makes a very serious mistake: the Board of Trustees (BOT) played no real role in the financial decisions that produced the current economic mess. They were decisions taken by the President, Robert Zimmer (approved by the BOT), an…
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Federal judge reads ICE’s Greg Bovino “the riot act” (as it were) (UPDATED)
Thank God for federal judges doing their jobs, and reining in the lawless ICE officers. 11/1/25 UPDATE: The 7th Circuit has stayed the requirement that Mr. Bovino report daily to the judge, but left the other aspects of the district court’s order in place. May not be wrong on the legal merits, but it is…
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What is it like to be a philosopher? Shaun Gallagher edition
Courtesy of Clifford Sosis.
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How Trump will steal the 2026 elections (and 2028, of course)
Perfectly plausible scenario.
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H1-B visas and the $100,000 fee: the latest
CHE reports: Student-visa holders and others who switch their legal status within the United States won’t have to pay a new $100,000 fee on skilled-worker visas. Guidance issued…by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security clarified that international graduates of American colleges will be exempt from the fee imposed by the Trump administration. Both higher-education and employer…
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More trouble afoot at UT Austin
Psychology professor Art Markman has been removed from an administrative position due to “ideological differences” with University leadership, which now consists in a President with no academic background, and a Provost who does have academic credentials, but whose primary qualification appears to be his conservative bona fides. Contrary to some reporting, academic freedom does not…
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What do you need to find out now that you’ve gotten a tenure-track offer?
MOVING TO FRONT, SINCE SCHOOLS ARE MAKING OFFERS (ORIGINALLY POSTED NOVEMBER 24, 2009–I HAVE UPDATED CERTAIN NUMBERS)–SEE ALSO THE COMMENTS, WHICH HAVE HELPFUL ADDITIONAL SUGGESTIONS With luck, some of you seeking law teaching jobs will have gotten offers of tenure-track positions. What then? Here’s roughly what I tell the Chicago job candidates we work with…
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In the 1960s, political persecution of radical political groups by the FBI was kept under wraps…
…but now it is out in the open.
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Are the latest “tariffs” on Canada legal? Of course not
Law professor Paul Horwitz comments.
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10th annual meeting of the International Society for Nietzsche Studies: Bonn, September 2026
The new “call for papers” is here: submissions are due March 31, 2026. Our first meeting was in Bonn, so we are happy to return, now that ISNS has established itself as the premier forum for philosophically serious work on Nietzsche.
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Hiring departments: make your application process Interfolio friendly!
Some jobs still require individual submission of letters of recommendation, sometimes accompanied by absurd check-lists (the candidate is in “the top 1%” of…whatever). No doubt these are requirements imposed by university bureaucrats. Departments: tell your bureaucrats that this imposes a huge cost on faculty, and probably results in some letters never being submitted at all!
I wonder if LLMs training on your work increases the chances of your work being falsely flagged by AI-detectors as…