Issues in the profession
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Nottingham faculty protesting proposed bloodbath
A philosopher at the University of Nottingham calls my attention to this: He summarizes the situation as follows: – the removal of just over 600 FTE posts, if necessary through compulsory redundancy in January 2027 (that’s around 50% of academics in arts). – local union (UoNUCU) has declared a Marking and Assessment Boycott (MAB) starting on the…
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Another blow for American universities trying to recruit and enroll foreign students
From CHE: The [new Trump Administratin] guidance, which is expected to be released any day, would make visas valid for four years or the anticipated length of a student’s degree — whichever is shorter. Students in longer programs like doctorates would have to apply for an extension to finish their studies. It’s a shift from…
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How is your school responding to the “Canvas” security breach by hackers?
Most academic readers will have heard of this fiasco. How is it affecting grades, finals, etc.? Is your administration expecting instructors to carry on as though nothing happened? You can post anonymously, but please include a valid university email address (which will not appear).
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A philosopher takes on the “pedagogy experts”
Paul Schofield (Bates) makes the case against them at CHE. (Thanks to Brian Skyrms for the pointer.) UPDATE: Philosopher Benjamin Mitchell-Yellin writes: As both a tenured philosophy professor and director of a teaching and learning center, I read Paul Schofield’s recent CHE piece, “Why Pedagogy ‘Experts’ Are Wrong,” with great interest when I saw it…
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Virtual APA, redux
Pacific APA Program Chair Colin Marshall reflects on the recent virtual APA, which may prove to be the last. Curious what readers who attend APA meetings more than I do think about all this.
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More on PhD admissions: waiting lists etc.
Some apt advice from philosopher Eric Schwitzgebel.
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LLMs and graduate education in philosophy
A philosopher elsewhere (who does more formal work) writes: [S]ince publicly available LLMs significantly reduce a lot of mechanical writing labor (great example: those who write in LaTeX needn’t spend hours and hours trying to code a complicated diagram, since even the medium-grade LLMs do it quickly and, with minimal back and forth, fairly accurately),…
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HTML or PDFs online?
MOVING TO FRONT FROM MARCH 19–SEE REPLY FROM OUP PHILOSOPHY EDITOR HENRY CLARKE IN THE COMMENTS Philosopher and logician Volker Halbach writes: Oxford University Press recently told me that “it appears that we no longer make individual pdfs of our works available for sale, as digital rights management is extremely challenging for that format.” Generally,…
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No wonder you’re paranoid, everyone really is out to get you
Philosopher Alex Byrne recounts a curious experience with a book review that was rejected by NDPR. I’ve been on the editorial board of NDPR from the beginning (25 yeras now!), and I think the current editor, Chris Shields, has done an admirable job. But Shields and his precedecessors almost never overrode the recommendations of members…
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Indemnification clauses in book contracts?
Philosopher Mark Navin writes: I just walked away from a book contract with Routledge over an indemnity clause. What do you think is going on with these clauses? Routledge recently approached me to write a second edition of my vaccine ethics book (Values and Vaccine Refusal). The contract contained an indemnity clause (Clause 14.2, pasted…
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Information about jobs in Asia?
Following up on this post, readers might also benefit from information about how to find out what jobs are available in Asia. It might also be useful to hear about the state of academic freedom in the various Asian countries for which there is job market information, especially China (which continues to invest in higher…
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New in online scams: “book clubs” that want to feature your recently published academic book (UPDATED)
I received the following regarding my new book: From: Heather Podruchny <info.sf.bestseller.book.club@gmail.com>Sent: Sunday, March 8, 2026 5:56 PMTo: Brian Leiter <bleiter@uchicago.edu>Subject: Invitation: Analyzing the “Realist Point of View” with the SF Bestseller Book Club Dear Brian Leiter, I hope this finds you well. My name is Heather Podruchny, and I’m the organizer of the SF…
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Limits on article submissions during a specified time period?
A reader calls to my attention the policy at Mind: “No more than one article may be submitted by any corresponding author during any twelve-month period.” This apparently includes articles that get desk-rejected fairly quickly. I can understand the reasons for such a policy, but I wonder (1) whether readers think they are justified? and…
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Texas has paused H-1B visas at its public universities (and agencies), and Florida appears poised to do the same
This will be very bad for the public universities in these states. According to the preceding CHE article, the University of Florida had 131 such visas approved just in 2025; Texas A&M had 121 and UT Soutwestern (a major medical research center in Dallas) had 119. Any university strong in the natural and biological sciences…
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Reflections on the academic career of a married couple
Interesting reflections from Rachel Laudan about her and Larry Laudan’s career and intellectual work. I had the good fortune to get to know them both when I worked in Austin, and to visit with them later in Mexico. I still remember the day Larry came to my office to introduce himself, and I said, “I…
David J. Gunkel «Person, Thing, Robot: A Moral and Legal Ontology for the 21st Century and Beyond» (MIT, 2023) Link:…