There’s a post up on this over at NewAPPS; go check it out!
“Academia’s indentured servants” April 18, 2013
It is hard to know which parts of “Academia’s indentured servants” posted on 
Aljazeera, and written by Sarah Kendzior, to quote because I find the whole thing so quotable. So here are a couple of important bits that I hope will encourage you to read it all.
On April 8, 2013, the New York Timesreported that 76 percent of American university faculty are adjunct professors – an all-time high. Unlike tenured faculty, whose annual salaries can top $160,000, adjunct professors make an average of $2,700 per course and receive no health care or other benefits.
and
On Twitter, I wondered why so many professors who study injustice ignore the plight of their peers. “They don’t consider us their peers,” the adjuncts wrote back. Academia likes to think of itself as a meritocracy - which it is not - and those who have tenured jobs like to think they deserved them. They probably do – but with hundreds of applications per available position, an awful lot of deserving candidates have defaulted to the adjunct track.
Reader query: rules for classroom discussion? April 6, 2013
A reader requested some discussion of how best to run seminars in such as way as to make female students feel maximally comfortable. Are there any “rules” that people mention to the students, beyond the usual suspects (let people finish talking, don’t dominate the discussion, be charitable etc.) Or any other tips and tricks?
Filling in the gaps March 28, 2013
There’s a nice follow-up from Peter Adamson on the women-shaped gaps in his history of philosophy podcasts.
Go check it out, here.
A Terrific Resource For Including Women Philosophers in Your Syllabi February 8, 2013
As part of their “Seeing Herself as a Philosopher” project, Cynthia Townley, Mitch Parsell and Albert Atkin have created a terrific database of works by women philosophers for use in undergraduate teaching.
Womens Works‘ creators report that they were inspired to create the site
by the realisation that women philosophers are much less visible in the undergraduate curriculum than they need to be, and in many cases, appropriate and interesting work by women is available. The site aims to make it easy to identify potential work by women to use for teaching.
Check it out!
(Thanks, S.)
Recommended readings for module on distributive justice December 14, 2012
I’m putting together my reading list for next term’s module on distributive justice, and aiming that it NOT be a total sausage fest. I’m finding it surprisingly easy – so many great women political philosophers!
There are two topics I (and perhaps other interested readers?) would really benefit from reading recommendations on:
a) prioritarian principles (either arguing for or being critical of them), and
b) so called left-libertarianism. Any ideas?
Women and the History of Analytic Philosophy December 5, 2012
I will be teaching a new (for me) upper-level History of Analytic Philosophy course in the spring. I’d like to make sure I have some works by women philosophers, including feminist philosophers if possible, on my reading list. Could our readers lend me their expertise and make some suggestions? Some of the topics I plan to cover are listed below, though I’m entirely open to additions or revisions:
Moore on epistemology and analysis
Russell on logic and language
Wittgenstein’s Tractatus
Logical Positivism
(Btw, I’ve already thought of Marie McGinn and/or Cora Diamond for the Wittgenstein stuff.)
Your suggestions are much appreciated!
Teaching evaluations December 3, 2012
A reader writes:
There is ample evidence that implicit bias skews course evaluations to the disadvantage of minorities and women–particularly unattractive women. Some time back I recall someone at this site remarked that she was told that the surest way to improve one’s evaluations was to lose 20 pounds. And it’s true.
Course evaluations are mandatory at my university and the plan now is to switch to online evaluations the results of which will go directly to administrators. Currently in my department at least tenured faculty don’t have to submit evaluations to their chair or other administrators. I never have.
I’d like to (1) compare notes about policies at other universities regarding course evaluations and (2) make the case that this use of evaluations should be resisted. It is a plain empirical fact that assessing women on the basis of evaluations puts us at a disadvantage–particularly if we’re unattractive.
I hope someone at this site can write on this. Setting up what is in effect a university-sponsored ratemyprofessor.com is detrimental to the interests of women, minorities, and unattractive people in the profession, it sends the message to students that going over instructors’ heads to the bosses is appropriate behavior, and it undermines the professional autonomy of all faculty.
This seems an excellent topic to discuss. Do put your thoughts in comments!
Reader query: Feminist Philosophy Syllabi? November 15, 2012
We’ve just had a request for feminist philosophy syllabi. If you’ve got any online that you’re willing to share, it would be lovely if you could post links in the comments. Thanks!
Reader query: women and sport November 8, 2012
A reader writes:
I’m teaching a “Sport and Gender” course for Women’s and Gender Studies in the spring semester and am gathering suggestions for readings. Any help you could offer would be great.
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