The university I have taught at for thirty years (!) does not have PhD programs (except in sciences and music, for various historical reasons). Over the years, though, I have been asked to serve as an external member on PhD committees of, or even co-supervise, quite a number of students whose home department did not have sufficient expertise in their desired area of research. Since 2004, 18 such folks have successfully defended their dissertations, and I thought it might possibly be interesting to share the range of disciplines:

• Philosophy = 4
• Political Theory = 6
• Religion = 3
• Asian Studies / Chinese = 5

To some degree, of course, this is going to reflect my idiosyncratic interests. But I found myself wondering if the breakdown here points to anything more general. Are fewer people studying topics related to Confucianism in philosophy departments than in political theory or Asian studies? Or are political theory programs less likely than others to be able to support a dissertation on a Confucian topic without external help? Or … but rather than continuing to speculate by myself, I thought I’d open this up to see whether you all out there have ideas.

I am happy to share this announcement from Martin Pickavé, Chair of the University of Toronto’s Department of Philosophy:

Chris Fraser (http://cjfraser.net), a well-known specialist in classical Chinese philosophy and comparative philosophy, who is currently Professor and Chair of the Department of Philosophy at the University of Hong Kong, will move to the University of Toronto in July 2021. At Toronto, Professor Fraser will be the Richard Charles & Esther Yewpick Lee Chair in Chinese Thought and Culture. His main appointment will be in the Department of Philosophy, but he will also hold a cross-appointment in East Asian Studies.

Philip J. Ivanhoe, a leading senior scholar of Chinese and East Asian philosophy, has been appointed Chair of the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures at Georgetown University, starting 1 July 2020. Ivanhoe is currently teaching at Sungkyunkwan University, where he is Distinguished Chair Professor and Director of the Sungkyun Institute for Confucian Studies and East Asian Philosophy.