Category Archives: Academia

More on archiving publications

In response to my posting about archiving my papers, Brian Bruya and I had a bit of correspondence about the differences among home-grown archive sites (like the “WesScholar” site I am using) and others, such as Academia.edu, ResearchGate, PhilPapers, and perhaps others. Brian also pointed me toward this very interesting discussion of the pros- and cons- of various options. Just a couple days ago, a colleague in anthropology told me that in her field, it was very common to post everything — including PDFs of published articles, which I think violates the policies of most journals — on Academia.edu. The advantages in terms of ease of access are pretty obvious, although see the discussion referenced above for some downsides of just using Academia (or, perhaps, any single approach).

Brian himself uses a homegrown arching mechanism, as does Hagop Sarkissian:

I’d be interested in: (1) links to any other on-line sources of work in Chinese and/or comparative philosophy, and (2) any further thoughts about these topics.

Op-Ed in LA Times

Eric Schwitzgebel has published an Op-Ed in the LA Times entitled “What’s Missing in College Philosophy Classes? Chinese Philosophers.” If you are interested in more details about this subject, be sure to look at Brian Bruya’s article in the latest issue of Dao, “The Tacit Rejection of Multiculturalism in American Philosophy Ph.D. Programs: The Case of Chinese Philosophy.”

Job Opportunity: Assistant Professor of Buddhism at Oregon State University

Dear Colleagues,The School of History, Philosophy, and Religion at Oregon State University in Corvallis, Oregon invites applications from specialists in Buddhist Studies (Asian Buddhism) for a full-time tenure-track appointment at the Assistant Professor level, effective September 16, 2016. Teaching responsibilities are five courses per academic year.

Continue reading →

CFP/CFA: ACPA group meeting at 2016 Pacific APA

Call for Papers and Abstracts:  ACPA at 2016 Pacific APA
Submission deadline:  September 14, 2015
Association of Chinese Philosophers in North America (ACPA) Group Meeting at the 2016 Pacific Division Meeting of the American Philosophical Association (APA)
March 30, 2016 – April 3, 2016 at the Westin St. Francis Hotel, San Francisco CA.

Continue reading →

New Chinese Philosophy Postdoc Opportunity at Michigan

Funded by the Tang Junyi Lecture Fund and administered by the Department of Asian Languages & Cultures (ALC) and the Lieberthal-Rogel Center for Chinese Studies (LRCCS) at the University of Michigan, the Tang Junyi Postdoctoral Fellowship is open to scholars conducting well-designed research and writing projects on Chinese philosophy. One (1) fellow will be selected.

Eligibility:

– Research topics can cover any aspect of Chinese philosophy and philosophical thought.

– Candidates must be able to provide evidence of successful completion of their PhD degree by June of the year of appointment and may not be more than seven (7) years beyond receipt of the PhD.

– Applicants who do not have native command of English must include the date and score of the most recent TOEFL examination or other evidence of proficiency in English (such as a degree from a US university or a letter from an academic advisor).

Continue reading →

Academic Book Costs

Given the energetic interest (e.g. here, recently) in academic book prices that are clearly pitched to institutional library collections and not for the average disposable income of individuals, I thought perhaps we could discuss this in a separate post and if we’re lucky, some of the blog readers who are in the publishing end could weigh in. At the very least, it might provide a forum in which to find out what goes into the decision to print a hardcover, library volume exclusively — I suppose something more illuminating than “there isn’t a market big enough for a softcover printing” would be nice. Comments from all sides are welcome.

Please keep comments civil — I know there is frustration out there but it may be constructive not to rage against the machine in this context.

New Blog on Being an Asian in Philosophy

Readers may be interested in this new blog:

This blog contains narratives of personal experiences, submitted by readers, of life in philosophy as a person of color. Some of these stories will undoubtedly be accounts of racial bias, whether explicit, unconscious, or institutional. However, other posts will be accounts of progress being undertaken or achieved.

This is a project of several philosophers of all colors, moderated by a group of philosophy faculty from a variety of institutions. It is partly inspired by the thoughtful conversations that grew up around the blog What is it Like to be a Woman in Philosophy.

We invite everyone to contribute. Many posts will be written by people of color in philosophy. But we hope that not all will be.

We plan to post a new story every day or as they are submitted. Please click on the ‘Send a Story’ link to submit a story anonymously.

CHE Article: “The Toxic History of Philosophy’s Racism”

I thought this article in the Chronicle of Higher Education may be of interest to readers of the blog (even while I am in no position to evaluate the historical claims made). Some highlights:

A particular weakness of many humanities canons remains their scant or nonexistent attention to material outside of Europe and North America, their historical dismissal of South Asian, East Asian, and African achievement due to ignorance and condescending Orientalism. Although philosophy is probably the worst among humanities disciplines in this respect, it’s hardly alone..

Continue reading →

Schwitzgebel’s Post about non-Western Philosophy and Mainstream Neglect

Over on his blog, The Splintered Mind, Eric Schwitzgebel wonders:

Why Don’t We* Know Our Chinese Philosophy?

(* “we” U.S.-based philosophy professors)

In 2001, I published a piece in the American Philosophical Association’s Newsletter on the Status of Asian & Asian-American Philosophers & Philosophies. In light of my recent reflections about the visibility of non-Western philosophy and philosophers, and especially this remarkable piece from an Asian-American who left philosophy, I thought I’d reproduce a revised version of the essay here. I’ve appended two new substantive notes at the end.

[Read his full post over on Splintered Mind. Discussion comments are welcome there or here.]