Phil ABD is my first foray into the so-called 'soap opera' genre of strips.(Click the pic to enlarge)
--STBJD
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It'd be funny if it were happening to someone else.
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23 comments:
uh...
Well, I enjoy the introduction of Mary Worth as a sort of absurdist non sequitur.
But assuming the monocled monkey is faculty and our familiar robot is the ABD ... this seems to get the power relations and/or division of academic labor not quite right.
I know, I know, too much time on my hands. What can I say? I'm "working" on my teaching statement, and if I had wanted to spout platitudinous lies, I would have gone into a more profitable career. That aspect of the job market sucks in its own particular way.
Nice!! How about Prince Valiant in the next episode?
Either (A), this is a work of post-structuralist genius, or (B) the word balloons in the third panel are out of order, and should be read:
1. "The papers, where are they?!?"
2. "I don't know!"
3. "I'll cut you!"
4. "Ok! Ok! Ok! Mary Worth has them."
While the sudden and unexpected appearance of Mary Worth gives weight to (A), I still suspect (B) is the case.
In the proud PJMB tradition of taking over a thread with a new and unrelated topic, let us cry 'Havoc', and let slip the dogs of fervent debate and rampant speculation.
@9:45: I remember someone expressing surprise last year that many grad students carry a 2-2 load as ABDs (which I think turned out to be pretty common, and is certainly the case at my institution). But a 3-3 or 4-4? I've never heard of that sort of thing. Anyone else?
My public university doesn't let its graduate students teach more than a 1-1 load, ABD or otherwise. As a result, a number of us teach at area community colleges.
Has anyone brought attention to the hilarious advert from Ithaca College (in the summer JFP)?
Here is what they are looking for: "AOS: open; AOC: logic or metaphysics; preference for candidates who can teach a combination of aesthetics, philosophy in film, philosophy of law, non-western philosophy."
I bet there are loads of candidates with a background in logic, metaphysics, philosophy of law, aesthetics, philosophy of film and non-western philosophy.
Do they want people to lie?
CUNY
An oddly compelling and strange blog follows this one:
Klaude Klaw, about a former would-be nun who rejected the convent. I wonder if it comes up for you all, too, when you hit the "next blog" button at the top of this page...Just curious.
Oddly compelling indeed, FWIW.
4:45: Nope, I get "The Duchy of Alzheim: A Blog dedicated to the creation of my Seven Years' War Army in miniature", featuring "El Capitano", "The Sarge", and "Trooper Womble", all of whom seem to be small blue robot toys. No shit.
BTW it's nice to see this blog starting to get a bit interesting again after a long lull ... I had almost entirely stopped checking in. Good luck to all of this year's job market hopefuls!
Oh, and 2:37? That there's what they call an ad written for an inside VAP.
I remember (a long way back) seeing a JFP ad with something like "AOS: neo-Platonism and the philosophy of Bernard Lonergan." And I thought, "I bet there is exactly one person who fits that description..."
TPG: they're not robots, they're space marines, from the "Warhammer 40K" sci-fi tabletop wargame. And, if I am not mistaken, Trooper Womble is wearing some rather fetching old-school power armour. (Mark 6? Other readers of this blog with an appropriate history of nerdery--I am sure there are several--please confirm?)
@ 4:28
as a CUNY PhD, I can report that CUNY does not force its students to carry a 4-4 load. At most you can have a 3-2 load (unless you are a substitute (the equivelant of a VAP) in which case it is a 5-5load...but they certainly don't trick foreign students into taking these!
Sorry, Tenured Philosophy Girl, but that is NOT an ad for an inside candidate. All Ithaca College's ads are weird. This usually indicates that the department has no idea what they want. In this case, I believe that is true again--- plus, they are filling a line left from a retirement.
Ok I revise my statement: either that job description was written for an insider or the Ithaca College department is insane and self-defeating.
And I am not sure my ontology supports the toy robot/toy sci-fi space marine distinction.
A 3/2 load for a grad student is unconscionable.
Though I suppose if Sarah-it-takes-me-6-years-and-4-crappy-schools-to-get-my-BA-Palin and John-class-rank-894/899-McCain get elected, then money for education (along with all other money, apparently) will evaporate and we will all be teaching 8/8 loads to illiterates for subsistence-level pay.
In other news, a McCain/Palin ticket ensures that a much higher percentage of women will be barefoot and pregnant, meaning you men can finally stop crabbing about how we're taking your jobs! In fact, given the fact that many of us could have been knocked up in our teens or early twenties, less competition for grad school as well!!
"A 3/2 load for a grad student is unconscionable."
Why? This is not required, but is an option for those that want it...the 2-2 is typical.
Um, can I go on the record and say that I think a 2-2 is pretty fucking unconscionable as well?
Seconding PGOAT. Grad students shouldn't teach more than 1-1, and they should make enough doing so to squeak by. You're in grad school to take classes and write your dissertation, not to teach as much as the faculty.
4-4 load is stupid for anyone, grad student or otherwise.
I've been a student at two departments, none of the faculty ever had more than 2-2, not counting summer sessions.
I don't see how you can get quality teaching from someone teaching 4-4, unless half of them are once a week seminars.
Shortly after the JFP we'll likely see the Philosophy Job Market Wiki updated. Last year (and, sadly, the year before) I was an advocate of the wiki—defending it from terrorists, critics, and sloppy posters. I thought that at worst the wiki was benign, but now I'm fairly certain that it's malignant.
For many, if not most of us, when we send out applications it is reasonable to assume that it is highly unlikely that we will be called by any given school. The appearance of a school on the called list might decrease your already slim chances, but by how much? Who knows? The figure is probably insignificant.
You'd have to know about the calling practices, as noted above, and you'd have to know how many people had been called and how many schools were likely to call. This is again information that we don't have a good feel for.
You don't even know how many have been called. The wiki is not perfect. Since not everyone is posting the information is incomplete. And it's not clear what you can reliably infer from the fact that someone was called by a given university. The school might be making calls over the course of several days or even weeks. This probably isn't common, but no one seemed to have enough information on calling practices to say whether this should be cause for greater concern than that another day went by without hearing anything.
Even if everyone that was called updated the page, someone who wasn't called might have done the same, out of malice or sloppiness. This makes the wiki a highly unreliable source of information. And given the further fact that you don't know if a school will interview 8 or 18 candidates, you just don't know much from looking at the wiki. Maybe you'll be called tomorrow, but probably not. But you already knew that when you sent off your application.
The wiki doesn't tell you that your chances are much worse than they were the day that you put your dossier in the mail. But it can mislead you and create unhealthy stress. This year, I don't plan on checking or updating the wiki. I'll know what interviews I have when I wake up on Christmas morning, hopes dashes in one big blow or renewed with a list of interviews at the APA.
I have to agree with 2:23 on the wiki. It's really just another time sink, which also allows me to brood on my job anxieties, rather than being productive, or at least wasting time in more enjoyable ways. Though it's still the case that the folks who destroy or mess with the page are total assholes - no skin off my nose if having the page allays the anxieties of others.
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