catwoman15

OMG ME TOO!

The absolute only cases in which I've seen anything like this pulled off (as opposed to having them as your external examiner) is when your advisor is originally at school X (where you also are) and you're ABD. Then, advisor moves to school Y and works something out with the administration at school X in order to maintain their status as your advisor or chair. This, though, doesn't mean you can't develop a working relationship with 'person at Y'--you probably should at least try to do so, but how successful you will be is a function of how famous 'person at Y' is and how good you (honestly) are and who you know who knows 'person at Y.'

I think this is really apropos, so I'll just drop it right here. http://www.derailingfordummies.com/#educate An excerpt: " It’s someone who belongs to the group of people you’re discussing and they’re Not Very Happy with you. Apparently, they claim, you’ve got it all wrong and they’re offended about that. They might be a person of color or a queer person. Maybe they’re a woman, or a person with disability. They could even be a trans person or a sex worker. The point is they’re trying to tell you they know better than you about their issues and you know that’s just plain wrong. How could you be wrong?"

Because exploitation.

I think you're onto it, Monadology. For example part of it, also, I think has to do with it gendered and racialized social expectations for behavior. Women are faced with a social double bind: participate in a confrontation (at the risk of being seen as more confrontational than a similarly behaving man would be seen, because women are expected to be nonconfrontational), or refuse to participate (at the rick of being seen as meek, stupid, overly modest, not a philosopher, or as a spoil-sport). In either case, there's no solution that will allow her to behave in a socially acceptable manner.

Hey Lady! ( I hope I can address you as, Lady, you can address me as 'lady' in response.) The representation of black women in philosophy is abysmal. At one recent count, there are 55 black women tenured or in tenure track positions in philosophy departments in the US. (If you haven't yet, you may want to consider getting involved in the Collegium of Black Women Philosophers http://www.cbwp.ktgphd.com/ ). It isn't clear that women, and/or people of color are at either an advantage or disadvantage. Our acceptance rates (relative to the number of people in our underrepresented groups) are higher, because there are fewer applicants like us applying. That is to say, Vineyard is going off the rails a little bit. For instance, if 100 people apply to a graduate program. 80 are white men. 20 are members of an underrepresented group. The proportional representation if 6 people are accepted, 3 white men, and 3 from some kind of underrepresented group, are highly disproportional. This doesn't mean that there's some kind of 'boost' from being a member of an underrepresented group in admissions though--it just has to do with disproportionate numbers of applicants. Lastly, the thing that being a member of an underrepresented group will actually get you is more access to varied sources of funding. There are numerous fellowship and scholarship programs that only fund members of underrepresented groups. You will, at the very least, have to deal with micro-agressions at times (like reading, Vineyard's post, for example)--also, in most departments you will be the only black woman in the department (this isn't true for all departments, but for nearly all). You may also be the only black person in the department. The effects this can have on your progress and success vary (and the data on this is sometimes scatter-shot as well).

Unfortunately, I live in the northeast now, and our work is really different. But perhaps one day we can listen to titus andronicus and drink cheap beer together.

As a grad student, when the stress hits, it's working time. But then, when I'm going to die because I can't think anymore, I get drunk, listen to punk music, and dance around my house. Dancing is really great because it a) gives you exercise, releases endorphins by raising your heart-rate (or some other science stuff I don't understand) and, c) is super fun. For maximum stress relief, yell song lyrics while dancing and continuing to drink. Do this until you're hungry, eat a lot of food and then fall asleep.

Yes yes. I will heed this wise advice. I just have this nagging feeling I can't seem to shake that people are susceptible to reasons.

You're right, that wasn't the right way to phrase it. We aren't all as dull as you imagine we are, but I partly suspect that you may be suffering from the Dunning-Kruger effect.

I'm ABD in a philosophy program. And at least MattDest (if not others) are in MA programs. So yes, we aren't all as dull as you wish we were.

I have like...zero idea of what this thread is about anymore. But, I honestly don't think it's a bad idea to start thinking of this whole shebang as largely 'random' from our own point of view. Why does someone with a worse CV than you get the job you both interviewed for? Fit. Why does someone else get into grad school over you when you both have similarly posed applications? Fit. Why does someone get the grant or fellowship you wanted so badly, when you have more experience than them? Fit. What does Fit mean? Whatever the adcom/search committee think it means. Can you know what that is? Sure...If you're the adcom/search committee. Or, if you know someone who knows someone on the search committee (even then, though, they may not know). At this point there are so many qualified people for SO MANY THINGS at many levels of competition within academia that trying to determine all of the variables and perfectly positioning yourself along each axis is impossible. You gotta be the best you can be. You gotta do the most work you can. Go to the most conferences. Read the most. Meet the most scholars. Win the most awards. Publish the most and in the best journals you can. Then, if you do all of that--you may still not get a job. You may still not finish your dissertation. Some of you may never get into graduate school. But that's life y'all. It isn't random, but from where I sit, it's certainly got a logic that verges on incoherent.

Oh man, but Geuss is pretty bad at actually reading Adorno sometimes...it's painful to read like, bro, did you even read the original text??? Team Bernstein forever.

You may have a bit of a shock, but you also may not. I came up in anarchist circles for the most part, so it was certainly a bit of a shock when students would say things like, "Why are you talking about women?" or "That's only of consequence for women." I've had, in general, really good experiences in philosophy. That isn't to say I haven't had horrific ones too. But, you'll make it. Philosophy isn't the easiest space to be a woman in, but it also is (I've found) full of some very helpful, kind, and charitable folks. Your department will probably have events for graduate student women (even just drinks organized by the grad students) which are amazing and you should attend. My philosophy-lady-friends are incredible women, and often incredibly smart. They are also amazing sources of support and care (when you need it).

Hey everyone, This is a really nice opportunity too, and it's available for 'prospective' philosophy phds, so even if you're not in grad school yet, you can (AND SHOULD!!!) apply. http://uchv.princeton.edu/workshops/mentorship.php