“Ireland needs to guard against a reengineering of the education system under the assumption that ‘we exist to be made useful’, President Michael D Higgins has said. Attending the Irish Young Philosopher Awards 2019 at UCD’s O’Reilly Hall, the President said …” (more)
[Joe Humphreys, Irish Times, 15 May]
“The vast majority of philosophy departments in the United States offer courses only on philosophy derived from Europe and the English-speaking world. For example, of the 118 doctoral programs in philosophy in the United States and Canada, only 10% have a specialist in Chinese philosophy …” (more)
[Jay Garfield and Bryan Van Norden, New York Times, 11 May]
“What kind of a place was UCD then to do philosophy in? It was actually quite good. It was mixed. All of the professors and many of the staff were priests. The philosophy course had been designed, really, as the undergraduate course for students from Clonliffe who were going to be trained as priests, so it was not particularly scholarly and it was very authoritarian. There was a very public UCD student revolt in 1968/69 and one chapter focused on the department of metaphysics …” (more)
[Attracta Ingram and Clara Fischer, Dublin Review of Books, November]
“Over the last several years, I’ve been disheartened to read so much about how philosophy is hostile to women and that there simply aren’t enough women doing philosophy. While I’m not a philosopher, I care deeply about the discipline, hold it in high regard, and want to see it flourish …” (more)
[Leiter Reports, 17 October]
“Philosophers and entrepreneurs are both neglected, it appears. Now both are demanding due recognition in our education system as pivotal elements of the core curriculum – pertinent subjects for 21st century students …” (more)
[Irish Times, 22 August]
“‘During my early beginnings as a graduate student, I did not realise that the kinds of treatment I received had a name: sexism. I began to learn that much of what was happening to me was about me as a woman (not as a person or a philosopher) and that it was caused by overt and covert sexism at both personal and institutional levels …'” (more)
[Clara Fischer, Dublin Review of Books, 1 March]
“Have we put engineers in charge of our Universities? With what appears to be rampant managerialism in education, it looks like it. Why have we done this? Horkenheimer, in his Eclipse of Reason was alert to the problem, seeing the roots of modern technocracy in Platonic idealism …” (more)
[Mark Johnson, Improvisation Blog, 8 March]
“Philosophy stands out among the humanities: it’s one of the few subject areas where women are vastly outnumbered by men. Although male and female students take philosophy undergraduate courses in almost equal numbers, the number of women who pursue a career in philosophy is much lower …” (more)
[Rebecca Ratcliffe and Claire Shaw, Higher Education Network, 5 January]
“Philosophy is set to become a subject on the school curriculum for the first time under a plan formulated by Minister for Education Jan O’Sullivan to extend reform of the junior cycle …” (more)
[Joe Humphreys, Irish Times, 30 December]
“The Department of Philosophy has been forced to cut eight members of staff as a result of budget cuts, The University Times has learned. The cuts come as a senior College source within the faculty of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences warns that cuts to be imposed in this academic year have the potential to do ‘irreversible harm’ to teaching activity …” (more)
[Jack Leahy, University Times, 20 October]
“The good news is that it’s clear more philosophers who actually have some idea what’s going on are filling out the surveys (even I’m a participant now!), so the results in Philosophy are less totally worthless than before, though the halo effect looms large …” (more)
[Leiter Reports: A Philosophy Blog, 15 September]
“Philosophy is predominantly white and predominantly male. This homogeneity exists in almost all aspects and at all levels of the discipline. The philosophical canon, especially in so-called ‘analytic’ departments, consists almost exclusively of dead, white men …” (more)
[Eugene Park, Huffington Post, 3 September]
“I have come to the conviction over the summer that the field of Philosophy, and academic publishing more broadly, faces a dire threat — one that, so far as I can find, hardly anyone has taken notice of. I refer to the evils of Oxford Scholarship Online …” (more)
[In medias PHIL, 22 August]
“Review: These essays by the Everyday Analysis collective distil complex theory to show the full ideological significance of that which may otherwise be regarded as insignificant. The career prospects for young academics, especially in the humanities, are dire …” (more)
[Matt Foley, Irish Times, 26 July]
“There is still an ‘aristocracy of sex’ in the world of philosophy, says Jonathan Wolff, where women find it hard to thrive …” (more)
[Guardian, 26 November]
“If philosophy had been on the curriculum 30 years ago, would we be in the same mess we’re in today? It’s a tantalising thought and the very sort of ‘what if?’ question philosophers love to debate …” (more)
[Joe Humphreys, Irish Times, 19 November]
“… This petition is a call for the Education Minister Ruairi Quinn to continue his efforts to expand the curriculum by introducing philosophy as a full subject. In September 2013, President Michael D Higgins enthusiastically recommended the introduction of such a course …” (more)
[Steven Lydon, Change.org, 25 September]
“My work was targetted by a Coalition MP, who described our research as ‘ridiculous’ – but philosophy is work, and the discipline is crucial to helping us understand our world …” (more)
[Paul Redding, Guardian, 17 September]
“While just under half of all philosophy undergraduates in the UK are women, women account for less than a third of PhD completions and less than a quarter of permanent academic staff. So where did all the women go, and – more importantly – why? …” (more)
[Helen Beebee, The Conversation, 16 September]
“Since the resignation of the well known philosopher Colin McGinn from his tenured post at the University of Miami, following sexual harassment allegations made against him by a graduate student, the longstanding debate about the obstacles faced by women in academic philosophy has been renewed …” (more)
[Sally Haslanger, New York Times, 2 September]
