Nova PhDs

Categories have been added to the blog, per Farhang's proposal. A few categories have been set up, following Farhang's list with a few amendments. So far we have the following (these can also be seen in the "Categories" list on the sidebar):

Blog News/Info: For posts like this, or Farhang's post on comments, dealing with intra-blog issues.
Market/Placement: See Farhang's "Market."
Misc.: At this point, for everything that doesn't fit any other category...
News About the Profession: See the same in Farhang's post.
Philosophical Discussion: See the previous posts "Am I Really an Analytic Philosopher," and "I don't think anyone..." for the kind of post that should fit here.
Research: This should fit announcements of recent publications or lectures/presentations, and/or be the place where authors ask for comments on current research issues.
Teaching: See Farhang's post.
Villanova News: Pretty obvious.

There is a drop-down list on the post-writing page where you can select categories. Note that you can put one post under multiple categories, and I imagine that it should often be appropriate to do so. Also, note that the current list of categories is a working list and certainly open to revision.

By the end of the week, all previous posts should be categorized (many are already).

Folks,

Sorry about the hiatus and not commenting on recent posts. It is wonderful to see the group grow. I think that with Jamie Smith and myself, we have the first institutional gap. I came to Nova right after Jennifer and Jamie left and the blog brings us together for the first time, which is precisely why it is a great forum.

As the blog grows, I have a suggestion, which may already be in the works or cannot be implemented for whatever reason. I suggest that we use the "category" function of Powerblogs. Since Leiter was one of the initial inspirations, I can refer to his subcategories. As of now, our blog is only chronologically ordered. Time for continental folks is key, of course; but so is archive fever. I think the blog would benefit from a categorization.

Whose categories? Which rationale?

It should be debatable and reformable. Here are a few suggestions:

"Research": Posts dealing with our own research, or focused on research matters: new journals, interesting call for papers, conference notes etc.

"Market": We're the fortunate ones who got jobs; this is the place where we could post upcoming ads, news about APA gatherings such as nearby hotels or transportation issues, hotel room sharing if needed, especially for the grad students who can benefit from it, finally, tips/question regarding interviews. For instance, Greg had put together the 'Top Weird Questions' that many of us received during interviews this year. That could be here. (My favorite from this past year’s interviews: “Which article and/or book have you read in the past year that has helped you better integrate diversity in the classroom?” Yeah…that was a fun interview, the way the Spanish Inquisition must have been a blast.)

"News about the profession": Vague category, I admit. Senior hires, moves, or perhaps new journals and CFP could go here.

"Villanova News": Obviously about the philosophy program first and foremost but in general about Nova.

"Personal News": As mentioned earlier, I have never had the pleasure of meeting Jamie Smith and this is the beginning of an acquaintance. In general, this forum is allowing us to keep in touch and I think we should make room for sharing some personal good/bad news. One's breakfast does not count; a baby would.

"Of Political/Philosophical Interest": I never got a chance to give my two cents about the Iranian election, for instance, as I was about to move. But I think there will be occasions when one would like to have a link here or put a post with some political value.

"Teaching": Tips, news, war stories etc.

"Humor: Sophisticated and Unsophisticated": Hopefully more of the latter than the former, and this is not an important category but I like philosophical humor.

"Misc.": Call this the "ambiguous category", the "over-determined category", the "Other" category, the "differeance" category, the "hospitality" category", etc. Just stuff that is harder to classify.

As in Leiter's case, one can have multiple categories for each post if needed.

This is more a meta-post than an actual post. Meta-comments are most welcome.

So, from the flurry of recent activity (and people thanking me--though I should point out once more that I am not the head of the blog--it belongs to us all!) you can all probably tell that I sent out an email inviting most of the PhD grads and ABDs from Nova (who were not a part of the trial period) to join up. Note that I say most; there are a few for whom I couldn't find email addresses. In any event, look for the author column to grow even more in the next few weeks.

Also, I have come to find that we have been added to the blogrolls of a couple other blogs. We have yet to have anyone who is not an author request a comment account (which is perhaps largely positive?), though, so while we are linked to other pages, it is not clear how many people have actually read this! In any event, the man might be watching, so be on guard...

Finally, Greg tells me that he is defending his dissertation in a couple weeks. Perhaps he will post something and we can hear about his dissertation, and its defense, from the horses mouth (nudge nudge).