Many people seeking an academic job in philosophy have the expectation that almost all of the job opportunities are going to be listed at PhilJobs: Jobs for Philosophers. Yet an exclusive reliance on PhilJobs:JFP may lead one to miss some job listings.

We discussed this in regard to jobs at community colleges last year. However, the issue is not limited just to community college jobs.

An assistant professor of philosophy keeping an eye on the job market shared with me several tenure-track positions at four-year institutions listed at HigherEdJobs but, as of last night, not at PhilJobs:JFP. These included:

• Assistant Professor, University of Maryland Baltimore County, AOS: Ethics
• Assistant Professor, Creighton University, AOS: African or Africana Philosophy, Indian Philosophy, Islamic Philosophy, Latin American Philosophy, or Native American Philosophy
• Assistant Professor, University of Louisville, AOS: Jewish Philosophy
• Professor or Associate Professor, The New School, AOS: Post-Kantian German philosophy, Critical Theory, Pragmatism, or Ancient Philosophy

What explains the discrepancy? In some cases, it may just be a delay. Most of the above jobs were listed at HigherEdJobs last week, and some of them may end up on PhilJobs:JFP soon. For example, this listing for a professorship at the University of Wisconsin, Madison was listed at HigherEdJobs a week ago, but just showed up on PhilJobs:JFP yesterday.

In other cases, though, it may be a matter of budgeting (universities can purchase multiple ads for multiple disciplines at bulk discount rates from HigherEdJobs and similar sites) or the university human resources office being unfamiliar with (or discounting the value of) discipline-specific listing sites.

Comments, especially from those on or recently on the job market who may have suggestions for keeping track of job listings, and from those at institutions that don’t advertise their jobs at PhilJobs:JFP, are welcome.