Leiter Reports

A Texas Tech Law alum writes: Texas Tech, as you might know, is in the forefront of demolishing any semblance of academic freedom. Their new system Chancellor (Brandon Creighton) is the former state legislator who authored SB17, the legislation that outlawed DEI, requires Regent review of syllabi, and loosens tenure protections.  A Texas Tech School […]

That’s Dr. Jeremy Faust’s take on Senator Bill Cassidy’s defeat in the Republican primary yesterday in Louisiana. It was Senator Cassidy’s craven vote for the imbecile Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as Secretary of Health and Human Services that enabled the imbecile’s war on public health. As Dr. Faust writes: Cassidy will go down as a […]

The saga of the Leiter-Williams “basement tapes” continues with this gentler number, “Clouds.” As usual, Tommy did a great job with the arrangement (and the vocals), including additional guitars and keyboards.

These are non-clinical/non-LRW appointments that will take effect in summer or fall 2026 (except where noted); (new additions will be in bold.)  Last year’s list is here.  (Link fixed.) *Ted Afield (tax) from Georgia State University to Stetson University. *Yonathan Arbel (commercial law, consumer law, law & economics, AI & law) from the University of […]

52 positions (including 4 in philosophy) are on the chopping block. As this informative post explains, the mischief originates with the Orwellian “University Innovation Alliance”: The UIA’s theory of institutional change rests on a set of identifiable assumptions: that transformation requires centralized administrative authority; that academic programs should be evaluated primarily th…

Cameron Kirk-Giannini (philosophy of language, philosophy of AI, social philosophy, philosophy of religion), Associate Professor of Philosophy at Rutgers University, Newark, has accepted appointment as Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Southern California, effective fall 2027. (Thanks to Samuel Elgin for the pointer to the social media announcement.)

From CHE: The [new Trump Administratin] guidance, which is expected to be released any day, would make visas valid for four years or the anticipated length of a student’s degree — whichever is shorter. Students in longer programs like doctorates would have to apply for an extension to finish their studies. It’s a shift from […]

That’s the upshot of this long and interesting review of Beckert’s most recent book by the political theorist Corey Robin. I’ve not read Beckert’s book, but welcome comments from those who know more about this topic. Please do not comment unless you have read Beckert’s book or read Robin’s review.

We’ve noted the “D-index” (an h-index for discipline-specific journals) calculated by research.com previously. (Their rankings of universities in law are pretty silly, since the faculty lists include deceasd faculty, retired faculty, and faculty who are not law professors.) They clearly don’t count law reviews for D-index, only faculty-edited journals, which is appropriate…

Another track from the Leiter-Williams “basement tapes” recorded on just 4 tracks back in 1979 or 1980. Another apt song for the latest “affordability crisis” afflicting the ordinary citizens of capitalist America, this was always my personal favorite. (Have no fear, there are only a few more songs I will share on the blog!)

Most academic readers will have heard of this fiasco. How is it affecting grades, finals, etc.? Is your administration expecting instructors to carry on as though nothing happened? You can post anonymously, but please include a valid university email address (which will not appear).

From The Lancet: Among 97·1 million verified references [across 2.5 million papers], we identified 4046 fabricated references across 2810 papers (illustrative examples are shown in the appendix p 5–6). In 2023, approximately one in 2828 papers contained at least one fabricated reference. By 2025, this had risen to one in 458 and in the first 7 […]

Paul Schofield (Bates) makes the case against them at CHE. (Thanks to Brian Skyrms for the pointer.) UPDATE: Philosopher Benjamin Mitchell-Yellin writes: As both a tenured philosophy professor and director of a teaching and learning center, I read Paul Schofield’s recent CHE piece, “Why Pedagogy ‘Experts’ Are Wrong,” with great interest when I saw it […]

These are non-clinical/non-LRW appointments that will take effect in summer or fall 2026 (except where noted); (new additions will be in bold.)  Last year’s list is here.  (Link fixed.) *Ted Afield (tax) from Georgia State University to Stetson University. *Yonathan Arbel (commercial law, consumer law, law & economics, AI & law) from the University of […]

We now know about J.L. Austin’s important work as a D-Day intelligence officer during WWII, but what about his fellow ordinary language philosopher, Gilbert Ryle, the Waynflete Professor of Metaphysical Philosophy at Oxford beginning in 1944. Philosopher Jack Copeland writes: What did Ryle do in the Second World War? Little was known—he was discreet about his life. […]

Professor Blakey, emeritus at Notre Dame (where he spent most of his academic career), was perhaps best-known for his work on (and scholarship about) RICO. The Notre Dame memorial notice is here. (Thanks to Sean Seymore for the pointer.)