In our August “how can we help you?” thread, a reader asks:

A quick question: assuming one is a faculty at a top program, should they still spend time submitting (say) to APA, given that it is nontrivial to tailor a draft to the conference requirement and that maybe there isn’t much benefit in presenting in such a conference? What do you think? Are there any unwritten rules? Thanks in advance! I am especially curious about the experience of such a person, but any thought is welcome.

I’m not sure there are any unwritten rules, but APAs seem to me to be good venues for exposing one’s work to a broader audience than most other conferences, not to mention a good place to catch up with friends and colleagues, meet new people in the profession, etc. I also particularly like attending APAs to keep abreast of new work in the profession, particularly outside of my AOS. Most of the other conferences I go to are specialty conferences in my main areas of focus (ethics, political philosophy, etc.). I really like APAs because I can go to talks by people in a wide variety of other areas. However, I do have to confess that I have a hard time whittling down papers to 3,000-5,000 words to submit. While I understand why the APA has such short word-limits for submitted papers, it can be difficult to do!

But these are just my thoughts. What are yours?

Originally appeared on The Philosophers’ Cocoon Read More