Thanks Hane- great to see you here too! The market is horrible for everyone and tough to navigate esp if your research is seen 'outside of the mainstream' - I still can't fully believe my research has been called that! 🤷🏽‍♀️

If you hear me talk about my abusive relationship with academia, the intense love and intense hate that comes out of my struggles with research, you now know what I'm on about.

Now, gotta decide between applying for a 1-month fellowship, or 2-year MSc to help with more applications!

And so it goes, doing bits and pieces of freelance work to finance your relevance in academic circles, publish independent research (even if it means two years of waiting for the actual publication to happen), collaborate even if it means doing most of the work yourself, and keep applying ...

I have also been doing this long enough to know, contrary to some (many?) in academia, I do actually care for the work and enjoy doing it. I happen to believe it DOES matter in the long run what is said, who is referenced, whose work is disputed, and whose elevated.

My guess is a tick on a box for having had a diverse pool of candidates considered.
I have now accepted that we, as non-white philosophers working on the Global South and critiquing the usual RQs, data and methods face a lonely uphill battle.

Funnily enough, the person who was hired in the end had no experience in mental health research, but (surprise, surprise) was a white European, coincidentally a student of the PI. Why was I even invited the second time for an interview that had already happened (online & in-person)?

On one occasion, I was told I was 'a close second' for a lecturer position in philosophy & mental health, later to be told the job was to be readvertised, later to be asked again for an interview without having applied the second round, only to be told AGAIN that I was a close second!

There is something to be said about the illusion of diversity, inclusion of marginalised voices, attention to the oppressed, and all the trendy labels used to decorate the hiring process and research ethics. Sara Ahmed's example of "pigeons welcome" plastered on a postbox comes to mind ...

Now granted academia, especially philosophy is a terrible job market for a fussy researcher who doesn't want to burn themselves out with teaching and is keen on putting forward her own research agenda and interests - albeit bent to the need of specific projects/funding bodies/ etc ...

I've been on the job market for the 3 out nearly 6 years since I finished my PhD. I've published my thesis, have 2 articles coming out soon, expanded the topics, scope and methods of my research, but still remain stuck on a treadmill of applications just to be able to do the research I want to do.