I know little about the semantics job market this year for some reason. In philosophy of language, job gossip (at least at the senior level) is thankfully more public:
- The Chronicle of Higher Education had a brief item in the Feb 27, 2004 edition about USC’s efforts to upgrade its philosophy department:
RISING IN THE WEST: The University of Southern California’s philosophy department is trying to lure several prominent professors from around the country in an attempt to elevate its national reputation. “We want to be a major graduate program in certain specialties,” says James Higginbotham, chairman of the department.
\ Scott Soames, 58, a leading figure in the philosophy of language, who has been at Princeton University for more than two decades, is weighing an offer from Southern Cal. “It’s in a process of upgrading itself,” says Mr. Soames, who adds that the USC department has been good but is moving toward “truly outstanding” in several areas.
\ Mr. Soames, who will be getting married this summer, says he and his fiance, a newspaper reporter, would love to move to sunny California, but he is torn by an attractive counteroffer from Princeton. The philosophy department there “has taken some very important hits,” he acknowledges, referring to the death in 2001 of the analytical philosopher David Lewis and the departure of another colleague, Saul Kripke.
\ […] The university is also trying to persuade Jeffrey C. King, another philosopher of language, to leave the University of California at Davis. Mr. King did not return telephone calls seeking comment.
- Today, Brian Leiter reports that Scott Soames is in fact going from Princeton to USC.
- Brian Weatherson announced on his own blog that he is going to Cornell.
- Yet to be resolved (apart from Jeff King’s posssible move to USC) is Jason Stanley’s offer from Rutgers.
The USC moves (Soames and possibly King) are quite significant. As Brian Leiter writes: “With James Higginbotham already at USC, the addition of Soames … makes USC one of the top choices in the country for students interested in philosophy of language — even more so if King comes as well.” One should also note that there are some top flight semanticists at USC: Barry Schein, Elena Guerzoni, Roumy Pancheva, and Bridget Copley.