I’m mostly pottering around here trying to figure out how iChat, AIM and Skype all work. (Answer: Not as well as I’d like them to.) In the meantime, here are a few links.

* I agree entirely with what “Rachel McKinney says”:http://atomsarranged.blogspot.com/2007/09/women-in-philosophy-women-in.html. Knowing something about the stages by which a high school class in which white males are a small minority into a philosophy profession where they are an overwhelming majority is pretty important to doing something about fixing the situation.

bq. Successful navigation through a series of decisions (say, the decision to graduate from high-school, the decision to pursue study at a postsecondary institution, the decision to take a course on critical thinking, the decision to take intro-level survey courses in philosophy, the decision to take upper-level courses in philosophy, the decision to major in philosophy, the decision to pursue philosophy at the graduate level, admittance to a graduate program, successful advancement through a graduate program, matriculation from a graduate program, entrance into the job market, progress through a tenure-track position, etc) culminates in a student’s entry into a particular area of professional study. By empirically measuring participation rates at various levels of study, we can find out when participation by members of certain groups “drops off” (i.e., after intro-level courses but before the choice to major in a particular area, or after admission into a graduate program but before finishing coursework, etc). This information can help us pinpoint the level of educational study at which members of underrepresented groups find themselves alienated or disengaged.

* This is an interesting report on the first meeting of “The Collegium of Black Women Philosophers”:http://chronicle.com/temp/email2.php?id=rVDdSShyYzsDdqdVtrhbFS234msgNfm3. The high estimate on the number of black women philosophers in America is *29*, out of an APA membership of 10,000.
* It’s less directly connected to philosophy, but this is a pretty interesting story on the “Little Rock Nine”:http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2007/09/littlerock200709, and especially Elizabeth Eckford.
* On a lighter note, Blackwell is “having a book launch party at the APA”:http://www.kaleidotech.com/epicurean/books.html.