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OAcademics @ OList.com

Do you wish to join OAcademics?

After you review the list criteria and rules, you can request a subscription to the Google Group. Questions? E-mail the list manager, Rory Hodgson.

OAcademics is an informal private e-mail list for Objectivist academics to discuss teaching, research, coursework, dissertations, job prospects, publication, and all other aspects of life in (or after) academia. The list is a means of sharing knowledge and experience as ever more Objectivists enter academia.

OAcademics is limited to Objectivist academics. The list is not moderated, but members who violate its rules will be subject to moderation, if not unsubscribed.

OAcademics is managed by Rory Hodgson. Rory is an undergraduate in philosophy at the University of York in the UK. He blogs at Rory Meets World. He can be reached at FutureBebop@gmail.com.

OAcademics was launched in June 2007. At present, it has over 75 members.

Subscription

To join the OAcademics mailing list, you must meet two criteria:

• You must be an Objectivist, meaning that you agree with and live by the principles of Ayn Rand's philosophy of Objectivism as best you understand them.

• You must be an academic in higher education, whether graduate student or professor. The list isn't limited to philosophers: academics from all disciplines are welcome. Academics in the making (i.e. those applying to graduate school) and retired academics are welcome too.

Note: You do not qualify as an Objectivist if you consider yourself to be a libertarian (or associate with the Libertarian Party), advocate revising Objectivism (like David Kelley's "open system"), or associate with the false advocates of Objectivism (most notably David Kelley, Nathaniel Branden, Barbara Branden, and Chris Sciabarra).

You can request a subscription to OAcademics via this web form. You must briefly explain how you meet the list's criteria for membership: please write a few sentences. If you are confused or doubtful about the subscription criteria, please do not request a subscription without first e-mailing the list manager Rory Hodgson.

The list is hosted on Google Groups, so subscribing requires an account with Google. (It's free and easy to create.) Click here for instructions on managing your OList subscriptions.

After you subscribe, please post an introduction, including your name, school, field, status, interests, and so on.

List Rules

OAcademics has a few basic rules:

1. Please be friendly or at least civil in posts to the list and in e-mails to the list manager. Subscribers who behave like asses, such as by insulting other list members or attacking Objectivist intellectuals, will be removed from the list. Also, please do not gripe about other list members in posts to the list.

2. Please respect the purpose of the list. Subscribers who prove disruptive -- such as by arguing against Objectivist positions or posting on irrelevant topics -- will be unsubscribed or subject to moderation. Please note that list policy is always off-topic: please direct any comments or questions about the management of the list to the list manager.

3. Please respect the privacy of other list members. Don't forward list messages to anyone else or post them to any other forum without the author's permission.

4. Please be considerate about what you choose to post to the list. If a message is likely to be of interest to just one or two people -- such as "thank you!" or "good job!" -- please send that privately, rather than to the whole list. Notably, you are welcome to announce your own work on the list, if relevant.

5. Please refrain from debate on the list. The common goal of all the OLists is to serve our real-life values, not to foster ivory-tower or acrimonious debate. If you disagree with opinions expressed on the list, state your own views and give reasons for them. Any back-and-forth arguments, however, should be taken off-list. (For elaboration, see "A Discussion is Not a Debate" by Jean Moroney.)

No subscriber is obliged to participate in list discussions. However, subscribers are particularly encouraged to do the following:

• Post the syllabi from the courses they teach (including the list of readings) at the beginning of every semester so that others may consult them in the process of their own course development.

• Post any significant announcements about their work, e.g. the successful defense of a dissertation, an article accepted for publication, a fabulous new teaching job, leaving academia to hunt bears in Alaska.

These are strong recommendations but not ironclad obligations.

List Mechanics

Mail to OAcademics should be addressed to oacademics@olist.com or oacademics@googlegroups.com. (Mail to the former address is automatically forwarded to the latter address.)

If you are a subscriber, you can access OAcademics through this web interface. There, you can peruse the archives and change your subscription.

Click here for further instructions on managing your OList subscriptions.

Contact

If you have any questions about or problems with the list, please e-mail Rory Hodgson, the list's manager, at FutureBebop@gmail.com.