Joshua Smart from the University of Missouri asked me to share this announcement, which I'm happy to do:
While advisors and committees are important, it can be incredibly helpful to discuss one’s work with peers in a lower-stakes environment, and it can be particularly enlightening to do so with those who take a different approach or have a different focus. Not only that, but there is evidence from psychological research that thinking about problems in relation to persons who are geographically distant can increase creativity. With students in programs from 8 countries and 20 different U.S. states, Virtual Dissertation Groups are a great (free!) way to capture some of these benefits.
The setup is that each member is grouped with two others working on dissertations in the same general area of philosophy. About once a month, one member sends the others a 3-6k word piece of their dissertation to the other two for feedback and comments.
You can sign up to participate here. Open sign-ups go through Saturday, September 17th. (Conditional sign-ups through 9/28.)
I'd be interested to hear from students who've participated what their experience was like. Comments are open for that purpose. Please identify yourself in some general terms (e.g., "top 10 PGR program," "SPEP department," "unranked PhD program," also mention your country).
