MOVING TO FRONT FROM JUNE 7--SEE THE LATEST COMMENT BY PROFESSOR YAMADA; HE AND PROF. YOUNG HAVE BOTH BEEN FIRED
The Claremont colleges in Southern California--Pomona, Scripps, Harvey Mudd, Claremont-McKenna, and Pitzer--boast an impressive aggregated philosophy faculty, in addition to beautiful campuses and excellent undergraduates. (The Claremont colleges are the Amherst/Haverford/Bryn Mawr/Colgate/Hamilton of the West Coast.) I did not know that the PhD program in philosophy, part of the Claremont Graduate University, had additional faculty, but I've now learned that the Claremont Graduate University will be closing the PhD program and terminating two tenured faculty! One, Charles Young, a specialist in ancient philosophy, may have the reasonable option to retire, but the other, Masahiro Yamada (epistemology), a tenured associate professor (with a family), will need to find a new position. This presents a real opportunity for other departments to hire an accomplished young scholar!
If anyone has more information, comments are open. (This is summer, and I am paying less attention to the blog, so please be patient about comment moderation.)
UPDATE: Please see the additional information supplied by Professor Yamada in the comments, below.
ANOTHER: Philosopher Zach Barnett (who is joining the faculty at the National University of Singapore this fall) writes: "Masahiro Yamada was one of my thesis readers when I was a student at Pomona College, and he supported me in applying to graduate school. Actually, that's an understatement – he read countless versions of my writing sample, and when I wrote to him in a panic at the final hour, he called me up on New Year's Eve, calmed me down, and helped me put the finishing touches on my application. I always hate to see philosophers affected by these sorts of cuts, but it is especially hard to see it happening to such a great philosopher/person."
