Sontag held a writing fellowship at Rutgers University for 1964 to 1965 before ending her relationship with academia in favor of full-time freelance writing.
Med pisanjem fikcije je poučevala filozofijo na Sarah Lawrence College in City University of New York ter filozofijo religije z Jacobom Taubsom, Susan Taubes in Hansom Jonasom na oddelku za religije na Univerzi Columbia od 1960 do 1964.