Aesthetics for Birds

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AESTHETICS IN THE UNITED KINGDOM

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[This post has been updated.]

What follows is an assessment of the professional state of Aesthetics with respect to faculty research at Leiter-ranked Programs in the United Kingdom. I counted only permanent faculty and so excluded visiting, emeritus, as well as affiliated faculty. Finally, faculty were counted according to two conditions which I’ve explained below (AOS, Primary). The full program/faculty list can be found at the link provided. Again, please inform me of any omissions or mistakes, as I no doubt made a few.

The AOS Condition:

  • Faculty must have (at least as indicated on department website or CV) an AOS in Aesthetics.

The Primary Condition:

  • Faculty must have an AOS in Aesthetics.
  • Faculty must work primarily within Aesthetics (i.e., have a primary research program in/commitment to Aesthetics or to have one’s body of work reasonably suggest as much).

Aesthetics at Leiter-ranked UK Programs:

# of AOS Faculty: 20
# of Primary Faculty: 15

# of Programs with at least one AOS Faculty: 13
# of Programs with at least two AOS Faculty: 5
# of Programs with three or more AOS Faculty: 2

# of Programs with at least one Primary Faculty: 9
# of Programs with at least two Primary Faculty: 5
# of Programs with three or more Primary Faculty: 1

UK Aesthetics Faculty/Program List

US/UK Aesthetics Comparisons

# of Leiter-ranked US Programs: 50
# of Leiter-ranked UK Programs: 15

AOS Comparison

% with one or more: US (56%) UK (87%)
% with two or more: US (22%) UK (40%)
% with three or more: US (8%) UK (20%)

Primary Comparison

% with one or more: US (26%) UK (60%)
% with two or more: US (2%) UK (33%)
% with three or more: US (0%) UK (13%)

A Few Observations

Despite its rather poor showing stateside, Aesthetics appears to be alive and well (if not outright flourishing) in the United Kingdom.

Given my unfamiliarity with UK academic ranks, I refrained from making any junior/senior distinction (or whatever the UK equivalent might be). That said, I suspect a cursory glance at the UK programs to reveal several early career folks at the Primary level.

Aesthetics may well have a bright future, I just may need a passport to see it.

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