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ASA to Award Diversity Curriculum Grants

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The American Society of Aesthetics is pleased to announce the 2017 competition for Curriculum Diversification Grants.  Up to three grants for up to $5,000 each will be awarded in 2017.  The application deadline is May 1, 2017.

Coloured lithograph, 1868, depicting a double rainbow, by René Henri Digeon after Étienne Antoine Eugène Ronjat

Grantees will develop detailed annotated reading lists, complete with background reading, that are organized into modules covering core areas in aesthetics/philosophy of art. The idea here is not to develop modules oriented primarily around gender, race, disability, etc., but, rather, to promote diversity at the heart of mainstream aesthetics and philosophy of art.  Modules should be usable in, for instance: introduction to aesthetics/philosophy of art courses; courses on particular historical figures or movements (e.g., Plato’s or Aristotle’s aesthetics, Medieval aesthetics, Scottish Enlightenment aesthetics, Continental aesthetics); courses devoted topics or problems within core areas in aesthetics/philosophy of art (e.g., Fiction, Film, Narrative, Music, Depiction, Art and Ethics, Ontology of Art, Definitions of Art, Theories of the Aesthetic).

These modules can be “diverse” in a variety of ways by: (1) centrally featuring writing by members of underrepresented groups; (2) including works that give significant philosophical attention to artworks by members of underrepresented groups or from the non-European tradition; (3) devoting significant philosophical attention to topics related to members of underrepresented groups (e.g., disability in philosophy of dance, the relevance of social standpoint to aesthetic judgment, objectification and the genre of the nude, racist jokes and the ethics of humor, implicit bias in aesthetic judgment, and so on).

Each grantee should produce at least 30 English-language readings each (including translations into English), organized according to topics (or “modules” as described above) within mainstream aesthetics. (As noted above, modules include, but certainly are not limited to: ontology of art, definitions of art, theories of the aesthetic, depiction, metaphor, imagination and make-believe, taste, beauty, art and ethics, humor, historical topics such as medieval aesthetics, or any of the individual arts.) Each suggested reading should come with an annotation of at least one paragraph that gives a general summary of the reading and explains how it fits in the broader topic of the module. The citation for the reading should indicate sufficient information so that the reading can be readily obtained by potential users for teaching (e.g., journal article in a widely available database, book chapter generally available at North American libraries). Grantees must agree to respond to one round of requested revisions when deemed necessary by the review committee.

Previous successful projects are available at: http://aesthetics-online.org/?CurriculumGrants

Winning authors will retain copyright in their own modules, but the ASA reserves a non-exclusive royalty-free license to publish the winning modules for its own official purposes, including (but not limited to) publication on the ASA web site. Each author must certify that the module has not previously been published in either print or on-line media.

Applications should include:

  • Separate cover sheet with applicant’s name and contact information
  • CV
  • Detailed description of the project (no more than 1,500 words).
  • Budget and justification for the budget
    • Applicants may request funds for a summer stipend at the applicant’s regular institutional rate.
    • The budget can also include the cost of books purchased for this project.

Applications should be prepared for anonymous review, in either Word or PDF format.  The applicant’s name and contact information appearing only on a separate cover sheet and, of course, CV.  Applications will be reviewed anonymously by members of the ASA’s Diversity Committee, Feminist Caucus Committee, and Board of Trustees.  Only one proposal per applicant.  All decisions are final.  Applicants must be members of the ASA.

No grant will be awarded if, in the opinion of the judges, no proposal of sufficient merit and appropriateness is received.

Applications should be directed to A.W. Eaton, Diversity Committee Co-Chair, at: eaton.aw@gmail.com  Deadline for receipt of applications is 5 pm CDT Monday, May 1, 2017.  Grantees will be announced by Friday, June 2, 2017.  Projects due by Monday, August 21, 2017, unless otherwise requested and approved.

The complete CFA in PDF format is available here:

http://aesthetics-online.org/resource/resmgr/files/diversity/Curriculum.Diversification.C.pdf

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