We’d like to welcome to the AFB team our newest Wing Commander (“Assistant Editor” in AFB lingo): C. Thi Nguyen!
Here are some fun facts about Thi, so you can get to know him:
Current position: Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Utah Valley University
Background: Once I was a food writer and a restaurant critic for the LA Times. This nearly derailed my graduate school career. Then I had to choose between that and academia. Still unsure if I chose properly.
Philosophical interests: Trained as an epistemologist. Currently writing about game aesthetics and food aesthetics and even weirder aesthetics. Also, the epistemology stuff is still alive in a project on understanding how echo chambers work. Also: I swear all these interests are related.
Most recent publication: “The Uses of Aesthetic Testimony”, about all the weird kinds of trust relationships our aesthetic lives involve, towards our reviewers, teachers, curators.
Other hats: Chair of the ASA Diversity committee. A founding editor at the very-soon-to-be-actually-emerge Journal of the Philosophy of Games. Occasional interviewer [ed.: a power we are sure to harness Thi for here!]. New parent.
Thi playing Thorny Games’ Sign RPG
Aesthetic passions: Completely boring and bog-standard literary, musical, and museum-type canon. But also: Tea. Rap. Weird perfumes that smell like rain drops on cold twigs in march.
Aesthetic passions that other people might deny are aesthetic: Rock climbing. Indie role playing games, like one where you have invent a sign language in total silence.
Biggest aesthetic failure: Trying for six years to become a jazz guitarist and failing utterly.
Welcome aboard, Thi!
