Aesthetics for Birds

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Author Archives: Rebecca Millsop

April 19, 2017
by Rebecca Millsop
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Aesthetics Normativity Conference

The American Society for Aesthetics has helped fund a conference on Aesthetic Normativity that will take place May 19-20, 2017, in Salt Lake City. The conference is organized by John Dyck (PhD student at CUNY Graduate Center) and C. Thi Nguyen (Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Utah Valley University). Additional funding is being provided by Utah Valley University and the University of Utah. The conference will be held at the Utah Museum of Contemporary Art in Salt Lake City. Dominic McIver Lopes (Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at the University of British Columbia) will be the keynote speaker. Confirmed speakers also include Nicholas Riggle (University of San Diego), Paul C. Taylor (Penn State University), and Katherine Thomson-Jones (Oberlin College). The conference will be free and open to the public, although pre-registration will be required. Pre-register at the conference website: <objectionable.net/artrules>. Aesthetic and artistic normativity pertain to what’s good or bad in beauty and … Continue reading →

March 29, 2017
by Rebecca Millsop
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ASA Funds Conference on the Philosophy of Portraits

The American Society for Aesthetics Board of Trustees has approved a grant of $3,990 for a conference on “The Philosophy of Portraits” at the University of Maryland, April 7-8, 2018. The conference has been organized by Hans Maes, Senior Lecturer in History and Philosophy of Art and Director of the Aesthetics Research Centre at the University of Kent, and Jerrold Levinson, Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at the University of Maryland. Confirmed keynote speakers include A.W. Eaton, Cynthia Freeland, and Jenefer Robinson. A call for additional papers for the conference will be announced shortly. ASA is funding two travel grants for ASA student members of $500 each for papers selected for the program. The conference registration fee of $35 will be waived for all ASA members attending the conference.

March 22, 2017
by Rebecca Millsop
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Questioning Aesthetics Symposium: Black Aesthetics

The American Society for Aesthetics is pleased to provide $7500 in partial support of the Questioning Aesthetics Symposium: Black Aesthetics, to be held at Hampshire College, Amherst, MA, March 31-April 1, 2017. Funding is also being provided by Hampshire College, the Transdisciplinary Aesthetics Foundation, Amherst College, Mount Holyoke College, Smith College, The University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and the Five-College Lecture Fund. The conference is co-organized by Monique Roelofs, Professor of Philosophy at Hampshire College, and Michael Kelly, Professor of Philosophy at the University of North Carolina, Charlotte, and the Founder and President of the Transdisciplinary Aesthetics Foundation. The symposium will be free and open to the public. NEW (2/27/2017): Symposium Program Web sites for the Symposium: http://blackaesthetics.hampshire.edu https://transaestheticsfoundation.org/ Poster: http://aesthetics-online.org/resource/resmgr/conferences/QAS-BlackAesthetics-Poster.pdf Four grants of $500 each, made possible by an ASA Major Projects Initiative Grant, have been awarded to ASA student  members to attend the Symposium: James Cobb, English and … Continue reading →

March 22, 2017
by Rebecca Millsop
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Ethics and Aesthetics of Stand-up Comedy Conference

  WHEN: 4/5/17-4/8/17 WHERE: Bucknell University CONTACT: Sheila Lintott (sheila.lintott@bucknell.edu) The American Society for Aesthetics has awarded $7,000 in partial support for the Conference on the Ethics and Aesthetics of Stand-Up Comedy at Bucknell University, Lewisburg, PA, April 5-8, 2017. The conference was organized by Sheila Lintott, Associate Professor, and Jason Leddington, Associate Professor, both of the Department of Philosophy. NEW! Complete schedule for the Conference NEW! Registration form for the Conference The interdisciplinary conference will explore the intersections of stand-up comedy with other art forms and its potential for dialogue with social and political critiques. In addition to academic papers and presentations, the conference will include a performance workshop, an “open-mic” night, roundtable discussions with comedians, and stand-up comedy performances. The Conference Organizing Committee includes faculty from English, Interdisciplinary Arts, and Women’s and Gender Studies, representing several colleges in the region. For more information, click http://www.bucknell.edu/BUStandUpComCon

February 8, 2017
by Rebecca Millsop
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ASA Funds Workshop on Art, Perception, and History

The American Society for Aesthetics Board of Trustees has approved support for the Workshop on Art, Perception, and History, at the University of Toronto, May 5-6, 2017. The Workshop is organized by Sonia Sedivy, Associate Professor of Philosophy, University of Toronto. ASA has awarded up to $4,600 in support, plus an additional $1000 to support attendance at the Workshop by ASA student members. Support is also being provided by several units of the University of Toronto. The workshop is free and open to the public. Speakers will include: From Art History Whitney Davis, University of California, Berkeley, Art History http://arthistory.berkeley.edu/person/1639581-whitney-davis Jason Gaiger, University of Oxford, The Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art http://www.rsa.ox.ac.uk/people/jason-gaiger Amy Powell, University of California, Irvine, Art History http://www.faculty.uci.edu/profile.cfm?faculty_id=5553 Paul G. Smith, University of Warwick, History of Art https://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/arthistory/staff/smith/ From Philosophy of Art or Perception Diarmuid Costello, philosophy, University of Warwick http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/philosophy/people/costello/ Robert Hopkins, New York … Continue reading →

February 1, 2017
by Rebecca Millsop
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Make America Great Again: Government Employed Artists!

  Check out one way we could make America great again by reading a new article up on Artsy, written by Tess Thackara: “What We Can Learn from the Brief Period When the Government Employed Artists”. Learn about how the Works Progress Administration (WPA) supported artists and diversity in the arts for a brief time in American history…

February 1, 2017
by Rebecca Millsop
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ASA to Award Diversity Curriculum Grants

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. 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 … Continue reading →

January 25, 2017
by Rebecca Millsop
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ASA to Sponsor Aesthetics Speakers at 2017 Diversity Institutes

The Board of Trustees of the American Society for Aesthetics has approved sponsoring aesthetics speakers at three diversity institutes in the summer of 2017: (1) the Summer Program for Women in Philosophy at UC San Diego, June 28-July 8; (2) the 20th Annual Rutgers Summer Institute for Diversity in Philosophy, July 10-17; (3) the Summer Immersion Program at Brown University, July 28. For each of the three institutes, the ASA-sponsored speaker will attend the Institute for two days, give a 2-1/2 hour presentation (including a question and answer period), and take meals with the students. Each speaker will receive an honorarium, plus travel, lodging, and meals at the institute site. For more information on each institute, please consult their web sites: Brown: http://www.sippatbrown.com/ Rutgers: http://philosophy.rutgers.edu/events-335/summer-institute UCSD: http://spwp.ucsd.edu/2017-program/ Applications are now be sought for these appointments. Applicants to be the ASA speaker must be current members of the ASA. Applicants should … Continue reading →