Reports to the Board of Trustees, 2016 Annual Meeting

Newsletter of the American Society for AestheticsAnnual Report to the Board of Trustees—October 2016

Three issues of the Newsletter were published since our last Annual Report. Winter 2015 (vol. 35, no. 3) contained an article by Thomas Wartenberg, “Doing Philosophy with Children,” “Exquisite Palimpsests,” by Mara Leigh Koslen, and reminiscences of Francis Sparshott by Jenefer Robinson Philip Alperson. Spring 2016 (vol. 36, no. 1) featured “Arts of the Impossible,” by Fisher Prize winner Jason Leddington, as well as “An Aesthetics of Games,” by C. Thi Nguyen. The Summer 2016 issue (vol. 36, no. 2) was devoted to the 25th anniversary of the ASA’s Feminist Caucus, and contained articles by Sherri Irvin (“How and Why to Teach Inclusively in Aesthetics”), Sheila Lintott (“Aesthetics, Feminist Theory, and Feminist Aesthetics”), and John Carvalho (“On the ‘Post’ in ‘Post-Feminism’). We would like to thank all of our contributors for the rich and diverse collection of articles and for conference reports from the various ASA meetings. The Newsletter has benefited from people approaching us with new ideas and suggestions for articles, and we hope that people will continue to do so in the future. We continue to welcome submissions for our major columns: Aesthetics News, Conference Reports, Calls for Papers, Upcoming Events and Active Aestheticians, as well as suggestions for articles. In the coming year, we will be continuing our various series, including articles from ASA members who are also artists (about their art and its relationship to their work in aesthetics), the “Author’s Perspective” series, and book reviews from a teaching perspective. If you would like to submit an article or book review, please contact the editors.

Maintaining our practices of the last few years, we have been printing the logo and trim for the Newsletter in color, and including black-and-white images of art and our authors. We continue to work with Jason Zibell of the Print Shop of Savannah, Georgia for the hard copy that is mailed to members. Rob van Gerwen, the ASA website editor, has taken over managing online access to the journal issues and articles. We owe both of them thanks for fulfilling these roles with excellence.

For professional and family reasons (all good things!), Henry Pratt has decided to step down as co-editor, but will cheerfully remain during the process of selecting and training a replacement. David Goldblatt will stay on. We recommend that the new editor has some familiarity with desktop publishing and, ideally, an institutionally provided license for Adobe’s Creative Suite (we use InDesign for producing the Newsletter). Henry would like to thank all the authors with whom he has worked, Secretary-Treasurers Dabney Townshend and Julie Van Camp, and, in particular, David Goldblatt for making co-editing the Newsletter such a great experience, and he encourages interested parties to apply for the position.

David Goldblatt and Henry PrattASA Newsletter co-editors

ASAGE Report to the Board of Trustees - 2016

In 2016, ASAGE published the two issues of its eighth volume. We received submissions from the US, Canada, New Zealand, and Japan. Across these issues, we published two articles and three book reviews on a wide range of topics in aesthetics and the philosophy of art, including the restoration of artworks, the ontology of art, the appreciation of fiction, and the aesthetics of design. Of 13 submissions, we

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published 5 items, making the acceptance rate 38%.

Most recently, ASAGE published issue 8.2. It includes one article, "The Mental Functions of Appreciating Fiction" by Naoko Ishida (Ochanomizu University) and a review of Diane Forsey's The Aesthetics of Design by Ben Evans (The New School). The striking cover image is by Diano MacCormick.

The preparation of this issue marked a transition in the editorial team. Michel-Antoine Xhignesse served as managing editor so that Nick Curry (then book reviews editor) could shadow him, while Eric Murphy (the incoming reviews editor) shadowed Nick. Nick and Eric are now at the helm, and are seeking submissions for this winter’s Issue 9.1.

-Nick Curry (University of Illinois at Chicago)Managing Editor, ASAGE

ASA Web site

A major priority in 2015 was shifting to a new, more sophisticated Web site. After consulting with the American Philosophical Association and checking with other clients, we signed on with YourMembership.com. We also recruited a new Web Editor (Rob van Gerwen in the Netherlands) in June 2015 (after pleading, to no avail, with Dom Lopes to continue in perpetuity as Web Editor).

The summer of 2015 was devoted to going through tutorials provided by YourMembership.com and getting the site set up. The social media ad hoc committee and a few committee chairs and editors were given access to the beta site to provide input. Setting up the site was very complicated. The Secretary-Treasurer thought it important that she be able to provide back-up on the site, in case the Web editor was not available in an emergency. In addition, the new site has many more capabilities than the old one, including extensive membership records, as well as more sophisticated e-commerce functions and member-only opportunities. The new credit card processor carries liability insurance and extra security measures and the accountable person needs to be in the United States. A division of labor was thus worked out, in which the web editor manages the red tabs on the top of the site, along with all photos (the slide shows and photo gallery) and the ST manages the e-commerce functions (memberships, donations, and meeting registrations), as well as items with immediate information needs from the Board (News, Meetings, Elections, etc.).

The new site is not cheap. The annual license for YourMembership.com is $6495, plus an extra $500 for the higher level of SSL security. But the extra capabilities justify the expense. Many compliments have come in since the site went live on August 28, 2015. We have received three complaints from senior members, mainly that the site loads too slowly and is confusing to use. But as members learn to use the capabilities, we are confident that most will come to like it.

-J. Van CampOctober 18, 2016

Social Media ad hoc Subcommittee

An ad hoc subcommittee was appointed in 2014 to work with the new Secretary-Treasurer on various social media: Gemma Arguello, Sondra Bacharach, Cynthia Freeland, Dom Lopes, and the Secretary-Treasurer.

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FACEBOOK: In the past two years, we have added an official Facebook site (https://www.facebook.com/AmericanSocietyForAesthetics/), open to anyone, and a Facebook site with information about our Annual meeting, also open to anyone (https://www.facebook.com/ASAAnnualMeeting/. The two people who post on those official pages are the Secretary-Treasurer and the Facebook Manager.We also have a Facebook-group (https://www.facebook.com/groups/7399905817/) , open to anyone, which now has 731 members; ASA membership is not required, so this has become a good way for newcomers to explore aesthetics and learn about our activities, as well as those of others in aesthetics. We do screen out persons who are seeking sites on plastic surgery and refer them to other sites. An ASA member, Gemma Arguello, had previously started an unofficial Facebook site on aesthetics; after a public recruitment, she was appointed to manage the ASA sites, with an annual honorarium of $1000. She has a two-year term and will be reviewed in the summer of 2017. When a group contacts us with a CFP for an aesthetics event, we typically post it on the CFP page of the web site, the Facebook group, and the print ASA Newsletter.

TWITTER: A Twitter account was established in early 2015, which is managed by the Secretary-Treasurer: @ASA_aesthetics. The Twitter feed appears on the home page of the web site. It is used mainly for announcements of ASA events, deadlines, grant awards, etc., with a link to a web page with more information. Several other aesthetics-related Twitter accounts regularly forward our Tweets (Aesthetics at Kent, the British Society of Aesthetics, etc.).

INSTAGRAM and YOU-TUBE: We decided against pursuing accounts with these media. In part, it was unclear how to oversee and edit these so we would be putting our best face forward. As these evolve, we will take another look at these venues.

WEB EDITOR: This committee reviewed the four applications to be Web Editor in summer of 2015 and made the final selection. It will conduct a two-year review in 2017.

-J. Van CampOctober 17, 2016

ASA Program Chair’s Report for the 2016 Annual MeetingSherri Irvin

We received 100 paper submissions for the meeting. Of these, a few were desk rejected as unsuitable (all were submitted by an aesthetic surgery research team and addressed such matters as global aesthetic surgery statistics). One was desk rejected because it was far over the word limit. One was withdrawn.

Two members of the program committee reviewed each of the 95 remaining submissions, all of which were prepared for anonymous review. Where the reviewers’ verdicts were polarized (one very strongly in favor, one very strongly opposed) and the submission was on a traditionally marginalized topic, the submission was sent to an additional program committee member for review. There were four such submissions, and two were eventually accepted.

We accepted 51 papers for the program, for an acceptance rate of 53.7% of refereed submissions. 33 of the submissions were solely authored by women, and one had a woman co-author. Of these 34 submissions, 19 were accepted, for an acceptance rate of 55.9%. One of the 19 was later withdrawn.

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We received 12 panel submissions. Of these, one was withdrawn. All program committee members reviewed the remaining submissions, and the eight submissions with the highest aggregate review scores were accepted. As in past years, panel proposals were more likely than submitted papers to address traditionally marginalized topics; the acceptance rate for panels was higher in part because we wished to ensure the inclusion of such topics on the program.

The program committee consisted of Emily Brady, Susan Feagin, John Gibson, Darren Hudson Hick, Carolyn Korsmeyer, Shen-yi Liao, Nick Riggle, Monique Roelofs, Stephanie Ross, Sandra Shapshay, Saam Trivedi and Sarah Worth. I am grateful to them for their outstanding work.

Report to Trustees from Diversity Committee, November 2016

1. The Diversity Committee, chaired by Anne Eaton (U. Illinois-Chicago), met on November 13 2015 at the ASA annual meeting in Savannah. Over 30 ASA members attended this meeting, where we discussed various means of promoting diversity and inclusion in the ASA. In particular the following items were addressed: We congratulated the 2015 Curriculum Diversification Grant winners! Monique Roelofs,

Associate Professor of Philosophy at Hampshire College, and Simon Fokt, a Learning Technologist at the University of Edinburgh. The Diversity Committee received strong applications from scholars (all ASA members) in the U.S., the UK, and South America, which were anonymously refereed by a committee.

We discussed various panel ideas, including:o “Black Music in Irregular Spaces” suggested by Charles Peterson. (This panel was

accepted to the main program of the 2016 meeting.) o Panel on Disability and Aesthetics: Aili Bresnahan and Michael Deckard had suggested a

panel last time we met (2014), and agreed to work with Sherri Irvin to propose a panel to honor Tobin Siebers. (This panel was accepted to the main program of the 2016 meeting.)

We discussed various ways of increasing diversity and inclusion at the meetings and in the Society in general, including:

o A motion to provide waivers of annual meeting registration fees for first-time attendance students and faculty at Minority Serving Institutions. (Submitted to Finance Committee.)

o A motion to support a prize for a paper submitted to the annual meeting for members from traditionally underrepresented groups or about a topic in aesthetics/philosophy of art pertaining to traditionally underrepresented groups. Nils-Hennes Stear is chairing the subcommittee working on this, and the proposal for this prize is still in the works.

2. The Diversity Committee ran the Curriculum Diversification Grant competition again in 2016. We received 5 strong applications from ASA members. The applications were anonymously refereed by a committee. The results of awardees research have been published on the ASA website and other venues (Anne Eaton is working on linking this to the APA’s page for Diversity and Inclusiveness Syllabus Collection). The following three projects were awarded grants:

a. Meilin Chin (Assistant Professor, Santa Clara University), Asian Aestheticsb. Mariana Ortega (Professor, John Carroll University), Aesthetic Othering—The Case of

Photographic Representationc. Hans Maes (Senior Lecturer, Kent University, UK), The Aesthetics of Portraiture

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The Diversity Committee is grateful to the Trustees for their support and welcomes questions and comments from the Trustees about the grants, the selection process, or anything else related to promoting diversity in the ASA.

2016 Report on the ASA Feminist Caucus Committee

The 25th Anniversary celebration of the Feminist Caucus Committee (FCC) was celebrated in conjunction with the annual ASA meeting that ran from November 11-14, 2015, with a full day of workshop discussions on Saturday, November 14, followed by a celebratory reception at the Desoto Hilton Hotel, Savannah, Georgia. Thanks to all the speakers who participated by presenting their research and thoughts, to the FCC working committee—Sheila Lintott, Sarah Worth, Nils Stear, Tim Gould, and particularly Carolyn Korsmeyer and Ivan Gaskell who helped organize and chair sessions—and to those who attended. We welcomed the opportunity to honor Donald Crawford, former editor of The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, who in 1990 published the first special issue of JAAC devoted to feminist scholarship in aesthetics.

A full summary of the day’s events and 3 specific presentations can be found in the ASA Newsletter 36:2 (Summer 2016) and the full program is posted on the updated FCC website at http://aesthetics-online.org/?page=feminist. Special thanks to Andrew Kania, Chair of the annual Program Committee, for the privilege of presenting a full day of workshops; and as always, a hearty thanks to President Cynthia Freeland, past President Dom Lopes, and the ASA trustees for their support. No report would be complete without heartfelt thanks to S-T Julie Van Camp for her attention to detail and efficiency in making all sessions and our annual luncheon worry-free. Thanks also for her work to assist young members of the ASA, e.g., travel funds, the Rutgers Summer Institute for Diversity in Philosophy (in 2016, ASA representative was Anna Christina Ribeiro), the UCSD Summer Program in Philosophy for Women (in 2016, Sondra Bacharach).

Main issues that persist for the FCC within the ASA: (1) low numbers of female authors published in JAAC (as well as the BJA)(2) sharing of resources for teaching feminist aesthetics, including the persistent low number of

feminist essays in textbooks, anthologies, online journals, etc.(3) feminist representation on the board of the Journal (as well as the BJA) and more transparency

for how JAAC board members are chosen and approved for the position

New ideas are always welcome; members should consider suggestions for the three main issues discussed here, plus future improvements to the website, more sessions on gender, more women in the ASA particularly its governing boards, and more direct engagement with each other and the content of our pedagogy (for instance, in the past, it was suggested that we share syllabi online or similar to the Diversity Committee, set up our own version of the successful Diversity Grants, internally funded by the ASA).

Sheila Lintott (chair of the 2016 FCC annual meeting session on Subversive Humor) graciously accepted to serve as assistant chair of the FCC. Although no official guidelines are in place, we should establish a length of tenure (the current chair has served for 3 years) in order to insure continuity with new, fresh leadership as chair and assistant chair.

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The FCC continues—both at annual meetings and throughout the year—to engage new members; our annual luncheon business meetings are typically filled to capacity (approximately 40 persons) and there continue to be over 140 names on the ASA FCC listserv.

Respectfully submitted by Peg Brand Weiser, Chair of the FCCConference Report for the American Society for Aesthetics, Eastern Division Meeting 2016

The 2016 Eastern Division Meeting of the American Society for Aesthetics took place on April 15-16, 2016, at the Independence Park Hotel in Philadelphia, PA.

As in past years, Temple University held its Monroe Beardsley Lecture at the time of the conference, sponsoring the lecture and the reception that followed. This year’s address, entitled “Relics, Remnants, and Scrap: In Pursuit of the Genuine,” was given by Carolyn Korsmeyer (University at Buffalo – SUNY). Here she argued that genuine things can deliver an aesthetic encounter of a distinctive sort, one that can put us in the presence of the past; and that the sense of touch is part of this experience.

The conference’s Plenary Lecture was given by Robert Hopkins (New York University), and was entitled, “Imaginative Understanding, Affective Profiles, and the Expression of Emotion in Art.” Here Hopkins defended a theory inspired by R.G. Collingwood that drew on the philosophy of mind hypothesis for which emotions and other affective states are to be treated as analogous to the sensory profiles exhibited by the things to which we affectively respond.

We received 40 paper submissions, 27 from men and 13 from women; of them, 14 submissions were from students. We accepted 18 individual papers, seven of which were from students. Of the accepted papers, 13 were from men and five from women. We also received three panel proposals and were able to accept all three. These comprised three men and six women. In addition, the invited panels comprised three women and three men. Overall, then, there were 19 men and 14 women presenting.

Paper topics covered such subjects as street art, culture, environmental aesthetics, horror, ugliness, deformity, emotional engagement, the jazz aesthetic, the ontology of art, sonic images, recordings, performances, and art history and museums. The three submitted panels were entitled Un)Disciplining Bodies: Narrative Disparities of Ideal Body Aesthetics in Art, Sport, and Culture (proposed by Lauren Alpert, and chaired by Aili Bresnahan); Conversations with Hegel about Artworks Produced after Hegel's Death (proposed by Paul Kottman); and Aesthetics of Ugliness (proposed by Lara Ostaric). In addition we had two invited panels: 1) Fiction, Non-Fiction, and Film (in collaboration with the Society for Cognitive Studies of the Moving Image), with Dirk Eitzen, Laura Di Summa-Knoop, and Paloma Atencia-Linares presenting (chaired by Charles Peterson), and 2) Portraiture, with Cynthia Freeland, Hans Maes, and Daniel J. Graham presenting (chaired by Alessandro Giovannelli).

We are grateful for the assistance of David Clowney (who provided beverages for one of the receptions and a projector), Lafayette College (which provided secretarial support, in addition to a projector and program printing), Temple University (which provided two graduate student assistants to help with registration), and Julie Van Camp, ASA Treasurer, who provided continuous assistance during the organization phase, and, at the conference’s business meeting, offered a presentation on the ASA and some of its new projects. In addition we thank Thomas Adajian, Sondra Bacharach, Christopher Bartel,

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Kristin Boyce, Douglas Berger, John Carvalho, David Clowney, Brandon Cooke, Eva Dadlez, Elisabeth Schellekens Dammann, David Davies, Michael Deckard, Anne Eaton, Richard Eldridge, Susan Feagin, Ivan Gaskell, Timothy Gould, John Kulvicki, Samantha Matherne, Ronald Moore, Jonathan Neufeld, Anna Christina Ribeiro, Nicholas Riggle, Jenefer Robinson, Monique Roelofs, James Shelley, and Julie Van Camp for serving on this year’s Review Committee. Many of the above-mentioned individuals also served as commentators on papers.

Finally, we are pleased to announce the ASA Eastern Division organizers for 2017, who will be Alessandro Giovannelli (Lafayette College) and Brandon Cooke (Minnesota State University, Mankato). The meeting will take place on April 28-29, 2017, at the Independence Park Hotel in Philadelphia.

Aili Bresnahan and Alessandro GiovannelliConference Report for the 2016 Pacific Division Meeting of the American Society for AestheticsAsilomar Conference GroundsPacific Grove, CaliforniaApril 6-8, 2016

Program Co-Chairs: Bill Seeley (University of New Hampshire and Bates College)Olivier Matthieu (University of New Mexico)

The 2016 Eastern Division Meeting of the American Society for Aesthetics took place on April 6-8, 2016, at at the Asilomar Conference Grounds in Pacific Grove, California. I believe that this was the 41st year that the meeting has been held at Asilomar (the ASA archives show 1975 as the first year the Division met there). Asilomar, as many of us are familiar, provides a rustic, intimate setting that fosters collaboration among members of the society across different cohorts with a wide variety of research interests. These are essential qualities of what Olivier and I interpreted as a tacit mission statement for the Pacific Division: to foster community within the American Society of Aesthetics among the diverse array of our members at different stages in their careers.

There has been a great deal of discussion within recent years about the venue. The central concern is the cost. The central question of these debates is whether the benefits of meeting at Asilomar offset the cost to our participants. Asilomar is not located in a big city. This adds substantially to the travel costs and time spent getting to and from the conference. But most importantly, the cost to the Division is substantial. The fees charged by Asilomar are challenging for organizations like the regional divisions of the ASA. These factors are likely contributors to the fact that registrations, and as a result funds available, have been down in recent years. Olivier and I took on the roles of co-chairs for the Division with a clear understanding of these challenges. Our hope was that we could manage to increase attendance and energize a new cohort of younger members of the ASA to embrace Asilomar as a venue for the conference. We did succeed in increasing attendance for the conference and increasing the budget rollover available for conference planning for the 2017 meeting. However, we did so in part by increasing the number of participants on the conference program. It is question for future discussion whether this is the right strategy for a conference like the Pacific Division meeting.

We should mention that, even with increased attendance, the fee structure for the meeting had to be adjusted to meet our budgetary challenges. This has been a continuing trend for registration fees over the past several years. This trend has required a shift in the expectations of the members of the Division.

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Olivier and I felt that the change in fee structure was not unreasonable. However, the full range of these issues should be a point for discussion going forward. There are clear arguments in favor of Asilomar as a venue for this meeting. The long standing tradition of a close, intimate meeting that fosters community among philosophers with different research interests at different stages in their careers exemplifies the spirit of our discipline. The question remains whether Asilomar is an essential element of this mission.

We received 47 paper submissions. 21 of these submissions were from women and 15 were from graduate students. We accepted 24 individual papers. Among those papers, 8 were presented as part of three panels, 6 were graduate student submissions, and 9 were submitted by women. We had 42 participants on the program of which 17 were women. Topics covered ranged from Everyday Computer Aesthetics, Embodied Cognition and Baseball, and the Ethics of Sports to Philosophy of Literature, Ontology of Art, Conceptual Art, and Musical Expression. Highlights from the program included a panel Everyday Computer Aesthetics: Computer Games: Towards an Aesthetics of Constraint organized by Thi Nguyen (Utah Valley University), a paper on musical expression presented by Jerry Levinson, Music‐Specific Emotion: An Elusive Quarry (University of Maryland) with comments by Margaret Moore (University of Tennessee). A paper presented by Alva Noë on embodied cognition and art, Keeping Score in baseball with comments by Eleanor Helms (CalPloy State University, San Louis Obispo), a paper on the ethics of sports presented by Peg Brand (Indiana University, Purdue) and Ed Weiser, Misleading Aesthetic Norms of Beauty: Perceptual Sexism in Elite Women Sports, with comments by Jennifer Judkins (UCLA), and a panel organized by Sherri Irvin, On Conceptual and Contemporary art; Ontology, Appreciation, Understanding. Elisabeth Shellekens provided commentary for this panel which included a discussion of the contributions that Peter Goldie made to the philosophical study of conceptual art.

We also continued what we hope will be a growing tradition. We used $2000 made available by the ASA for program development to invite 3 speakers for a panel on a contemporary interdisciplinary issue in a novel domain that is stretching the boundaries of our discipline. This year we invited James Cutting from Psychology Department at Cornell University to speak about the psychology and neuroscience of film, Amy Coplan from the Philosophy Department at CalState-Fullerton to speak about the philosophy and cognitive science of film, and Robert Sinnerbrink from the Philosophy Department at Macquarie University to comment on this growing field of research from a Film Studies perspective. We used the funds we received from the ASA to help with travel and lodging for the invited speakers.

Finally, we are pleased to announce the Pacific Division meeting organizers for 2017, who will be Olivier Matthieu (University of New Mexico) and Margaret Moore (University of Tennessee). The meeting will take place on April 5-7, 2017, at the Asilomar Conference Grounds in Pacific Grove, California. The Pacific ASA plans to experiment with a new format this coming year. The 2017 program co-chairs have elected to publish papers in advance and limit presentation time to 10 minutes. This decision reflects discussion at the 2016 Pacific Division business meeting and the advice of senior members of the Division. The hope is the format will encourage thoughtful conversation and further foster the kind of close community that has come to define the the Pacific Division meeting.

Bill Seeley and Olivier Matthieu

The 2016 Annual Meeting of the Rocky Mountain Division of the ASA

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Annual Report Overview The Rocky Mountain Division held its 33st annual meeting at Drury Plaza Hotel, just north of downtown plaza in Santa Fe, New Mexico, July 8-10, 2016. Opening remarks by Division President Reuben J. Ellis, Vice President Sheryl Tuttle-Ross, and Secretary Arthur Stewart began at 8:30 on Friday, July 8. Following opening remarks, the group heard from Julie C. Van Camp, Secretary-Treasurer & Executive Director, American Society for Aesthetics with updates about the ASA. The first session began at 9:00. The business meeting was held 12:15-1:50pm on Saturday, July 9. This year, we were pleased to have independent scholar Jeanette Bicknell deliver the Manual Davenport Keynote Address on Friday afternoon. Claudia Mills of the University of Colorado--Boulder delivered the Michael Manson Keynote Presentation by the Visiting Artist on Saturday afternoon. The Saturday evening reception was held at the hotel was reasonably well attended. The group was also hosted on Friday by Reuben Ellis and Rebecca Mardach for a “Santa Fe Soirée,” this year a gallery walk down Santa Fe’s storied Canyon Road. Program This year 43 papers were presented. This compares with the past four years as follows: 2016: 43 papers 2015: 41 papers 2014: 33 papers 2013: 26 papers 2012: 27 papers The forty-three presentations reflect the long-standing interdisciplinary focus of the division, in order of presentation as follows: Antony Aumann, Northern Michigan University, "Form and Content in Emily Dickinson's Poetry" John Samson, Texas Tech University, "The Aesthetics of Darkness and Oblivion: Melville's Ocean in

Moby-Dick" Kari Hanson, Western Michigan University , “Against Terrible Beauties” Graham Bounds, University of New Mexico, “A Cheap Holiday in Other People's Misery: Towards a

Compatibilist Theory of Immoral Art" E.M. Dadlez, University of Central Oklahoma, “Valar Morghulis: Arya Stark as Humean Rough Hero” Edyta J. Kuzian, New York University, “Modernism in Dance: What Kind of Bodily Art Performance

Manifests Aesthetic Expressivity?” Aron Edidin, New College of Florida, "Musical Agency and Artistry in Group Performance" Jeremy Fried, University of Oklahoma, “Protecting Works: The Intersection of Ontology and Copyright” James Janowski, Hampden-Sydney College, “What is a Restored Artwork?” David Conter, Western University, “Fictional Characters and Their Names” Thomas Alexander, Southern Illinois University Carbondale, “Environmental Aesthetics and Ecological

Art” David Schwartz, Randolph College, “Art, Nature, Meaning” Reuben Ellis, Woodbury University, “Cairns: Navigating, Reading, Living” S. K. Wertz, Texas Christian University, “Artists as Persons: Collingwood’s Account” James Mock, University of Central Oklahoma, “E.H. Gombrich’s Psychology and His Theory of the Art

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Object” Gina Zavota, Kent State University, “A Gift More Sublime: The Place of Thought in Symbolist Aesthetics” Matthew Crippen, American University in Cairo, “Acting Invitations in Cinema” Ian Schnee, University of Washington, “Reviving Identification” Ron Apgar, Clinical Psychologist, “Psychology and Art” Raphael Sassower, University of Colorado, Colorado Springs, “Performative Philosophy” Eric Murphy, McGill University, “Works as a Kind” Ariane Nomikos, University at Buffalo (SUNY), “Place Matters” Arthur Stewart, Center for Philosophical Studies at Lamar University, “Further (A)esthetic Insights in

Religious Dimensions of Peirce’s Thought: Professor Fairbanks on "Peirce on Religious Sensibility", and Peirce’s "Art-Creations."

Cheongho Lee, Southern Illinois University, “Feeling Nature: Neville’s Theory of Interpretation” Jeremy Killian, Coastal Carolina University, “How Does the Story Make me Feel? Carroll’s Hermeneutic

of Emotion and Feeling Theory” James R (Randy) Fromm, New Mexico State University, "Effing Ineffability: Rhetoric - Aesthetics – Affect David Liakos University of New Mexico, Philosophy, "Reading Oneself in the Text: Gadamer and Cavell’s

Romantic Theory of Reading" Jeremy Millington, Temple University, “Art, Conversation, and Dancing Penguins” Julianne Chung, University of Louisville, "Literature, Knowledge, and Skill" Leo Romero, Writer, Santa Fe, NM, “Piñon Trees: A Vanishing Landscape” Brenda Romero, University of Colorado Boulder, “Performing the New Mexican Indita” Michael Mauldin, Composer, Albuquerque, NM, “Beyond the Four Hills” Felicia Kruse Alexander, Southern Illinois University Carbondale, “Metaphors of Embodiment in Musical

Gestures” Jon M. Mikkelsen, Missouri Western State University, "What Should a Museum Exhibition Catalog Do?

American Epics: Thomas Hart Benton and Hollywood Sheryl Tuttle Ross, University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, “Some Art Propaganda for Feminist Propaganda—

A Response to Lucy Lippard” Evan Malone, The University of Houston, “Allegory & The Mind Wendy Bustamante, Texas A&M University, "Shakespeare, Sickness, and Anxiety: Kierkegaard's Allusions

to Macbeth for Concepts of Sin, Gender, and Despair" Norm Fischer, Kent State University, “Balzac under the Lens of Lukacs’ and Hegel’s Aesthetics” Tim Gould, Metropolitan State University of Denver, “Objects and Fetishes” Michael Lucas, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, “Violet Light Meets a Saffron

Sky: Poiesis for Beginning Designers” B. Sandrisser, Architectural And Environmental Aesthetics, New York, NY, “Japanese Festivals: Aesthetic

Appreciation” Cornelia A. Tsakiridou, La Salle University, "Eschatology and the Harmonizing Icon" Robert Fudge, Weber State University, "Aesthetic Consolation in the Face of the Sixth Mass Extinction" Joseph Weiss, DePaul University, “Karl Krauss Meets Charlie Brooker at the End of the World” The session chairs managed the timing of presentations and discussions with uniform excellence and grace. We offer thanks to all of them: Felicia Kruse Alexander, Thomas Alexander, Randy Fromm, E.M. Dadlez, David Liakos, Reuben Ellis, Jon Mark Mikkelsen, James Mock, Sheryl Tuttle Ross, Raphael Sassower, Arthur Stewart, Tim Gould, and Spencer Wertz, some of whom chaired more than one session. Awards

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This year’s schedule included the third annual presentation of the RMDASA Graduate Student Essay Award for Best Paper in Philosophy. This year, there was a tie, and so four prizes of $125 each were awarded. The 2016 winners of the Graduate Student Essay Award were: Wendy Bustamante, Texas A&M University Jeremy Millington , Temple University Eric Murphy, McGill University Ariane Nomikos, SUNY-Buffalo The prize is made possible by the generous support of The Center for Philosophical Studies, Lamar University, Arthur Stewart, Director. The RMDASA wishes to express its appreciation to Dr. Stewart for his annual five-hundred dollars of financial support for the past fourteen years, as well as his funding of the Graduate Student Essay Award established in 2014. Business 2016 marked the second year of the term of Division President Reuben J. Ellis and the first year of service of Vice President Sheryl Tuttle-Ross. Arthur Stewart continued his service as Secretary. This year’s business meeting was attended by 14 members/participants (an increase of 2 from 2015). Attendees were: Reuben Ellis, Sheryl Tuttle Ross, Arthur Stewart, Spencer Wertz, James Mock, Eva Dadlez, Tim Gould, Norman Fischer, Jo Ellen Jacobs, Barbara Sandrisser, Antony Aumann, Randy Fromm, Jon Mikkelsen, Felcia Kruse Alexander. Discussion points (from the minutes composed by Sheryl Tuttle-Ross) were: 1. 2015 Minutes Approved 2. Brief Announcements: a. Reuben Ellis—thanks to everyone for attending. The conference is going well, and we welcome your participation. We would like your input about the conference venue. b. Julie Van Camp— i. ASARMD is in good standing with the National Organization—American Society for Aesthetics. All participants (with the exception of keynote speakers) are expected to belong to the ASA. Remember that the ASA will benefit if we require students to download journal articles for assignments (as opposed to simply downloading it for them.) ii. ASARMD is in very good financial standing. Cf. Conference Budget handout dated 7/8/2016 iii. The ASA has many opportunities for members. There are opportunities to apply for funds for one day conferences or other activities. c. Sheryl Tuttle Ross,--- We decided to go for a 5 year contract (through 2021) with Drury Santa Fe because it offered us the best negotiating position, and it minimized decision-making burdens. We plan to enter into negotiations about the next 5 years after the 2020 conference, and we hope to be able to use the ASA national negotiator who helped us secure such a good deal. 3. Old Business: RMD Publication. a. The question was put to the floor whether we want to pursue publication in some format of conference proceedings. i. Discussion: This would be a large under-taking and would require a commitment beyond what the officers of the board have committed to in their agreement to occupy the position.

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ii. Discussion: The publication of the proceeding might not count as a publication for the purposes of tenure/promotion for certain members (on the flip side, it would count for other institutions. iii. Discussion: Arthur Stewart would be willing to entertain book proposals. He already has plans in progress for books by E.M. Dadlez, J. Mock, S.K Wertz and others. iv. Discussion: Perhaps we could email participants a list of journals or publishers that might be venues for further dissemination of one’s research. v. Motion: Have officers develop list of possible publication venues for distribution Fall 2016. M/S/P. b. Possible Scalable Day Rate: i. Discussion: There are some former students of participants or friends/ family who would like to attend one or more sessions of the conference, but not necessarily the whole thing, and it gets too expensive for causal participants. There is also a problem that some sessions have fewer audience members than we would ideally like to have. ii. Motion: The audience & general public can be admitted free of charge. M/S/P c. Continued formalization of cfp posting/ submission deadline/ notification of acceptance. CFP by December 1st 2016; Deadline March 1st; Acceptances April 1st.

Adjourned: 1:50 pm. Financials Division Financials (from the 7.19.16 report prepared by Julie Van Camp) are as follows: REVENUE Starting balance from 2015 $4,465.40 registration final $4,910.00 Stewart donation $500.00 * ASA Program Enhancement funds $2,000.00 TOTAL REVENUE $11,875.40 EXPENSES The Lodge-meeting venue $- Catering Eloisa Catering $2,891.86 AV (162.47+35.74) $198.21 Travel: Ross $500.00 Travel: Stewart $500.00 Ellis Fund for 2017-TBD $500.00 Student Prize: Bustamante (check) $125.00 Student Prize: Millington (check) $125.00 Student Prize: Murphy (check) $125.00 Student Prize: Nomikoa (check) $125.00 * Honorarium: Jeanette Bicknell (check) $600.00 * Honorarium: Claudia Mills (check) $600.00 * Travel: Jeanette Bicknell (check) $300.00 * Travel: Claudia Mills (check) $300.00 * Parking: Claudia Mills (master bill) $45.48 * Lodging: Bicknell (master bill) $550.05 * Lodging: Mills (master bill) $366.70 TOTAL EXPENSES $7,852.30 BALANCE: CARRY-FORWARD FOR 2017 $4,023.10

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* items justifying ASA Program Enhancement Funds The Division is in excellent condition financially. The starting balance for 2017 is $442.30 less than it was for 2016, but still above the $4000 target set by Division officers. Registration revenue increased over 2016 by $710.00, or 117.74% of 2015. Expenses increased rather dramatically, more than doubling from 2015, from $3181.05 to $7852.30, or 246.84%. This increase in expenses can be accounted for by increases in the following categories: venue costs travel reimbursements for keynote speakers travel reimbursements for officers. Officers will monitor expenses for 2017, particularly in the area of venue costs. Expenses were offset by ASA Program Enhancement funds in the amount of $2000. The Division is much appreciative of this support. Next Meeting The date for the 2017 meeting of the RMDASA was set for July 7-9, 2017 again at the Drury Plaza Hotel. Arrangements for the 2017 meeting and the call for papers were announced according to the normal schedule on both the ASA and Division websites. Reuben Ellis President of the RMDASA Submitted 10.13.16 Dissertation FellowshipWe are very pleased to report that David Johnson, Northwestern University, recipient of the first Dissertation Fellowship (for 2015-16) completed his dissertation and received his PhD in September 2016. (His report is included under Completed Grants-3ALvi.) He published one article near the end of his fellowship period (“Pictorial Athleticism and Intensity in Francis Bacon,” Deleuze Studies 10.2 [2016]: 186-205). We had received ten nominations that first year.

In spring 2016 we awarded our second dissertation fellowship, for 2016-17, to Marilynn Johnson at CUNY-Graduate Center. The decision was made by a subcommittee appointed by the President. The identities of this committee are confidential, as it might otherwise complicate the process of asking people to join the committee in the future. Unfortunately, the original guidelines prohibited reapplication, so none of the original nominees could apply for the second year. Fortunately, the committee agreed that Marilynn Johnson’s application was so strong that we did not hesitate to award her the fellowship.

We requested the board to revise the guidelines in two key areas: (1) Effective with the 2017-18 competition, reapplications will be accepted. Anecdotally, we know that many of the original ten applicants have not yet completed their degrees and we hope they will try again. (2) Applicants are now eligible from North America, not just the United States. We think that will also increase the applicant pool somewhat in the future.

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We recommend that the Board review this program in 2018, especially to determine the success of fellowship recipients at completing their dissertations, as three fellowships will have been awarded by then.

-J. Van Camp10/17/2016

REPORT ON MONOGRAPH PRIZE FOR 2015

We received four nominations for the Monograph Prize for 2016. President Cynthia Freeland appointed three distinguished ASA members to serve as the selection committee; their identities are confidential in perpetuity, following past practice. The winner has been notified and will be present at the meeting to accept the award, when it is announced at the Business meeting Saturday, November 19. The prize is $1000, with travel support up to $1250. Postage for shipping books to the committee by USPS Priority mail totaled $143.81.

The President noted that the secrecy of the identity of the selection committee complicates the process of asking people to join the committee. She collected from memory names of those who had served in recent years from the previous president and will forward that to the next president.

We were disappointed that we received only four nominations, after receiving nine the previous year. However, there had been very extensive publicity on the ASA Website, bulk e-mail to all ASA members and lapsed members from 2015, Facebook, Twitter, and Philos-L. We have already received two nominations for the 2017 award and will continue extensive publicity. In addition, the committee had the option of adding nominations to the list, if it so desired.

The guidelines are available on the ASA web site and do not need updating. Nominees must be by current ASA members and the members of the selection committee must also be ASA members; this was verified by the Secretary-Treasurer.

-Julie Van CampOctober 17, 2016

Ted Cohen Prize

2016 is the second year for the award of the Ted Cohen Prize, established initially with a $5,000 donation from Andy Austin Cohen. The President appointed three persons as the review committee. Sixteen nominations were received and the winner will be announced at the Business Meeting Saturday, November 19 in Seattle.

When this prize was established in 2014, the Board of Trustees required that it be supported entirely from donations. In addition to the $5,000 initial donation, we have received seven donations, totaling $3,000. Some are anonymous to everyone (except the Secretary-Treasurer). Some are confidential but approve letting us notify Andy Cohen, who likes to thank donors, when she can.

The balance as of October 14, 2016, in this account is $6,193.92. We expect to spend $1000 on the prize for 2016 and $1250 on the winner’s travel. That will leave a balance of $3943.92, a little less than needed to support the prize for two years. We regularly solicit donations via the newsletter in reports on the Prize and in other venues.

-J. Van CampOctober 16, 2016

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Selma Jeanne Cohen Prize in Dance Aesthetics

2016 is the first year in which the Prize will be awarded every year. Only articles from journal articles or anthologies were eligible. We received eight submissions (articles published in the last two years), but one was ineligible due to publication prior to the period of eligibility. The Committee of three ASA members appointed by the President selected one prize winner, which will be announced at the Business Meeting in Seattle, Saturday, November 19, 2016. The Committee also made several recommendations for clarification of the guidelines, which were approved by the Board of Trustees September 11, 2016, and are now posted on the ASA Web site.

A Dance Scholars Breakfast honoring the winner will be held in Seattle on 11/19/2016. As we did in 2015 to honor that year’s winner, one goal is to promote interdisciplinary conversations among ASA members and the winner. In 2015 ten people attended. For 2017, everyone known to have worked on dance aesthetics who is attending the meeting has been invited, and 15 people are expected.

For 2017, only books will be eligible, but as it will be a three-period of eligibility, we expect quite a few nominations. Indeed, two have already been submitted, even though the deadline is June 1, 2017.The competition is announced in several venues, including the ASA Web site, Twitter feed, Facebook pages, and an active list-serv for Dance Philosophers. In addition, this competition, along with several others, is publicized via Philos-L and periodic bulk e-mail to all ASA members.

The original bequest from Selma Jeanne Cohen was $50,000. Assuming an expenditure rate of 5%, that is $2500/year. In 2016, we are spending $1000 for the prize, $1250 for travel support for the winner, and the balance for the scholars breakfast.

-Julie Van Camp10/16/2016

. Report to the ASA Board on the UCSD Summer Women in Philosophy Program18 June – 2 July 2016, UCSDSubmitted by Sondra Bacharach

The course ran for 2 weeks and there are two teachers, myself and Connie Rosati (AZ). Below are the highlights of how the program was run.

• Each of the two classes met five times over the two weeks for approximately 2.5 hours each meeting. One class met MWF the first week and TTH the second week; the other will be reversed. Classes were held in the mornings, 9.30-12pm

• There were 14 students in the program this year. Applications were due March 1, and they made admissions decisions by April 1.

• To avoid students spending their time during the program squirreled away in their rooms or the library reading and writing for their courses and to encourage them to spend their time here engaged with the classes, workshops, and each other, faculty members assigned manageable amounts of reading in advance (maybe 2-3 articles or chapters per class), typically asking students to submit short response essays (or something similar) in advance.

• Given this format, teachers distribute syllabi to the participants in mid-April, so that students can do the readings and write their responses my mid-June, before their arrival here. Copies of syllabi were due to the organizers by the end of March

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• Each faculty member had a TA that attends the class, facilitates discussion in whatever ways the faculty member prefers, and will be available for office hours.

• There were many afternoon workshops on issues about writing philosophy papers; the philosophy profession and academic life, especially for women; graduate school and graduate student life; and the process of applying to graduate programs in philosophy. These were organized by UCSD graduate students and faculty. Each of the teachers also took a leadership role in one or two of them. I ran the first-day ice breaker and the wrap-up session at the end with Kathryn Joyce. I also participated in the panel discussion on careers in philosophy, the debrief session (just directors, faculty and TA’s) and in a workshop with graduate students reading their third-year papers.

Below is a list of the students, their university and location, their year in university, their major and their other interests. It was a very diverse group! To my knowledge, only one student had any background or interest in aesthetics – Cynthia Freeland’s student. They were really terrific students who were interested and engaged in the material. Many students at the start of the class admitted that although they had never taken an aesthetics class, they were very keen to learn more and enjoyed the readings that had been assigned prior to arrival. [The list of students has been omitted to protect confidentiality, but was presented to the Board of Trustees.]

Student Interest in AestheticsI did a survey on the last day and asked at the end how interested they were in philosophy of art after taking this class. Many were ambivalent (8/13 said that on a score of 0-5, they were only a bit more interested in philosophy of art after taking this class – ie, around a 2.5/5 score). Some, however were very interested – 5/13 said that on a score of 0-5, they were a lot more interested in philosophy of art after taking this class – they gave a 5/5 score (one student crossed out the 5 and inserted 10, to indicate how interested she was!).

Among the ambivalent group, one student commented that she loved “the opportunity to take this class in aesthetics. Without going to this program, I wouldn’t have been able to learn this material.” So, even though she is only a little bit (2.5/5) more interested in philosophy of art, she clearly found it valuable. Another student (who also said she was only a little bit (2.5/5) more interested in philosophy art reported: “glad to be able to participate in an aesthetics seminar – even if it was on types of art I have little interest in.”

One student remarked that she had never even heard of philosophy of art before this program and now she is considering adding an independent study of it in her fall classes. Another student asked if there was a student association listserve that she could join. One student said she would appreciate a list of resources that could introduce her to a feminist way of doing aesthetics.

Course Materials: I was asked to provide (1) a syllabus; (2) course readings for each day; and (3) some writing assignments for each session to ensure students arrived well prepared for discussion. Below is the information for my class. I think the class materials were pitched at the right level for the most part – they had some questions about background theories and issues for some topics, but overall the students came to class with their own ideas, artworks and views that they were able and willing to share, in spite of their limited aesthetics background. I was not entirely sure how to provide a fun introduction to the issues without presupposing any aesthetics background, but this seemed to work well.

UCSD Summer Program for Women in Philosophy

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June 2016Sondra Bacharach

Street Art, Video Games, Comics: Thinking about Popular Art

What is art?Readings:Hick Chapter 1, “Defining Art” from Introducing Aesthetics and Philosophy of Art

Session Preparation Assignment:1. Reading:

a. Write down what you take the thesis or main idea of the essay;b. Jot down the questions you have (what you genuinely didn’t get)c. Jot down what you take to be the most interesting take-away message of the reading (what

you think would be most philosophically engaging to discuss in class)2. Activity:

a. Take a picture of an artwork that is exhibited where you live to share with the class. What definition did you use to classify it as art?

b. A good definition of art will help us appreciate WHY it’s art. Does your definition explain what we value in the art you have selected?

3. Reflection: What do you think is the best definition of art? Why? Try to articulate some reasons for your choice.

Technology and ArtReadings:Benjamin: “Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction” excerpt.Hick, “The Ontology of Art” (chapter 2)

Video: Berger’s Ways of Seeing, chapter 1 – Aura.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pDE4VX_9Kk

Session Preparation Assignment:1. Reading:

a. Write down what you take the thesis or main idea of the essays;b. Jot down the questions you have (what you genuinely didn’t get)c. Jot down what you take to be the most interesting take-away message of the readings

(what you think would be most philosophically engaging to discuss in class)2. Activity: Make a list of all the different kinds of art that you enjoy and appreciate in your

ordinary life (e.g., the music on your ipod, the movies on your computer; the comics you read in the newspaper, etc). Think about whether they rely on technology – how? In what ways?

3. Reflection: How does technology change (a) how we think about art; (b) what counts as art; (c) the ontology of art?

Graffiti and street artReading

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Danto “Artworks and Mere Real Things” Transfiguration of the Commonplace, 1982.

Riggle, “Street Art: The Transfiguration of the Commonplaces” The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 68:3 Summer 2010, 243-257.

Watch (at least) one interesting video about some famous street art or graffiti:1) Bahia Shehab: Street art in the Egyptian uprising (5min):

https://www.ted.com/talks/bahia_shehab_a_thousand_times_no?language=en2) eL Seed: Street art with a message of hope and peace (5min)

https://www.ted.com/talks/el_seed_street_art_with_a_message_of_hope_and_peace3) Magda Sayeg: Yarnbombing (5min)

https://www.ted.com/talks/magda_sayeg_how_yarn_bombing_grew_into_a_worldwide_movement

4) JR: Can Art Change the World? (5min)https://www.ted.com/talks/jr_one_year_of_turning_the_world_inside_out?language=en

Session Preparation Assignment:1. Reading:

a. Write down what you take the thesis or main idea of the essay;b. Jot down the questions you have (what you genuinely didn’t get)c. Jot down what you take to be the most interesting take-away message of the reading

(what you think would be most philosophically engaging to discuss in class)2. Activity:

a. Take a picture of (a) a work of street art, (b) a work of graffiti, and (c) a work of public art to share with the class. (if you can find them where you live; if not, pick your favorites off the internet).

b. Remember your preferred definition of art from reading Hick’s “Defining Art” Chapter. Do these three artworks count as art, according to your preferred definition? Is that a problem? If so, what does it tell us? How can we diagnose the problem. Can you fix the problem? If so, how?

3. Reflection: A good definition of art will help us appreciate WHY it’s art. A good definition of street art should help us explain what we value in street art (as opposed to what we value in graffiti, public art, or other art forms). Do you think Riggle’s account succeeds? Why or why not?

Movie Night (at UCSD): exit through the gift shop

ComicsReadingKendall Walton, “Categories of Art” The Philosophical Review, Vol. 79, No. 3 (Jul., 1970), pp. 334-367Tom Wartenberg “Wordy pictures: Theorizing the Relationship between Image and Text in Comics”, The Art of Comics: A Philosophical Approach, Ed. By Meskin and Cook, 2012, Blackwell: 87-104

Documentary: Wonder Women! The untold story of American Superheroines.http://wonderwomendoc.com/

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Session Preparation Assignment:1. Reading:

a. Write down what you take the thesis or main idea of the essay;b. Jot down the questions you have (what you genuinely didn’t get)c. Jot down what you take to be the most interesting take-away message of the reading

(what you think would be most philosophically engaging to discuss in class)2. Activity:

a. Bring a picture of (1) a page of an (your favorite, if you have one) illustrated book; (2) your favorite comic; and (3) a page of your favorite children’s book.

b. Using Wartenberg’s distinctions between illustrated books and comics, see if you can identify the important elements and differences among these types of art. (a canonical illustration; use of speed lines or text balloons, etc)

3. Reflection: Do you agree that Wartenberg has identified a unique combination of images and text that is characteristic of comics? Why or why not? What is missing/wrong with this account, if anything? Does getting information through images or through words change how we understand or interpret that information? Do images shape our ideas differently than words?

Video games and computer art.ReadingDom Lopes, “The Ontology of Interactive Art”, Journal of Aesthetic Education, vol. 35(4) Winter 2001, p. 65-81.Grant Tavinor, “The Morality of Videogames” (chapter 8), The Art of Videogames, Wiley, 2009, 150-171.

Videos: feminist frequency videos1) “Women as background decoration, part 1”

https://feministfrequency.com/2014/06/16/women-as-background-decoration-tropes-vs-women/

2) ““Women as background decoration, part 2” https://feministfrequency.com/2014/08/25/women-as-background-decoration-part-2/

Session Preparation Assignment:1. Reading:

a. Write down what you take the thesis or main idea of the essay;b. Jot down the questions you have (what you genuinely didn’t get)c. Jot down what you take to be the most interesting take-away message of the reading

(what you think would be most philosophically engaging to discuss in class)2. Activity:

a. Go play your favorite video game, if you have one; if you don’t, go ask a friend to play one of theirs (or watch them play).

b. Is this video game interactive, according to Lopes? If so, how and why or if not, why not? c. How would Tavinor evaluate the ethical nature of the videogame you selected?

3. Reflection: This topic brings together the ontology of art, the interactivity of art and our ethical evaluation of art. We rarely see cases where the ontology of the art has no ethical implications. But, the feminist frequency videos try to make the case that the ethical content of videogames, and the interactivity of videogames are deeply problematic. What are your intuitions about this

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topic? How do Tavinor and Sarkeesian end up on such different sides of the debate? How should we negotiate the debate?

August 2016 – Aesthetics at Brown UniversityA.W. Eaton

The ASA sponsored a speaker on aesthetics at the final conference at Brown University’s Summer Immersion Program in Philosophy. A.W. Eaton, Associate Professor at University of Illinois-Chicago, ASA Trustee, and chair of the ASA Diversity Committee, was appointed by President Cynthia Freeland to represent ASA. The ASA greatly appreciates the assistance of Paul Guyer, past-president of ASA and the Jonathan Nelson Professor of Humanities and Philosophy at Brown, in making this presentation possible. ASA has already begun conversations with Brown about sponsoring another speaker in 2017.

Professor Eaton reports on her visit:“I am grateful to the ASA for sponsoring me to deliver a paper titled ‘Taste in Bodies and Fat Oppression’ to Brown's SIPP (Summer Immersion Program in Philosophy). SIPP is a two-week program for undergraduate students from groups that are traditionally underrepresented in philosophy. http://www.sippatbrown.com/ Attending the conference were two other presenters (Lionel McPherson from Tufts and Megan Sullivan from Notre Dame), the nine undergraduates from the SIPP program, and graduate students and faculty from the Brown Philosophy Department, including former ASA President Paul Guyer. Due to severe weather, I had to deliver my paper via Skype, but I was still able to interact with students and faculty. I received very helpful comments from Yongming Han, a graduate student in the philosophy department at Brown. After the papers, I also Skyped in to a very productive roundtable discussion on diversity in philosophy.”Aesthetics for Birds

The ASA originally awarded $1000 in 2013 for start-up costs (web site design and logo) for this blog, directed by Christy Mag Uidhir. An additional $2000 was awarded in June 2015 to provide student assistance to the project director for the next twelve months. Due to serious illness of the project director in July 2015, responsibility was transferred to Alexandra King (University at Buffalo/SUNY) for the balance of 2015, with assistance from graduate student Rebecca Millsop.

During spring 2015, the blog stagnated somewhat, with only a few items posted. This was due to uncertainty about the blog’s leadership, future, and so on.

In summer 2016, ownership of the blog was permanently transferred to King. Additionally, $2000 was awarded to Millsop to provide continued assistance to King. During summer 2016, the blog was transferred from Blogger to Wordpress and redesigned to give a more streamlined and professional appearance. Notable content:

Continued “100 Philosophers, 100 Artworks, 100 Words” posts Started monthly guest post series about film and philosophy by Byron Davies (Harvard) AFB x JAAC Discussion series, featuring a discussion of one recent article from each JAAC volume “Whispers of Power”: a high-concept caption contest with German artist Jörg Reckhenrich

Notable posts/series coming in the near future: More of the above

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Regular artworld-related posts of interest to philosophers of art (written by Millsop), also designed to broaden the audience reach of the blog

Interviews (several already in the pipeline)Despite migration, the URL has remained the same: http://www.aestheticsforbirds.com/

Alexandra KingAssistant ProfessorUniversity at Buffalo, SUNYAesthetics of Architecture and DesignConference Report – 10/09/16Submitted by James Hamilton

The conference, "Aesthetics of Architecture and Design,” was held on Saturday, March 26, 2016 and hosted by Kansas State University. The American Society for Aesthetics awarded $2600 to support of the conference. The conference was also co-sponsored by the President of Kansas State University, together with the College of Architecture, the College of Arts and Sciences, and the Departments of Architecture, Philosophy, and Psychological Sciences.

ASA member James Hamilton (Philosophy, Kansas State University) was the co-organizer of the conference, together with Dick Hoag (Architecture, Kansas State University). The conference included talks by

- Saul Fisher (Mercy College): “Architecture and Anachronism” - Les Loschky (Psychological Sciences, KSU): “Focal and Ambient Processing of Architecture” - Jane Forsey (University of Winnipeg): “The Play of Form and Function in Design Beauty” and - Glenn Parsons (Ryerson University): “Is design possible?”

Responses were to be provided by Shannon Spaulding (Philosophy, Oklahoma State University), Douglas Dow (Art, KSU), Peg Z. Brand (Philosophy, University of Indiana), and Gary Brase (Psychological Sciences, KSU). Unfortunately, Prof. Spaulding was ill and unable to attend. The others did present useful comments.All talks and commentaries were free and all events are open to the public. We established an hour and fifteen minutes for each speaker/commentator pair, and provided strict enforcement of presentation times. The result was that we had about thirty minutes for the Q&A for each pair.

Having thirty minutes for the Q&A is, as you know, fairly typical in a number of philosophy departments; and conference organizers are also seeking ways of making that more routine at philosophy conferences as well.

The reactions to the conference were positive, except for some negative comments by two or three professors of architecture who also did not attend (and that I will describe a bit more in a minute). One of the comments I want to mention – and that came from both students and faculty from other departments – was that “the amount of time for Q&A was both unusual and really beneficial.” Another comment, offered by a associate dean of the College of Architecture, was that this was an “extraordinarily beneficial conference to have, especially in light of the fact that many students in architecture do not understand what philosophical aesthetics is all about nor its relevance to architecture.”

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The negative comments were – as I mentioned – from a few professors of architecture, one of whom said to me, “Architects are likely to know more about aesthetics than philosophers are.” [I might mention that, although a professor in the College of Architecture, this individual actually has his degree in Sociology.] I bring this up to illustrate the importance of reaching out beyond presentations to each other to help inform our colleagues in other disciplines of what it is we actually do. This conference went a good distance in that direction at KSU. And we have been encouraged, by our deans and department heads, to seek to hold another conference, thereby making further and stronger connections with our colleagues in architecture.

American Society for Aesthetics Doctoral Dissertation FellowshipFinal Performance ReportDavid B. Johnson

I completed my dissertation, “Color, Movement, Intensity: Aesthetics and Metaphysics in the Thought of Gilles Deleuze,” on July 8, 2016 and successfully defended it on July 15, 2016. Northwestern University will officially award my Ph.D. on September 2, 2016.

I spent the tenure of my award as follows. In August and September of 2015, I wrote an article, entitled “Pictorial Athleticism and Intensity in Francis Bacon,” which was published in Deleuze Studies 10.2 (2016). I adapted significant portions of this article for my dissertation’s second and third chapters. From October through December of 2015, my energies were split between my dissertation and the academic job market. During this time, I revised sections of my second chapter, finished the first draft of my fifth chapter, and began to work through the secondary literature on Deleuze’s aesthetics. Job market activities, however, required more time than I had anticipated, and as a result I made less headway on my dissertation during these months than I expected. My efforts on the job market were unsuccessful. From January through April of 2016, I wrote and revised my fourth chapter. From April through May, I engaged intensively with secondary literature, adding substantive discussions of a range of scholars throughout my dissertation. During June and early July, I made minor revisions to my preface and first chapter and extensive revisions to my second, third, and fifth chapters, including adding entirely new sections to the second chapter.

My activities during the period of my fellowship largely paralleled the plans I laid out when I applied. I stated in my application that I would complete my second and fourth chapters, revise my first chapter, incorporate secondary literature, and produce a conclusion. I accomplished all of these tasks. There were some divergences from my plan, however. As I mentioned above, I had not anticipated the slowdown in my dissertation progress that accompanied my efforts on the job market, and this entailed significant changes for my projected timeline. I also did not anticipate publishing an article during the tenure of the fellowship; however, this did not disrupt my dissertation plans much, as I was able to use major sections of the article for the dissertation. Finally, whereas my application stated that I would write a chapter-length introduction, I ended up deciding to begin the dissertation with only a short preface.

My dissertation committee believes that with some mostly minor revisions, my dissertation is publishable as a book. I intend to make these revisions over the course of the next two or three months and then submit a proposal for the resulting manuscript to Edinburgh University Press.

I received no funding from any institution other than the ASA during the tenure of my award.

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I wish to convey my deep gratitude to the American Society for Aesthetics for its generous support. The fellowship was a tremendous boon to my research, enabling me to finish the dissertation with a high degree of quality and thereby lay the groundwork for what I hope will be my first book. I look very forward to participating actively in the ASA over the course of my academic career, and I will be sure to acknowledge the ASA’s support in any publications that arise from my dissertation.Report on Engagement: Symposium of Philosophy and Dance

October 13, 2016Texas State UniversityPhilosophy DepartmentRebecca FarinasCraig Hanks

Engagement: Symposium of Philosophy and Dance was held over three days at Texas State University, San Marcos (October 8,9,10, 2016). We hosted major scholars of field, as well as well as creative dance practitioners. You can find the description of the conference and the schedule by visiting the website: http://www.txstate.edu/philosophy/other-programs/Symposia-and-Lectures/Engagement--Symposium-of-Philosophy-and-Dance .

The Symposium had 105 participants (including 62 % female/38 % male), plus there were facilitators and additional members of the campus community who attended presentations and workshops. This number does not include the participants in the master dance classes and the Dance for Parkinson’s disease session. We estimate that altogether over 200 people participated. As well there were three sponsored performances which were sold out shows, that meaning there were 440 people in the audience each night. We now plan on organizing an anthology presenting many of the scholarly papers and exposes describing the workshops, demonstrations, panels, and performances. The book would include both a collection of peer-reviewed papers/exposes by conference participants, as well as other prominent philosophers of dance. By compiling such an eclectic mix we want to offer insights from the diverse specialists to a broad audience, including a general readership.

Environmental Aesthetics & Ethics: At the IntersectionSeptember 1, 2016

This past May, the ASA provided generous support for an international conference we held at Indiana University—Bloomington titled “Environmental Aesthetics & Ethics: At the Intersection.” True

to the name, the event included rich discussion of how ethical and aesthetic considerations relate to one another in our thinking about the environment. More specifically, we investigated whether we have aesthetic reasons, moral reasons, or some combination of these, for protecting the natural environment.

We kicked off the conference on Thursday, May 12th with a film screening of Troublemakers: The Story of Land Art at the IU Cinema. The film is an art-historical investigation of the beginning of contemporary Land Art in the United States. In addition to tracing the personal stories of Michael

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Heizer, Walter de Maria, and Robert Smithson, the film raises challenging questions about Land Art. For instance, are some artworks aesthetically meritorious even though they are destructive to the surrounding land? In addition to our 12 out-of-town conference speakers, we were thrilled to have roughly 100 other attendees at the film. With such a large audience, we were able to introduce the broader public to environmental aesthetics and ethics. After the film, our conference participants and other movie-goers joined us at a nearby restaurant to discuss the film.

On Friday we began our first conference session with opening remarks by IUB Dean Larry Singell. Afterwards, as well as on Saturday, we heard presentations from top scholars in the fields of environmental aesthetics and environmental ethics, as well as newer voices in each discipline. Among our speakers were Dale Jamieson, Emily Brady, Allen Carlson, Ned Hettinger, Noël Carroll, Sheila Lintott, James Justus, Katie McShane, Glenn Parsons, Katherine Robinson, and Jonathan Weinberg. All talks focused on the aesthetic and/or ethical dimensions of the natural environment. There were a number of papers that argued against each other, making for lively debate. Yet given that all of our presenters presented works-in-progress, the atmosphere was friendly and congenial.

In addition to invited speakers, approximately 60 people attended the conference, 3 travelling from as far as Florida, Canada and Japan, and 3 other scholars joining us from DePauw University and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. The remainder of the audience was comprised of IUB faculty and students. We involved 10 graduate students from the IUB Department of Philosophy in chairing the sessions. At the end of Friday and Saturday, we reconvened with conference speakers and invited guests at a nearby restaurant. Both nights the discussion at dinner went past 11:00pm! We were incredibly fortunate to have the support that gave participants a chance to get to know each other in a casual setting.

In addition to receiving $7,000 from the ASA, we received the following contributions: $10,000 from the IUB College Arts & Humanities Institute, $5,000 from the IUB Department of Philosophy, $4000 from the IUB Ostrom Grants Program, as well as smaller grants from the IUB School of Public Health, School of Public and Environmental Affairs, the Media School, the Landscape Studies PhD Minor Program, and the Department of Geography. In total, we are incredibly grateful for the $28,400 of support that enabled us to put on a first-rate international workshop-style conference.

We used our ASA funds to cover our speakers’ lodging. All speakers except one stayed at the Hyatt Place Bloomington (total cost: $4839.52). Those speakers reported that the accommodations

were comfortable, quiet, and conveniently located in the heart of downtown Bloomington. The other speaker stayed at a local AirBnB (total: $668). In addition to lodging, we used the remaining ASA funds to cover three out of four honoraria (total: $1500). All told, we are incredibly thankful for the $7007.52 of support from the ASA.

Building on the energy from the conference, we will be proposing a special issue on the conference topic in the Journal of Aesthetics & Art Criticism. Ten out of the eleven conference speakers have expressed interest in submitting their paper for that collection. We also plan to invite submissions from other scholars who were not able to join us for the conference. Our goal for the special issue will be to explore whether we have aesthetic reason, moral reasons, or some combination of these for

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protecting the environment.

Once again, this conference could not have been possible without the generous support of the ASA. We sincerely thank you for helping us bring this timely and enriching event to fruition.

Sandra Shapshay Associate Professor of Philosophy

Director, the Political and Civic Engagement Program (PACE)Indiana University—Bloomington

Levi Tenen PhD StudentIndiana University—Bloomington

Project Grant Report: Graduate Conference in Aesthetics 2016

1. PROJECTED VS ACTUAL ALLOCATION OF FUNDS

Projected Total Costs

Conference room rental:Conference lunch:

Keynote speaker honorarium: Keynote speaker travel, food & accommodations:Travel subsidy for students with accepted papers:

Total:

Secured funding from Greater Philadelphia Philosophy Consortium: 600Secured funding from the ASA: 3,500Total secured funding: 4,100

Actual Total CostsConference room rental:Conference lunch: Coffee service: Keynote speaker honorarium: Keynote speaker travel, food & accommodations:Travel subsidy for students with accepted papers:

Lauren AlpertJonathan KwanYuan Chieh Yang

Total:

*=Keynote speaker lives within the Philadelphia area; travel was minimal.

Actual Total Costs FOR ASA

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676.00531.64

5001,534.57

825.34

4,067.55

526.93720.40199.67

500----*

828.72(238.97)(289.75)(300.00)

2,775.72

Conference room rental:Conference lunch: Coffee service: Keynote speaker honorarium: Keynote speaker travel, food & accommodations:Travel subsidy for students with accepted papers:

Yuan Chieh Yang

Total:

2. HOW PROJECTED GOALS WERE MET

The fourth annual Graduate Conference in Aesthetics occurred the day after the 2016 ASA Eastern Division Meeting, on Sunday, April 17, 2016, in Old City Philadelphia. The conference was sponsored by the Greater Philadelphia Philosophy Consortium and the American Society for Aesthetics. This year, we accepted four papers for publication. (We received about twenty-five submissions.)Student presenters were Lauren Alpert (CUNY—The Graduate Center), Tom Hanauer (Temple), Jonathan Kwan (CUNY—The Graduate Center), and Yuan-Chieh Yang (University of Alberta). The commenters were Josh Gillon (Villanova), Andrei Pop (University of Chicago), David Clowney (Rowan University) and Julie Van Camp (California State—Long Beach). All of the commentators are faculty members rather than graduate students, and provided insightful critiques from a more experienced point of view. Paul C. Taylor (Penn State) delivered the keynote lecture, paper entitled “Facing Furgeson: Aesthetics, Innocence, and Resistance.” Dr. Taylor’s paper was an excellent discussion of the under-explored intersection of aesthetics, race, and social justice, which was very well received—and timely, since it occurred just before the release of Dr. Taylor’s book, Black is Beautiful (Routledge, 2016).

Each graduate student paper was well-received, and very well-presented. With each year the quality of student papers seems to increase; this year may have been the best year yet. The quality of the papers was very high, and each paper was very well-presented. Each student paper was quite accessible and spurred good discussion.Attendance was pretty good. There were about forty people in attendance, many who are graduate students in and around the Philadelphia.

The main goal of the graduate conference was to foster and encourage graduate work in aesthetics. There were multiple ways that the conference realized this goal: (a) through encouraging presenters to continue their work in aesthetics by providing a venue at which they can present their work, (b) through providing commentary on the presenters’ work from experienced philosophers at the conference, (c) through the interaction between graduate students working in aesthetics that this conference facilitates, and (d) through the keynote lecture. Again, there was a refreshingly friendly atmosphere that seemed to help the conference foster graduate work in aesthetics through all of the ways stated above.Finally, since this may be the last year of the graduate conference in aesthetics: I really appreciate all the work that my fellow organizers have put into this over the years, especially Katie Brennan. I thank everyone who has attended, presented, and helped out over the years. Susan Feagin was very supportive from the start, and these four conferences surely would have never happened without her help.

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526.93720.40199.67

500----*

300.00(300.00)

2,247.00

The graduate conference has always had a more relaxed and collegial feel to it. It is a rather low-key and relaxed affair after the bigger ASA Eastern. But that contributes to an intellectual intimacy that I think is rarely seen at philosophy conferences: At the graduate conference, everyone’s guard is down. Everyone seems free to be a little more curious than they normally would, a little more engaging, and a little gentler. I hope the conference has helped to foster this spirit in some small way across aesthetics.Do not hesitate to contact us with any further questions or concerns.

Respectfully submitted,John Dyck (CUNY—The Graduate Center)

On behalf of the organizing committee:Katie Brennan (Temple University)

John Dyck (CUNY Graduate Center)Lindsey Fiorelli (University of Pennsylvania)

Katherine Kurtz (Villanova University) Occasioning Philosophy: A Celebration of Philosophy and Theater on the occasion of the 400th Anniversary of Shakespeare’s Death

This was a one-day conference on Friday, April 22nd hosted by The University of Mississippi, co-sponsored by Mississippi State University, The University of Mississippi, and the ASA. It was co-organized by Donovan Wishon (Philosophy, University of Mississippi) and Kristin Boyce (Mississippi State University). It coincided with the presence of Shakespeare’s Folio at The University of Mississippi’s library (April 11-30th). It will consist of talks by Noel Carroll, James Hamilton, John Gibson, Kristin Gjesdal and Paul Woodruff. There were response by Kristin Boyce, Timothy Yenter (Philosophy, University of Mississippi), Eric Vivier (English, Mississippi State), and Karen Raber (English, University of Mississippi). All events were free and open to the public. The conference was attended by members of the philosophy departments of Mississippi State University and The University of Mississippi, students and faculty from other departments at both MSU and UM, and by interested members of the community in Oxford, MS where there is significant interest in literature and the arts. All events were free and open to the public.

Attendance varied throughout the day but is estimated is 40-50 attendees per talk. The event incorporated scholars from different fields as well as different generations and included both senior and junior female philosophers as speakers, respondents and organizers. The event was attended by only one non-white participant: Anthony Neal, a scholar of African American philosophy and religion who has now joined MSU’s philosophy department (as of Fall 2016). MSU’s philosophy department is actively working to more effectively reach and engage our racially diverse student body and community. We hope that future events for which ASA funding may be requested will contribute to this goal more effectively.

-Kristen BoyceMississippi State University

ASA/APA/Australian Research Council Joint Project for 2016 & 2017

The first segment of the project was held in San Francisco in conjunction with the 2016 APA-Pacific meeting. Of the total $7,000 awarded for the project, ASA expended $3,969.76, mainly on catering, AV, and group meals for the speaker.

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The balance of $3,030 is available for the 2017 segments in Australia. This will cover (1) a $2000 travel grant for an ASA member who is a student or non-tenure-track faculty member, with the paper to be selected by the Australian organizers, and (2) up to $1030 for video streaming and podcasts available world-wide of the events in Australia.

The CFP for the 2017 segments is being publicized widely in the ASA Newsletter, Facebook, Twitter, and bulk e-mail to ASA members (and lapsed members from 2015).

-J. Van CampOctober 17, 2016

Workshop on the Philosophy of Games

The first Workshop on the Philosophy of Games, held in Salt Lake City October 14-15, 2016, was a great success. The goal of the conference was to bring together, for the first time, people who worked on computer game aesthetics, digital art aesthetics, and the philosophy of sports. We received 27 submissions, which were blind reviewed and ranked. We invited our top eight papers, and invited the next three highest ranked papers to be commentators. The conference was co-funded by Utah Valley University’s philosophy program and computing program, and by the University of Utah’s philosophy program. In both cases, the programs expressed a keen interest in making the conference open to students. The funds were largely used as travel support - we offered $500 of travel support to all attendees, including commentators. It was the view of the organizers that, since the field was young and many of the interested parties were fairly early-stage academics, that this use of funds would be the best way to promote an inclusive experience. In the end, the conference included philosophers of aesthetics, philosophers of sport, academics from game studies, and one philosopher of economics and game theory. The majority (10 out of 16) of attendees came from the aesthetics world. This is unsurprising, since the two organizers also come from that world.

The first day of the conference, at Utah Valley University, attracted an audience of somewhere around fifty extra attendees - undergraduates and professors, largely from the philosophy program and the computer game design program. The second day, held at University of Utah, attracted graduate students at that philosophy program, and a number of students from University of Utah’s graduate program in game design.

Discussion was dense and exciting, and all participants agreed that the workshop was an incredibly useful one for advancing the field. The majority of attendees had not met each other, nor knew of each others’ work.

On the topic of diversity, the 16 conference attendees included two women, and two people of color. The organizers wished it were more so. The system we devised of blind review precluded taking direct action to increase diversity. However, we should note that, in fact, half of the female attendees, and half of the attendees of color, would not have been able to come without travel support. We suspect that spending funds on general travel support, rather than keynotes, will increase diversity in the future.

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C. Thi NguyenUtah Valley Universitycnguyen@uvu.edu

Report on the International Congress of Aesthetics

This conference, marking the 20th anniversary of the triennial meetings, was held at Seoul National University in Korea from July 24-29th with the theme of “Aesthetics and Mass Culture.” There were over 400 people in attendance and multiple sessions spanning topics including everyday aesthetics, Korean animation, street art, ancient Scandinavian rock art, neuroaesthetics, aesthetics of football (soccer), and more. Several Americans were among the invited plenary speakers, including Dominic Lopes, Noël Carroll, and Mark Rollins. The host committee also organized enjoyable extras such as a performance of traditional Korean music, screenings of Korean films, and an outing to visit an artists’ village in addition to a historic royal palace and a Confucian shrine in the center of Seoul.

At the Executive Committee meetings the board voted to approve applications for new memberships for the Spanish Society of Aesthetics and the Eurasian Society for Aesthetics. The EC also approved some revisions to the constitution as well as plans for the next yearbook. We also agreed to send a letter to the Turkish government expressing regret at the absence of colleagues from Turkey along with the hope that academic researchers would soon be allowed to engage in important activities of international travel and research. (Newly elected president Jale Erzen from Turkey was able to be present, but she explained this was only possible because she is now retired and no longer employed at a university.) Finally, applications were approved to host the next ICA conference in 2019 in Belgrade, Serbia, with the interim planning conference to be held in Helsinki in 2018.

Sincerely,Cynthia Freeland, ASA Delegate

August 15, 2016

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