�ճ����Journal of Comparative Literature and Aesthetics��(since 1977) is pleased to��announce��that it is bringing out soon a��Special Issue on Somaesthetics��(in two volumes, theory and applications) to felicitate Prof. Richard Shusterman on his 70th birth anniversary.

Many eminent scholars like Thomas W. Leddy, Roger T. Ames, Jerold J. Abrams, Kristina Höök, Leszek Koczanowicz, Tonino Griffero, Wojciech Malecki, Max Ryynnanen, Yanping Gao, Alexander Kremer, Stefan Snævarr, Anne Tarvainen, Stefano Marino, Tanehisa Otabe, Dorota Koczanowicz, Vinod Balakrishnan and others have contributed to this ambitious volume.

Submissions are open for the regular Spring 2020 Issue (Vol. 43, No. 1) of the Journal.��Email:��anantasukla@hotmail.com,��jclaindia@gmail.com.��

Submissions are also open for these special volumes:

1. A special volume on “Chinese Aesthetics: Traditional and Transcultural Perspectives”

Concept Note: China has a long and rich tradition of artistic practices and aesthetic theory, but this tradition has, in contemporary times, been underutilized in international philosophical aesthetics and transcultural theory. This issue of JCLA aims to address this problem by inviting papers that explore Chinese aesthetics, the role it has played in international and transcultural aesthetics, and the most promising ways it could contribute to these fields: 1. Chinese Aesthetic Theory (Traditional and Contemporary); 2. The “traveling” of Chinese art and aesthetics in the history, such as Chinoiserie; 3. Chinese aesthetics as inspirations for other aesthetic cultures or theoretical invention; 4. Comparative studies of aesthetics or artistic genres (poetry, painting, music, drama, calligraphy, etc) between Chinese and other cultural traditions.  

2. A special volume on “Aesthetic Taste”
Concept Note: The 18th century was nicknamed the “Century of Taste” by George Dickie. This is not too surprising with thinkers like Burke, Hutcheson, Mendelssohn, Shaftesbury, Hume, and Kant. But discussions of taste have waned since then. The 2000s saw a revival in the core traditional aesthetic concepts: beauty, aesthetic experience, and the sublime.  However, taste has been slower in making an appearance. Some recent work (e.g., gustatory taste) has begun to show modest signs of renewed interest. However, there has yet to be a sustained effort to develop new theories of taste, even though it remains central part of our lives. Even popular culture has not abandoned the concept—a multitude of TV shows project ‘good’ taste, judging people’s talents, homes, cooking skills, and more. Rather than passively watching popular culture control the discussion, academics should be active participants in it. This special issue is an attempt to showcase how theories of taste matter today. Some suggested topics: 1. Taste in the digital age; 2. Beauty and disgust in politics; 3. Good and bad taste; 4. Taste in popular culture; 5. Standards of aesthetic appreciation in art and nature; 6. Everyday tastes; 7. Comparative aesthetics as it relates to taste; 8. Classical theories of taste in contemporary perspective, etc.

ABOUT THE JOURNAL

Journal of Comparative Literature and Aesthetics (ISSN: 0252-8169) is a half-yearly journal published by the Vishvanatha Kaviraja Institute, India. The Institute was founded on 22 August 1977 coinciding with the birth centenary of legendary philosopher, aesthetician, and historian of Indian art, Ananda K. Coomaraswamy (1877-1947).Journal of Comparative Literature and Aesthetics is the oldest journal of India in the field of literature and philosophy which still continues sans any societal or institutional support. It is also the only Indian journal in humanities that has drawn the attention of and has also published the most revered scholars of the West, past and present, right from its beginning 43 years ago.  The Journal is committed to interdisciplinary and cross-cultural issues in literary understanding and interpretation, aesthetic theories, conceptual analysis of art, literature, philosophy, religion, mythology, history of ideas, literary theory, history, and criticism.The Journal has already published legends like Rene Wellek, Harold Osborne, John Hospers, John Fisher, Murray Krieger, Martin Bocco, Remo Ceserani, J.B. Vickery, Menachem Brinker, Milton Snoeyenbos, Mary Wiseman, Ronald Roblin, T.R. Martland, S.C. Sengupta, K.R.S. Iyengar, V.K. Chari, Charles Altieri, Peter Lamarque, Martin Jay, Jonathan Culler, Richard Shusterman, Robert Kraut, T.J. Diffey, T.R. Quigley, R.B. Palmer, Keith Keating, and many renowned scholars.JCLA is indexed and abstracted in the MLA International Bibliography, Master List of Periodicals (USA), Ulrich’s Directory of Periodicals, CrossRef, EBSCO, ProQuest, and Gale.Celebrated scholars of the time like Rene Wellek, Harold Osborne, Mircea Eliade, Monroe Beardsley, John Hospers, John Fisher, Meyer Abrams, John Boulton and many renowned foreign and Indian scholars were Members of its Editorial Board.

������Ƶ is running an essay prize competition, open to early-career researchers in aesthetics. The winning author will receive £1,500 and an opportunity to present the paper at the Society’s annual conference. The winning essay will normally be published in the British Journal of Aesthetics.

The regulations for the competition are as follows:

i) Aim: The aim of the prize is to encourage and reward new talent in the field of aesthetics.

ii) Amount: The amount of the Prize is £1,500.

iii) Deadline: The deadline for submissions is 17 February, 2020.

iv) Eligibility: The Prize is intended to foster the development of the field of aesthetics. The competition is open to early career researchers who have received their PhD within the last three years, as well as current postgraduate students. Persons in doubt about their qualifications are encouraged to consult the Manager of the ������Ƶ in advance. Entrants must include with their entry a statement indicating how they qualify. Entry is not limited to members of the ������Ƶ nor to residents of the United Kingdom.  Previous winners may not enter again.

v) Essay Content and Length: The essay may be on any topic in aesthetics or the philosophy of art. The essay should be a maximum of 7,500 words inclusive of any footnotes and bibliography.  In addition, an abstract not exceeding 150 words should accompany the essay. 

vi) Judging: The panel of judges will comprise one or more Trustees of the ������Ƶ and the Editors of the British Journal of Aesthetics, along with an Editorial Consultant to the journal.  The winning essay will normally be published in the British Journal of Aesthetics.  It is a condition of entry to the Prize competition that the essay has not previously been published; is not currently under consideration by another journal or competition, and will not be until the result of the competition is announced. If, in the opinion of the judges, no essay that merits publication in the BJA is submitted, the prize will not be awarded. The decision of the judges is final. The prize will be presented at the 2020 ������Ƶ annual conference.
vii) Presentation: The winning author will have the opportunity to read the paper at the 2020 annual conference of the Society. If the author is an enrolled student, they will be automatically eligible for a ������Ƶ postgraduate conference subsidy. The winner’s name will be announced in the British Journal of Aesthetics.

viii) Submission Requirements: –       Submissions should be clearly identified as entries for the ������Ƶ Essay Prize and be sent by email in Word or PDF format to the Manager of the ������Ƶ, Caroline Auty, at 
–       Entries should be in English, and should not exceed 7,500 words in length (including any footnotes and bibliography, excluding abstract).
–       The abstract (up to 150 words) should precede the essay, within the same document.
–       Entries that are too long or without an abstract will not be considered.
–       Essays should be prepared for blind review and should follow guidelines for submissions to the British Journal of Aesthetics. 
–       The file name should be the same as the essay title. 
–       The covering email should include the name, institution and address of the author.
–       Candidates should supply evidence that they are eligible for the prize eg year attained PhD.
–       Essays will not be considered for the prize if they been previously published; submitted to the BJA directly; or are currently under consideration by another journal or competition.
–       No non-winning essay will be considered for publication in the BJA unless it is separately submitted to that journal after the competition.
–       The winning author will have a chance to revise the paper for publication after the annual conference.

Recent Winners:
2018 – Michel-Antoine Xhignesse (University of British Columbia), for ‘What makes a kind an art-kind?
2016 – John Holliday (Rutgers), for ‘Emotional Intimacy in Literature’
2014 – Jake Quilty-Dunn (CUNY), for ‘Believing Our Eyes’

Submission Guidelines

We invite papers from all traditions and on any topic in philosophical aesthetics, and both systematic��and historical presentations are acceptable.��Submissions must be long abstracts (800-1200 words in length) presenting not only the main ideas and claims of the paper, but also the arguments in favour of them. We encourage the presentation of submissions in English, but submissions in other major European languages will be considered equally. For each talk, there will be time for a 20-25��minute presentation, with about another 20 minutes designated for discussion. Please note that full paper submissions will not be accepted and submissions are limited to one per person.Please use the PDF-file format for submission and��render your text completely anonymous��to allow for��blind refereeing.��To submit your long abstract, please use the��EasyChair online submission system��(first-time users will be asked to register with EasyChair):��We also encourage all submitters to sign up as members of the ESA (which is free):��The deadline for submissions of papers is��January 13 2020, and we aim to inform you about the result of our selection process by the end of February, depending on the number of submissions.All papers presented at the conference are eligible for publication in the��Proceedings of the ESA. ()����Fabian Dorsch ESA Essay PrizeThe European Society for Aesthetics arranges an essay prize for PhD students and early career scholars (max. three years from the doctorate) in connection with its yearly conferences. The prize consists of travel and accommodation stipend of up to 500 euros. The ESA will also award the prize winner’s conference fees and conference dinner. The winning essay will be considered for publication in the journal��Estetika. In taking part in the prize, participants commit themselves to publish their essay in��Estetika��in case they are awarded the prize. For more information on the journal please visit:��.All submissions to the prize must be in English. First submissions should be made by following the general call of the ESA 2020 conference and all submissions will be considered for presentation at the conference. Please place “(Essay Prize)” after the title of your submission in��EasyChair to indicate��that you want your submission to be considered for the prize. The selection of the prize winner will be broken down into two stages. After the first round of reviews, selected authors will be asked to submit a full conference paper (max. 3500 words) by the March 22 2020. The recipient of the prize will be selected from this group. We aim to announce the winner by the May 1 2020.For all enquiries regarding the prize please contact Karen Simecek, the secretary of the ESA:��.VenueEstonian Academy of Arts, Põhja puiestee 7, Tallinn, Estonia��ContactAll questions about submissions should be emailed to the conference organizers:����Dr Karen Simecek�� |�� Director of Student Experience and Progression�� |������������

In Parenthesis and ������Ƶ��present,��Notes from a Biscuit Tin,��a year-long centenary celebration of the philosophical and poetic vision of Mary Midgley��At��Somerville College Oxford,��2pm, Saturday 12^th��October 2019.��Join poet�� and philosopher�� for Tea and��Biscuits in the Mary Somerville Room, Somerville College as they discuss the theme of ‘The Self’ in Midgley’s work.


Places are limited – reserved your spot here before Thursday .

Find out more about Notes from A Biscuit Tin

Rachael and Clare www.womeninparenthesis.com

Annual Conference hosted by the School of Performing Arts at the University of Malta, in cooperation with the Centre for Dance Research, Coventry University, UK The seventh Annual Conference of the School of Performing Arts (University of Malta) considers knowledge in relation to performing arts practices. More specifically, the conference aims to explore, question, and discuss the different types of ‘knowledges’ that emerge from or are involved in performing arts practices including creation, production, performance, and spectatorship. The conference’s focus on performing arts practices—dance, theatre, and music—acknowledges an affinity with Performance Studies, which originated in American universities as a new ‘knowledge formation’ (Kirshenblatt-Gimblett 1999) with the aim to integrate performance into interdisciplinary scholarship and offer a counterbalance to the emphasis on texts and literature within cultural studies. The conference focus on practices is also strongly connected to developments originating around the same time for artistic research in the context of European higher education. The debates about artistic research have posited basic questions about the constitution of knowledge and its valorisation (Borgdorff 2012). The conditions and opportunities for artistic research in higher education continue to evolve, but many questions about its status and relevance, in connection to knowledge production in particular, remain. The aim of Performance Knowledges is to offer an opportunity to refresh some of these discussions and debates through a focus on performing arts from the perspectives of transmission, composition, and praxis. This is a chance to include research cultures working at the borderline with the social and cognitive sciences, where the vantage point of the performing arts should provoke a robust discussion of embodied and relational forms of knowledge. It also encourages participants to rethink how in composition and transmission processes knowledge is diversified into different types, including tacit knowledge—with emphasis on process and experience (Polanyi 1958). This should include addressing the question of skill—which is so often overlooked in academic debates about the subject. We are looking for presentations that engage with questions of varieties, generation, transmission, and implications of performance knowledges. We are looking for inter- and multidisciplinary approaches that might contribute to the analysis of ways of knowing in the performing arts, and to the scholarly study of collaborative encounters between directors, choreographers, composers, performers, designers, and spectators. We are particularly interested in alternative and diverse conceptualisations of practice-generating knowledges, as well as knowledge-generating practices, Presentation topics might include, but are not limited to, issues and themes of performance knowledges in relation to practices, methodologies, and technologies. We welcome submissions across a number of areas that address the multifaceted understandings of knowledge as emergent in theatre, dance, and music, including but not limited to:

• the artist’s perspective on languaging and documenting practices
• embodied cognition and moving beyond dualism in the practice of the performing arts problematising 
• hegemonic knowledges, implications for performing arts
• training processes and compositional strategies as intangible heritage
• practice turn in contemporary theory, communities and ecologies of practice
• habits, skills and contexts for tacit knowledge acquisition and transmission
• perspectives on and from diverse atypical modes and mixed abilities
• historical, analytical, and theoretical understandings of embodiment in the performing arts
• case studies of creators, performers, spectators, and other agents of performance
• technologisation and the impact of digitisation on performance practices
• translation, transformation and/ or appropriation of performance forms

Confirmed keynotes: Professor Bruce McConachie (University of Pittsburg)Professor Maaike Bleeker (Utrecht University)Professor Lynette Goddard (Royal Holloway University) Abstracts of a maximum of 300 words should be submitted in Word Doc by 16 December 2019 to the conference convenors on these addresses: Lucía Piquero (lucia.piquero-at-) and Scott deLahunta (aa9576-at-). Acceptance will be confirmed in January 2020. If an official invitation is required earlier for research funding purposes, please contact the convenors and ensure that you submit your abstract as early as possible. Abstracts should include a brief biography (additional 125 words maximum), presentation format whether conventional 15/20-minute presentations or lecture-demonstrations (participatory elements are welcome), and any technical equipment you might require. Important dates:

Deadline for submissions: 16 December 2019Notification of acceptance by 20 January 2020

Dates of the conference: 11-13 March 2020
Conference website: 

Notification of acceptance by 20 January 2020Dates of the conference: 11-13 March 2020
Conference website: 

Editors: Lisa Giombini (Università degli studi Roma Tre, Italy), Ondřej Dadejík (Charles University, Czech Republic), Adrián Kvokačka (University of Prešov, Slovakia)

The editorial board of the ESPES journal continues its commitment to focus on thematic issues dedicated to scholars who have contributed to shape contemporary aesthetic thinking. After the positively received ‘Berleantian’ issue (2/2017) we now aim to concentrate on the philosophy of Tomáš Kulka (1948), which has gained major attention not only within Slovak and Czech aesthetics but also in the wider European and world context.

A graduate in philosophy and economics at the London School of Economics as a student of Karl R. Popper, and a PhD at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Kulka taught for some years at the University of Jerusalem. After founding the Philosophy of Arts Department at the University of Tel Aviv, since 1992 he has been a guest lecturer at the Central European University and since 1996 a Professor at the Department of Aesthetics of the Charles University in Prague. His scholar profile is complemented by his engagement in many international journals like the British Journal for Philosophy of Science, Philosophy and Social Sciences, Poetics Today, Journal of Aesthetic Education, Organon F, Filosofický časopis and Estetika: The Central European Journal of Aesthetics.

Kulka’s seminal book, Art and Kitsch, translated in Czech, Hebrew, Finnish and Spanish, probably represents the author’s most famous work, but many of his publications resonate as well in the Slovak aesthetic discourse: he is well known as an author (Umění a falzum / Art and falsum), as a co-editor (Co je umění? Texty angloamerické estetiky 20. století / What is Art? Texts of Anglo-American Aesthetics of the 20^th  Century), and as a translator or editor of translations (Umění, krása, šeredno / Art, Beauty, Ugliness; Jazyky umění / Languages of art). Working within the frame of the analytic philosophy of art, Kulka’s philosophy elaborates the foundations of Popper’s thinking by importing his falsifiability theory within the field of aesthetics; it pursues the problem of aesthetic and artistic values in the context of the forgery-original relation and shows a long-term interest in value theory (his new book Art and its Values is announced for 2019 by the ARGO publishing house).

Given Kulka’s contribution to Slovak and Czech aesthetics, the editorial board of ESPES is pleased to launch a thematic call aimed to provide a retrospective on some central thematic areas of his work in the field of aesthetics and the philosophy of art. We welcome contributions that re-evaluate and reflect on Kulka’s relevance to current aesthetic discourse. Submission may focus on all aspects of his reflections in aesthetics and the arts, including, but not limited to the following areas:

• Art and kitsch: a mandatory starting point for future studies of kitsch (Dutton, 1997)?
• Forgeries: the relevance of Kulka’s dualistic model of appraisal of a work of art as a response to the problem of (artistic) forgeries.
• Problems of value. Aesthetic and artistic values in the world of art.
• 30 years after Art and science: an outline of Popperian aesthetics.
• Kulka and Goodman on metaphor.

Online submission deadline using espes.ff.unipo.sk: Deadline postponed to September 30, 2019! 
Decision and comments sent out: October 30, 2019
Final drafts due on: December 1, 2019
Publication date: end of December 2019
If you have any questions, please contact the editors at: espes@ff.unipo.sk

CALL FOR ABSTRACTS 

Literature has so far played a central role in the philosophical debates concerning fiction, narrative and the cognitive relevance of art. The goal of this conference is to explore whether the accounts developed starting from the paradigmatic case of literature can also be applied to other forms of art or if the latter rather require sharply different approaches. We invite submissions for 40-minute presentations (not including discussion). 

Deadline for submissions: 31 December 2019. 

For further details please visit:

Two days of talks and demonstrations exploring contrasts between process and product, the unfinished and finished work, spontaneity and structure.
Stellar lineup of guest presenters: improvising musicians, interpreters and researchers from jazz and beyond.

All are welcome – free entry on the door.
Organised by Andy Hamilton and Samuel Horlor for Durham University Department of Philosophy. Supported by Durham University and ������Ƶ, with the .
Full information: 
For enquiries contact Samuel Horlor: 

Programme:

Saturday 5th October: Literary and Philosophical Society, Newcastle, NE1 1SE��

09.45-10.00:�� �� Introduction by��(Philosophy Dept, Durham University)​

10.00-10.30: ��������(music researcher)�� �� �� �� �� �� �� �� �� �� �� ������ ‘The Aesthetics of the Musical Challenge:��Games and Play in Karnatak Music’​

10.30-11.00: ��������(data musician and researcher) ‘Live Coding and Failure’��

11.15-12.00: ����&�� (saxophone and drums improv duo)’How to Play out of Tune’​

12.00-12.30: ��������(music journalist and researcher) ‘Imperfection and the Sense of Necessity’

13.30-14.30: ��������(improvising pianist)�������������������������������������������������� Performance and Q&A​

14.30-15.00: ������(music psychology and aesthetics researcher)�� �� �� �� �� �� �� �� �� �� �� �� �� ‘The Benefits of Spontaneous Thought for the Creative Brain’

Sunday 6th October: Literary and Philosophical Society, Newcastle, NE1 1SE��

10.00-10.30: ��������(music researcher)�� �� �� �� �� �� �� �� �� �� �� �� �� ‘Reintroducing the Improvised Cadenza: A Case Study in Vivaldi’s Violin Concertos

‘​10.30-11.00: ��������(aesthetics researcher)�� �� �� �� �� �� �� �� �� �� �� �� �� ‘Naturalness and Artifice: Notes on Authorship and Musical Improvisation’​

11.00-11.30: ��������(music researcher)�� �� �� �� �� �� �� �� �� �� �� �� �� ‘Imperfect Becomings: The Praxis of Musical Imperfection in Notated Composition’

11.45-12.15:����������(improvising saxophonist)�� �� �� �� �� �� �� �� �� �� �� �� �� ‘Solo Improvisation – A Special Case?’​

12.15-12.45:����������(music psychology and improvisation researcher) ‘This Is Not Improvised But That Is: False Dichotomies and Imperfection’​

12.45-13.15:����������(improvising pianist)�������������������������������������� Q&A����

14.15-14.45: ��������(music researcher) TBC​

14.45-15.15: ��������(improvising percussionist)������������������������������������������ �� �� Interview with Andy Hamilton

​15.15-15.45:����������(music researcher)�� �� �� �� �� �� �� �� �� �� �� �� �� ‘Aesthetics of Imperfection: Responses’

These developments in relation to nature and technology have the potential to fundamentally change our understanding of many concepts in aesthetics. Art is increasingly making use of new technologies; artists are relying on algorithms and computational processing whilst Artificial Intelligence is advancing into near-autonomous artistic creation. At the same time, we are seeing a return in the analytic tradition of aesthetics towards discussions of value in the natural world. The emergence of environmental aesthetics, for instance, has seen a renewed interest in the aesthetics of nature and human environments. Both these trends challenge us now to focus on aesthetic issues that go beyond human.

We welcome papers that will broadly address aesthetic questions relating to nature and technology, such as (but not limited to):

• Art and the non-human (non-human animals, cyborgism, AI)
• Art consumption and new technologies 
• Art of the Anthropocene / climate change
• Art production and new technologies
• Artistic ecosystems: spaces of exhibition, materials 
• Environmental aesthetics
• Landscape
• Neo-humanism, transhumanism
• Non-human cognition and the aesthetic experience
• Validity of the nature / technology dichotomy

Submissions are invited for two types of papers: traditional and ‘reversed’. 

Traditional Presentations

Traditional papers are to present an argument or viewpoint for 25 minutes, followed by a 15-minute Q&A session. 

Reversed Presentations

For ‘reversed presentations’, rather than holding the questions for the end of the paper, they will come at the beginning of each paper. This format invites selected participants to give a five-minute talk on a research question which they are struggling with or a particularly challenging or controversial issue which they are addressing in their dissertation, after which there will be 15 minutes of discussion. The audience will be invited to propose possible solutions, alternative approaches, and suggestions for further reading. The inversion of the traditional Q&A format is designed for postgraduates to make use of the wealth of expertise and knowledge at the conference. If you are in the early stages of a PhD, or perhaps an MA student developing a PhD proposal this session will be highly beneficial, though all are welcome to send in submissions!

For traditional paper presentations, please submit an abstract of��no longer than 600 words��excluding bibliography. For reversed presentations, the abstract should be��no longer than 150 words excluding bibliography. For both presentation formats, please also include a short bio in a separate document. All submissions must be prepared for blind review, so please do not include any identifying information in your abstract.

Please send your abstracts for consideration by��1 November 2019 to beyondhuman.bsa@gmail.com. We aim to notify applicants by 29 November 2019.

Bursaries

A £60 travel grant will be awarded to all postgraduate students (excluding students from the University of Kent) whose papers or proposals for either the traditional presentation or reversed presentations session have been accepted. Their conference registration fee will also be waived. 

There will also be limited additional travel grants for overseas students whose papers have been accepted and, subject to budgetary constraints, also for UK-based postgraduate speakers whose travel costs are significantly high. The number of these additional travel bursaries will be allocated on a case-by-case basis

Should you have any questions about the conference, please do not hesitate to contact us at beyondhuman.bsa@gmail.com.

We look forward to hearing from you!

On behalf of the Aesthetics Research Centre at the University of Kent

Literature has so far played a central role in the philosophical debates concerning fiction, narrative and the cognitive relevance of art. The goal of this conference is to explore whether the accounts developed starting from the paradigmatic case of literature can also be applied to other forms of art or if the latter rather require sharply different approaches. We invite submissions for 40-minute presentations (with 20 additional minutes for discussion).

Deadline for submissions: 31 December 2019.

For further details please visit: