supported by the ÌÇÐÄÊÓƵ

PROGRAMME INFORMATION

This three-day international conference will explore the relationship betweenÌýfictionÌýandÌýliesÌýfrom a range of disciplinaryÌýandÌýinterdisciplinary perspectives, including philosophy, literary historyÌýand theory, narratology, filmÌýandÌýmedia studies, psychologyÌýandÌýcognitive science.Ìý

The conference will take place from 10-12 June 2026, each day from 9.00 to 17.30. 

Keynote addresses:

10 June 2026: Eileen John (Philosophy, University of Warwick), ‘Reasons for Being Loose with the Truth’Ìý

11 June 2026: Pierre Bayard (Literature, Université Paris 8 – Saint-Denis), ‘Comment parler de sujets auxquels on ne connaît rien ?’ [‘How to talk about subjects you know nothing about’] 

The full programme is available on the

LOCATION

University of Edinburgh, Pollock Estate (map available here: )

REGISTRATION

Registration is open until 25 May 2026 .

Funding from the Scots Philosophical Association means that staff (including emeritus) and students from Scottish universities attending the conference can have their fees waived. Please email fictionlies2026@gmail.com from your institutional address to request a password before registering. 

For any colleagues who are not in Scotland, fees are £50 for staff, £15 for students. The fee includes lunch on all three days. Non-Scottish delegates must be members of ASIFF/SIRFF.

Join us for an evening of philosophical reflection on the role that poetry can play in connecting us with non-human animals and the environment. Inspired by the writings of Newcastle-based philosopher Mary Midgley, we present insights from the global multi-species poetry experiment, .

The evening will begin with a short introduction from the project’s director, poet-philosopher Dr Mara Daria Cojocaru, who will explain the concept of multispecies poetry and share poems co-authored with bats, bison and eider ducks.

After that, there will be two presentations. Dr Karen Simecek will talk about poetry as a site of community and explore the limits of felt connections to others through a poem. Dr Vid Simoniti will consider the claim that art is a form of worldmaking, and query what it would mean for art to help us reframe our relationship to the climate crisis.

After the talks there will be a chance to get a glass of wine or soft drink, before joining us for a roundtable discussion and Q&A.

You will be able to visit an interactive exhibition of theÌýPhilosophy in the WildÌýpoetry, curated by Mara-Daria Cojocaru, at the Tin Church at Newton-by-the-Sea during June. This is part of a residency withÌý, Alnmouth. Details will be announced on the project website.

Philosophy in the Wild: Finding Hope in Mixed CommunitiesÌýis the second philosophy-poetry project curated byÌýÌýand inspired by Newcastle-philosopher Mary Midgley. The project is generously supported by the Midgley Trust, The British Society for Aesthetics, The Old School Gallery (Alnmouth), Durham University and University of Liverpool.

Tickets and more information:

Keynotes include: 

, Professor of Sound at the London College of CommunicationÌý
, Associate Professor of Music at Trinity College Dublin
, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Manitoba

A programme is available on the .

Registration is via Eventbrite, and the link is on our .

For those seeking funding, ÌÇÐÄÊÓƵ members can apply for support through ÌÇÐÄÊÓƵ Travel Stipends (rolling deadline) and Royal Musical Association student members can apply for a  (deadline 1 May, 2026) to support conference attendance.

Any questions can be directed to Dr Férdia Stone-Davis (Chair, RMA MPSG): ferdia.stonedavis@dcu.ie

Supported by the ÌÇÐÄÊÓƵ and jointly hosted by Guildford School of Acting and the Centre for Translation Studies at the University of Surrey.

This one-day symposium explores philosophical issues around disability and accessibility in the performing arts. Focused on themes including aesthetic justice and community, cross-modal perception, meaning-making, sensory sensitivity, inclusivity and specific access practices such as audio description, the event brings together philosophers, performing artists and access practitioners. 

The event is in-person and free to attend but registration is required. Register here: 

A draft programme for the event is available here: 

Supported by the ÌÇÐÄÊÓƵ

Organizers:

Louise Braddock (Independent Psychoanalytic Thought network), Elisa Galgut (University of Cape Town), Niall Gildea (Edge Hill University), Derek Matravers (Open University).

The organizers invite expressions of interest for short papers to be given a two-day symposium to be held at St John’s College, Oxford, on July 14-15 2026. Applications to give a short paper responding to the workshop theme are invited from within and outside the academy. Structured around small interdisciplinary panels and emphasising conversation across the disciplines, the meeting is intended to explore the relation between art, including literature, and psychoanalysis with reference, though not exclusively so, to Wollheim’s work.

Deadline for Abstracts: 31 March 2026

Speakers include:

International: Elisa Galgut (philosophy, Cape Town), Louise Gyler (Australian Psychoanalytical Society, Sydney), Anna-Lisa Sander (doctoral student in philosophy, Heidelberg).

UK-based: David Collins (philosophy, Cambridge), Charlie Gere (media, film and culture, Lancaster), Derek Matravers (philosophy, Open University).

Theme:

It is well known, if not particularly well understood, that core notions in Wollheim’s philosophy of art depend on his commitment to the psychoanalytic model of the mind owed to Freud and developed by Klein. Many themes and ideas link Wollheim’s philosophy of art and psychoanalytic thought, in particular complex projection which both underpins his account of expression and plays a role in his account of the creation of, and understanding of, painting. Also prominent are conceptions of affect and drive drawn from Freud, and phantasy and subject-object relations in Kleinian theory. Most broadly, art for Wollheim could be said to be the link between corporeality and aesthetic experience; the ‘voice’ of the unconscious.

Hence the body is central, both to Wollheim’s psychoanalytic philosophy of mind and to his philosophy of art. Predominantly, the flow of his ideas has been from psychoanalysis into the philosophy of art, where their influence is largely recognized and integrated into the canon. But while philosophical understanding of art has benefited from Wollheim’s understanding of the mind, gained from psychoanalysis, equally his understanding of the mind was formed by his understanding of art. The colloquium will open up this line of enquiry onto the less-explored flow of ideas from art to the psychoanalytic picture of the mind.  

The symposium is organised as part of the Richard Wollheim Centenary Project, a programme of the Interdisciplinary Psychoanalytic Thought network. It receives support from St John’s College, the ÌÇÐÄÊÓƵ, and the .

Attendance will be in-room only. The organizers hope to subsidize reasonable costs for accommodation and/or travel; please feel free to contact us to discuss this.

Please email your title and abstract (maximum 300 words), and title, for a 20-minute paper to: wollheimcentenary@gmail.com with ‘Wollheim Symposium 2026’ in the subject line, by 31 March 2026. All submissions will be evaluated on merit only; please ensure your text is anonymised.

Website:Ìý

Supported by the ÌÇÐÄÊÓƵ

How can artistic practice produce knowledge? How can artists learn how to generate knowledge via their practice and articulate it? And how can philosophy and cognitive science help us understand — and perhaps even expand — this epistemic potential? By bringing practice, theory, and empirical inquiry into dialogue, this three-day symposium will explore how art’s epistemic potential can be better understood, communicated, and cultivated — both within and beyond the academy.

In recent decades, both philosophers of art and practicing artists have challenged the traditional view of art as purely expressive or aesthetic, proposing instead that artistic practice may constitute a distinct form of research and yield genuine knowledge. Crucially, this knowledge is not divided into separate domains of embodiment, cognition, and perception; rather, it emerges from their deep intertwinement. Artistic knowing is at once experiential, embodied, and conceptual — a dynamic interplay in which perception and bodily engagement are inseparable from reflective and conceptual understanding. Yet articulating the character of this integrated knowledge — and relating it to more familiar scientific or philosophical frameworks — remains an ongoing challenge, particularly if one’s expertise lies, first and foremost, in an art practice. At the same time, developments in cognitive science and philosophy of mind offer promising tools and frameworks: from predictive processing and embodied cognition to empirical aesthetics and experimental philosophy. These approaches can help make sense of how artistic practice shapes and is shaped by perceptual-cognitive capacities.

This symposium brings together artistic researchers, philosophers, and cognitive scientists to explore how these three strands of research can learn from each other.

We invite scholars from any of these three fields, broadly construed, to submit proposals for traditional papers, posters, or artistic works with posters. Questions that proposals may address include, but are not limited to:

• In what ways can the creation of art be genuinely epistemic? What sorts of knowledge or understanding can the creation of art foster – and how?
• Is there a particular epistemic value that attends the creation of art? Is it of the same value as other sorts of epistemic goods?
• How can philosophical and cognitive frameworks support, rather than constrain, artistic research?
• How might an aesthetic education, informed by empirical philosophy, cultivate perceptual-cognitive capacities that matter not only to artists but to society at large?
• What tools and methods — from video-essays to practice-led inquiry and reflective writing — can help articulate the knowledge art produces?

Submission details

Please prepare a coversheet with the names of the author(s), institutional affiliation(s), and 50-100 word bio statement(s) and an anonymized proposal that includes:

• Mode of presentation (paper, poster, artistic work with poster)
• Title
• Abstract (250-500 words)
• Reference list
• For artistic works with poster, any details about requirements for presentation. Please note artistic works will be accepted for presentation subject to the organizers’ ability to meet presentation requirements and the organizers’ will not be liable for any loss or damage that may occur.Ìý

Proposals should be submitted no later than 1 March 2026 to the conference organisers via mindartknowledge@gmail.com or the online portal at 

Further details about the symposium can be found here: 

Confirmed speakers include:

Dr Daisy Dixon (Lecturer in Philosophy, University of Cardiff)
Dr Christopher Earley (Leverhulme Early Career Fellow, University of Edinburgh)
Dr Jacopo Frascaroli (Postdoctoral Fellow in Psychology, University of Turin)
Dr Marina Iosifian (Senior Research Fellow, School of Divinity, University of St Andrews)
Dr Iris Vidmar Jovanovic (Assistant Professor of Philosophy, University of Rijeka)
Prof Marc Leman (Methusalem Research Professor in Systematic Musicology, Ghent University)
Prof Hans Maes (Vice-Dean of Research, LUCA School of Arts)
Prof Elisabeth Schellekens (Chair Professor of Aesthetics, University of Uppsala)
Prof MurrayÌýSmith (Professor of Philosophy, Art, and Film, University of Kent)
Dr Sander Van De Cruys (Postdoctoral Researcher, Antwerp Social Lab, University of Antwerp)

The Mind, Art, Knowledge Symposium will adhere to the BPA/SWIP Good Practice Scheme. It is funded with the generous support of:

ÌÇÐÄÊÓƵ
Film EU Centre of Excellence FILMIND
The Research Foundation – Flanders (FWO)
LUCA School of Arts (The associated Faculty of Arts of KU Leuven)
The Society for Cognitive Studies of the Moving Image

Supported by the ÌÇÐÄÊÓƵ and jointly hosted by Guildford School of Acting and the Centre for Translation Studies at the University of Surrey.

Strategies to make performing arts events accessible to disabled audiences have been developed and increasingly deployed in recent decades: these include audio description for blind and partially sighted audiences and the use of captioning and sign language interpreting for those who are deaf and hard-of-hearing. These intermedial practices raise many interesting philosophical questions and pose challenges for theorizing in aesthetics and philosophy of art. In exploring audience engagement (actual or ideal), philosophy has tended to focus on normative spectators/listeners without considering how a person’s degree of sight and/or hearing impacts access to, appreciation and evaluation of performance in its many forms and theorizing about such phenomena.

This symposium seeks to address these questions and challenges, promoting dialogue between philosophers, performing artists, access practitioners and audiences. The organisers invite abstracts for presentations on topics related to our central theme, including but not limited to the following:

• Cross-modal perception and meaning-making in the performing arts
• Artistic medium, meaning and aesthetic impact in the practice and reception of intermedial translation
• Implications of access practices such as audio description for debates about aesthetic testimony, the acquaintance principle and aesthetic evaluation
• Implications of access practices for thinking about (the heresy of) paraphrase and ineffability
• Aesthetic community, engagement and participation for disabled and non-disabled people
• Accessibility and aesthetic justice, including connections with disability justice
• How to (best) conceptualise access practices: as translation, remediation, re-performance, or in some other way?
• Aesthetic and/or ontological implications of creative approaches to integrating audio description, sign language interpreting and captioning into performance
• Philosophies of blindness, deafness and disability and their potential to illuminate the performing arts

Invited speakers: Amelia Lander-Cavallo (Quiplash), Josefa MacKinnon (Royal Shakespeare Company), Jenny Stewart-Cosgrove (Audio Describer), Rebecca Wallbank (Uppsala University) and Ken Wilder (University of the Arts, London).

The organisers invite submission of abstracts / proposals of 300-500 words by email to ku520uy@surrey.ac.uk (to which address any queries about the event can also be directed). The deadline for proposals is Friday 30th January 2026. Those submitting will be notified of decisions by 25^th February. There will be no conference fees.

Conference organizers / programme committee: Robert Shaughnessy (GSA/University of Surrey), Anna Pakes (University of Roehampton), Sabine Braun (CTS, University of Surrey) and Hetty Blades (Falmouth University).

The event will take place at Edificio de Humanidades UNED, Madrid – Sala B, from 10am to 17:45pm. It will also be streamed online. Attendance is free and open to all, but if you wish to attend online please email us at metis@fsof.uned.es at least two days in advance.

This event is organised by Paloma Atencia-Linares and Nemesio García-Carril Puy as part of the projectÌýÌýwith the support of theÌýÌÇÐÄÊÓƵ.

Assistants: Sergio Añón Lijó (Complutense University), Ramón Carnota Méndez (UNED), Carlos Ibáñez García (Complutense University).

Supported by the and the ÌÇÐÄÊÓƵ

Keynote Speakers: Prof. Hanne Appelqvist (University of Helsinki), Prof. Severin Schroeder (University of Reading)

Calling for abstracts of up to 1000 words, suitable for a 40-minute presentation, followed by twenty minutes of Q&A. We welcome submissions from people at all career stages, but especially encourage them from early career researchers.

There will be five slots for submitted papers.

Important updates and information about the event can be found at:

Workshop Rubric:

It is well known that Wittgenstein was inspired by Schopenhauer; a small tradition in the literature already discusses a number of notable commonalities and developments between the two thinkers. Yet, much of this literature is dated, and there remain many regrettably overlooked connections between these historical giants. In particular, many such connections lie between their multifaceted engagements with questions of value – with ethics and aesthetics.

The workshop aims to bring together leading scholars and emerging researchers to spark new discussions on Schopenhauer and Wittgenstein’s views on ethics and aesthetics—thereby uncovering new connections between the two. We seek to platform talks on intriguing and underexplored aspects of Schopenhauer and Wittgenstein’s thinking on value, including (but by no means limited to):

• The ethical and aesthetic dimensions of their shared fascination with the transcendental
• The notion of seeing the world sub specie aeternitatis (from the perspective of eternity)
• Schopenhauer’s presentation of aesthetic contemplation, and its resonance in Wittgenstein
• The respective roles played by meaning (Bedeutung) in our engagements with value
• The impression of mysticism in Wittgenstein’s philosophy and its ancestry in Schopenhauer’s work
• The role of the willing subject in both thinkers’ accounts of action and ethics, and in their broader philosophical frameworks

Abstracts discussing the work of both thinkers are especially desirable, but this is NOT a strict requirement. Talks discussing the views of either thinker on any topic in aesthetics/ethics are very welcome.

Submission:

Please submit your abstract, prepared for blind review, to philfos@soton.ac.uk by 1st October 2025. Please use “EASW Abstract Submission” as the subject line, and mention in the body of the email whether you are an early career researcher (understood to mean no more than four years beyond the completion of a PhD).

If you are interested in attending the workshop, please email the organisers (djk1g21@soton.ac.uk) to be sent a registration form. This should be completed and returned before 5th December 2025.

Financial Provision:

Overnight accommodation will be provided to all speakers – further financial contributions toward speakers’ travel expenses may also be available, distributed with a priority to those most in need. (Eligible speakers are also strongly encouraged to apply to the ÌÇÐÄÊÓƵ for help financing travel: /portfolio/travel-stipends/).

There are also funds available to support childcare needs. Please contact us as soon as possible to arrange this or other accessibility requirements, in order to ensure we can guarantee every possible provision. For further details regarding accessibility, see the workshop website at:

Organisers: Dominic Kearney, Cheuk Hei Leung, and Dr. Simone Nota

Thursday, 20 February 2025 | 9:30 AM – 6:45 PM
Friday, 21 February 2025 | 9:30 AM – 6:00 PM

Location

Basement Lecture Theatre
Institute of Neurology
Queen Square, London WC1N 3BG

Event Overview

This two-day conference, funded by the ÌÇÐÄÊÓƵ, seeks to confront one of the most pressing issues of our time: gender-based violence. How might aesthetic theory—grounded in the pursuit of meaning, form, and the unspeakable—provide an entry point for understanding the pervasive violence endured by women and marginalised communities? Drawing inspiration from Jacqueline Rose’s On Violence and On Violence Against Women, this event examines the aesthetic dimensions of violence. It does so not merely to diagnose or explain, but to ask what is at stake when violence becomes the subject of representation, when it is given shape and texture in ways that are both revealing and complicit. Through a series of dialogues—between scholars, practitioners, and creative voices—the conference will explore how art, philosophy, and theory might challenge, disrupt, or reimagine entrenched patterns of harm.

Keynotes

The Housewife, the Witch, and the WardrobeÌý– Prof. Gordon CF Bearn & Alison Freeman (Leigh University)

The Spectacle of DisappearanceÌý– Prof. Brad Evans (University of Bath)

Philosophy, Voice, and the Aftermath of ViolenceÌý– Prof. Paul Standish (UCL Institute of Education)

What Can Fictional Representations of Gender-Based Violence Achieve?Ìý– Prof. Eileen John (University of Warwick)

Under a Male Artist’s Gaze: Symbolic Gender Violence in the Case of Celia Paul –ÌýProf. Anna Pagès Santacana, Ramon Llull University

They Told Me I Was a Woman: The World Without EyesÌý– Chantal Meza, artist

TBC – Prof.ÌýGayatriÌýChakravorty Spivak

TBC – Prof.Catherine Wheatley (Kings College London)

Panels

The conference will feature four panels, each engaging with different dimensions of aesthetic practice and gender-based violence. Presentations will span philosophical inquiry, creative practice, and interventions from those working directly with affected communities.

Who Should Attend?

This event welcomes:

   •Academics and students from the fields of aesthetics, philosophy, gender studies, and related disciplines.

   •Practitioners and professionals working in social work, healthcare, law, education, and the arts who encounter or address gender-based violence in their practice.

   •Anyone with a personal or professional interest in how art and philosophy might grapple with violence, its representation, and its aftermath.

Event Details and Registration

Attendance is free, but places are limited. Early registration is encouraged to secure your place.

Register Here: 

For further information, please contact:
Leila Osman:Ìýleilaosman@voix.uk
Emma Williams:Ìýemma.williams@voix.uk