Philosophy – ÌÇÐÄÊÓƵ Wed, 29 Nov 2017 14:48:40 +0000 en-US hourly 1 212073213 CfP: The Philosophy of Portraits /cfp-the-philosophy-of-portraits-2/ Wed, 29 Nov 2017 14:48:40 +0000 http://british-aesthetics.org/?p=3514 Read More]]> CALL FOR PAPERS

The Philosophy of Portraits:
An international conference

April 13-14, 2018
University of Maryland College Park

*extended deadline: 15 December *

Portraits are everywhere. One finds them not just in museums and galleries, but also in newspapers and magazines, in the homes of people and in the boardrooms of companies, on stamps and coins, on millions of cell phones and computers. Despite its huge popularity, however, portraiture hasn’t received much philosophical attention. While there are countless art historical studies of portraiture, including self-portraiture and group-portraiture, contemporary philosophy has largely remained silent on the subject. The proposed conference aims to address this lacuna and bring together philosophers with different areas of expertise to discuss this enduring and continuously fascinating genre.

Confirmed speakers: Anne W. Eaton (University of Illinois), Cynthia Freeland (University of Houston), Jerrold Levinson (University of Maryland), Hans Maes (University of Kent), Dorothy Moss (National Portrait Gallery), Jenefer Robinson (University of Cincinnati).

Call for papers: We invite submissions on any issue related to portraiture. Papers should not exceed 5000 words and should be accompanied by a 100-word abstract and a page with your contact details. Please prepare your submission for blind review. You can send papers to philosophyofportraits@gmail.com. Extended deadline: 15 December 2017. Communication of acceptance: January 25, 2018.

A selection of the papers presented at the conference will be collected in a book, edited by the conference organizers and provisionally entitled Portraiture: Philosophical Perspectives. Oxford University Press has expressed an interest in publishing such a volume.

Graduate bursaries: We encourage graduate students to submit a paper. The two best graduate submissions by ASA student members will be awarded a graduate student travel grant of up to $500 to help cover travel and accommodation expenses.
Possible topics:

• What makes something a portrait?
• In what way is this genre similar to and different from other genres?
• How have artists pushed against the limits and conventions of the type and what does this reveal about the nature of portraiture?
• Can there be abstract portraits?
• What distinguishes artistic portraits from non-artistic portraits and what part does cultural appropriation play in this?
• In what way and to what extent does the recent vogue for selfies relate to the tradition of self-portraiture?
• How can authenticity in portraiture be achieved if portraits necessarily involve posing?
• How do portraitists seek to render a person’s likeness?
• How do depictive strategies in the West compare to those of non-Western traditions?
• What is the role of medium in portraiture?
• Do portraits necessarily fall within the domain of non-fiction?
• Can a portrait ever capture the essence of a person or distill a person’s identity?
• How does personal style – of the artist and the sitter – enter into the making of a portrait and how is it connected to someone’s identity and group membership?
• Can we evaluate a portrait without knowing the sitter and if so, on what basis?
• How do artists express attitudes and emotions towards the sitters of their portraits?
• What are the moral dimensions of the relations between artist, sitter, patron, and audience?
• How do portraits perpetuate or challenge stereotypes?
• How might portraiture help to challenge or change standards of beauty?
• Can a portrait be objectifying?
• Can portraits be pornographic, and if so, what moral questions does that raise?
• How might portraits help to empower someone or a group a people?

Planning committee: Susan Feagin (Temple University), Ivan Gaskell (Bard Graduate Center), Karen Gover (Bennington College), Jason Leddington (Bucknell University), and the two principal organizers: Jerrold Levinson (University of Maryland) and Hans Maes (University of Kent).

The organizers fully support the goals of the Gendered Conference Campaign (GCC) and will seek to ensure the recruitment and participation of women and members of other historically-underrepresented and excluded groups.
We gratefully acknowledge financial support from the The American Society for Aesthetics and The University of Maryland College Park.

]]> 3514 St Andrews CEPPA Graduate Conference – Call for Papers /st-andrews-ceppa-graduate-conference-call-for-papers/ Mon, 04 Sep 2017 11:13:36 +0000 http://british-aesthetics.org/?p=3408 Read More]]> The St Andrews Centre for Ethics, Philosophy and Public Affairs (CEPPA) Graduate Conference is a place for graduate students in Moral and Political Philosophy (broadly construed) to come together and share their high quality research. The conference is proudly supported by CEPPA at the University of St Andrews, and will be held here on the 17-18th of February 2018.

We invite graduate students from outside St Andrews to submit papers in Applied Ethics, Moral Theory, Political Philosophy, Metaethics, and Aesthetics, and especially encourage submissions from members of under-represented groups in philosophy.

We are delighted to announce that Professor Alison Hills (University of Oxford) and Professor Andrew Williams (Pompeu Fabra University) will be Keynote Speakers.

All accepted papers will receive comments from faculty members or graduate students at St Andrews. We hope to offer support for travel costs and accommodation within St Andrews.

Papers should be submitted to ceppagradconf@outlook.com for blind review. All submissions must: (1) be no more than 5000 words including footnotes, (2) include an abstract of no more than 500 words, (3) be authored by current postgraduate students, (4) indicate the relevant area of research, (5) be suitable for a presentation of around 45 minutes, and (6) be prepared for anonymous review, removing any identifying information.

The DEADLINE for submissions is the 9th of November 2017; notification of acceptance will be sent by the 1st of January 2018.

Contact: ceppagradconf@outlook.com

Visit CEPPAs website .

]]> 3408 Call for Papers: PGR Study Day – Methodologies in Film-Philosophy /call-for-papers-pgr-study-day-methodologies-in-film-philosophy/ Fri, 21 Jul 2017 16:49:49 +0000 http://british-aesthetics.org/?p=3321 Read More]]>

CALL FOR PAPERS: PGR Study Day – Methodologies in Film-Philosophy

Saturday 21th October 2017
Department of Film Studies, King’s College London

Organised in association with the British Association of Film, Television and Screen Studies

Confirmed Keynote Speaker:
Professor John Ó Maoilearca, Kingston University

Since its emergence in the mid-1990s, the field of film-philosophy has stressed the mutually-productive engagement between its two titular disciplines. From Deleuzian inspired notions of a film-mind to the film-phenomenology of Vivian Sobchack, the terms of this engagement take many forms and positions. Does film illustrate philosophical issues, or more radically does film do philosophy? What does it mean to think philosophy with and alongside film? How we posit the relationship between film and philosophy in our own research is not only a question of staking a claim within a new discipline, but of the methodologies we use to negotiate our own position within this emerging terrain.

This study day will bring together postgraduate research students for a critical discussion on approaches and experiences of doing research at the intersection of film and philosophy. The day will explore the strengths and challenges of using diverse methodologies across this interdisciplinary frame of research, and Professor John Ó Maoilearca (Kingston University) will consider its implications for public engagement.

As opposed to traditional academic papers, we invite postgraduate research students working in any area across film and philosophy to submit abstracts for 15-minute presentations reflecting on their own methodological approach. This might encompass reflections on topics including, yet not limited to:

·         Selection of films and/or philosophical approach
·         The canon in film-philosophy
·         Relationship with film theory
·         The role of medium-specificity and/or digital technologies
·         Link to philosophies of other visual arts, literature, music
·         Intersection with ethics and/or politics
·         The limits of film-philosophy
·         Historiographies of film-philosophy
·         The Analytic-Continental distinction
·         Eurocentrism in film-philosophy
·         Practice-based research across film and philosophy

Proposals should include the title of the presentation, a 250-word abstract, and a short biographical statement. Please submit your proposal to film-philosophy@kcl.ac.uk by Friday 1 September 2017. Participants will receive a response by mid-September.

With the support of BAFTSS, we will be offering a limited number of small bursaries to help cover travel costs for presenters whose institutions cannot support them to attend the conference. If you wish to apply, please submit a short paragraph with your proposal explaining why you need the travel bursary in order to attend the conference, as well as a breakdown of anticipated expenses.

Organisers: Hannah Paveck (King’s College London) and Joseph Jenner (King’s College London)

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