Twelve Participants Announced for ASA-UBC Summer Seminar on “Beauty and Why It Matters”

                The American Society for Aesthetics and the Department of Philosophy, University of British Columbia, are pleased to announce the twelve participants selected for the first-ever ASA-UBC Summer Seminar, to be held July 9-27, 2018 on the UBC campus.

                The ASA Board of Trustees awarded $33,000 in support of the participant stipends, with substantial cost-sharing provided by UBC for the director, Dom Lopes, and graduate assistant, facilities, and technology. The topic of the seminar is “Beauty and Why It Matters.”

                The participants were selected from 43 applicants, with priority for junior faculty (either untenured or within ten years of the doctorate) and faculty at teaching-oriented institutions in North America and with space reserved for at least two contract faculty. A doctorate was required, so postdoctoral fellows were eligible, but not graduate students. Some senior applicants are included, with an eye to what they are likely to contribute to the development of their junior colleagues.

The twelve participants are:

Julianne Chung, Assistant Professor of Philosophy, University of Louisville

Anthony Cross, Lecturer in Philosophy, Texas State University

Keren Gorodeisky, Associate Professor of Philosophy, Auburn University

Sarah Hegenbart, Post-Doctoral Lecturer in Theory and History of Architecture, Art and Design, Technical University Munich

Alexandra King, Assistant Professor of Philosophy, University at Buffalo, SUNY

Samantha Matherne, Assistant Professor of Philosophy, University of California, Santa Cruz

Christopher Nguyen, Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Utah Valley University

Nick Riggle, Assistant Professor of Philosophy, University of San Diego

Elizabeth Scarbrough, Lecturer in Philosophy, Florida International University

James Shelley, Professor of Philosophy, Auburn University

Brian Soucek, Acting Professor of Law and Martin Luther King, Jr. Hall Research Scholar, University of California, Davis

Jonathan Weinberg, Professor of Philosophy, University of Arizona

ASA membership was required at the time of application for philosophers specialized in aesthetics. For all others, ASA membership was required at the time of accepting a seat in the seminar. Participants will each receive a stipend of $2700 to cover travel, housing, and other expenses.

The seminar will be organized around four approaches to answering the question why aesthetic value matters: (1) The Power to Please, (2) Aesthetic and Other Values, (3) Aesthetic Activity and Human Well-Being, and (4) Personally Meaningful Aesthetic Pursuits.

Materials from the seminar will be published on a public web site hosted at UBC and later archived on the ASA web site. Participants with strong pedagogical interests will be invited to craft annotated bibliographies and sample syllabi, which will also be posted on these web sites.