Irene H. Chayes New Voices Awards Named for 2022

The American Society for Aesthetics is pleased to announce the winners of the 2022 Irene H. Chayes New Voices Awards: Claire Anscomb, University of Liverpool, and Corbin Covington, Northwestern University. Both papers will be presented at the ASA Annual Meeting November 16-19, 2022. They were selected from seven applicants for the prize this year.

 Claire Ascomb's winning paper, "Creatively Constrained? Negotiating Physical Disability in Visual Art Production," will be presented at the ASA Annual Meeting Saturday, November 19 at 2:45 pm.

Corbin Covington's winning paper, "'The Negro is a Toy in the White Man's Hand': The Opiate of Aestheticization and the Shaping of Modern Identity in Public Art," will be presented at the ASA Annual Meeting Saturday, November 19 at 11:15 am.

The awards were established in 2017 by the Board of Trustees of the ASA, at the request of the ASA Diversity Committee, to nourish and sustain an ethos of inclusivity in all aspects of the Society’s activities, and in the discipline of aesthetics more broadly.

The winners in 2018 in the inaugural competition were Emmanuel Ordóñez Angulo, University College, London, and Daniel Wilson, University of Auckland, New Zealand. The winners in 2019 were Shannon Brick and Zoe Cunliffe, both at the CUNY Graduate Program. The winners in 2020 were Christopher Jenkins, Oberlin College, and Hannah Kim, Stanford University. The winners in 2021 were Irene Martínez Marín, Uppsala Universit and Nicholas Whittaker, CUNY Graduate Center.

Applicants were asked to demonstrate the following characteristics:

1.The author’s understanding of the barriers that lead to the underrepresentation of women, ethnic and racial minorities, non-gender-conforming individuals, persons with disabilities, persons from low-socio-economic-status backgrounds, and other members of groups historically underrepresented in higher education careers. Evidence of this understanding may be drawn from the author’s life experiences and educational background, and should be explained in a short personal statement.

2.The author’s capacity to apply their understanding of the conditions of underrepresentation to their research. Applicants should demonstrate this critical perspective by, for example, proposing research topics that pertain in a substantial way to the artistic production or aesthetic experience of underrepresented groups.

Preference is given to applicants who are students, faculty on fixed-term, non-tenure ­stream contracts, or not in academic employment.

Award recipients each will receive $1,000 prizes and travel to the Annual Meeting. Seven papers were submitted for consideration for this award. Papers were reviewed anonymously with all other papers for the meeting by the ASA program committee, without any information on their request for the New Voices Award or other support. Eligibility for the Irene H. Chayes New Voices Award was reviewed by the co-chairs of the ASA diversity committee. The final selection was made jointly by the Co-Chairs of the Program Committee (Sandra Shapshay and Nils-Hennes Stear) and the Diversity Committee (Saul Fisher and Hannah Kim).

Applicants for the 2023 awards should apply by March 1, 2023. Guidelines: https://aesthetics-online.org/page/chayesprize

These awards have been made possible by the generosity of a large bequest from the estate of Irene H. Chayes to the American Society for Aesthetics.Irene Hendry Chayes (1916-2014) received her B.A. and M.A. from New York University and her Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University. She taught literature at the University of Maryland, Hollins College, and SUNY Binghamton. Her career and publications.