Zoe Walker Wins First Feminist Aesthetics Prize

Zoe Walker, Career Development Fellow in Philosophy at Trinity College, Oxford, is the winner of the inaugural Feminist Aesthetics Research Prize. Seven submissions were received for the prize, making this a challenging review for the committee of senior ASA members who made the selection.

Walker's paper is "Comic Objectification." The abstract:

Is laughing at someone a way of treating them as an object? And if so, does that make it immoral? In this paper, I argue that seeing someone as comic is a form of objectification, which necessarily involves a denial of their subjectivity, and can involve treating them as an object in other ways too. As for the morality of comic objectification, I distinguish between comically objectifying in act – behaving towards someone as if they are an object – and comically objectifying in attitude – regarding them as if they are an object. I argue that whilst comically objectifying in act is generally immoral, it can be morally permissible in the context of a respectful relationship, or as a way of creating such a relationship. As for comically objectifying someone in attitude, this is immoral when such an attitude plays a role in justifying the oppression of members of their social group.

The prize was established to encourage new, unpublished work on feminist aesthetics. The papers are judged based on significance of the topic of issue, quality of the research, quality of the writing, originality, and contribution to the feminist literature within aesthetics—broadly construed—that focuses on gender, race, class, ethnicity, and/or sexual preference/identity; the paper may be and is encouraged to be multidisciplinary. Funds to endow this prize in perpetuity have been generously provided by Peg Brand Weiser.

The next prize will be awarded in 2026, with a submission deadline of February 1, 2026. Guidelines:  https://aesthetics-online.org/page/feministaestheticsprize