ASA Announces New Trustees and Vice-President

The American Society for Aesthetics announces a new Vice-President and two new trustees elected by the ASA membership. The trustees will serve three-year terms from February 1, 2025, to January 31, 2028. The new Vice-President will serve a two-year term and then ascend to the Presidency on February 1, 2027.

The new Vice-President is Sherri Irvin. She is Presidential Research Professor of Philosophy at the University of Oklahoma and longtime member of the ASA. She has served in many roles including trustee, program chair for the Annual and Pacific meetings, and member of the JAAC editorial board. She recently co-chaired the committee to recruit a new Secretary-Treasurer candidate and recommend structural changes in the role and workload. She has published on many topics in aesthetics and is author of Immaterial: Rules in Contemporary Art (Oxford, 2022) and editor of Body Aesthetics (Oxford, 2016). Her goals include (1) expanding our efforts to make the ASA a welcoming and inclusive community, (2) enhancing the visibility of aesthetics by supporting innovative conferences and forms of research dissemination, (3) supporting early-career and contingently employed aestheticians, and (4) ensuring that the society is prepared to weather challenges in a shifting higher ed and publication landscape.

The two new Trustees: 

• Darren Hudson Hick is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Furman University. His work lies at the intersection of aesthetics, law, and ethics, focusing centrally on matters of authorship, intellectual property, artist–audience relationships, and associated issues. He has published several books, including Introducing Aesthetics and the Philosophy of Art   and Artistic License: The Philosophical Problems of Copyright and Appropriation. His articles have been published in   JAAC, BJA, and  Contemporary Aesthetics  , as well as a variety of generalist philosophy journals, law journals, psychology journals, and collected volumes. He has been a member of the ASA for nearly 20 years, and has served on the program committees for the National, Eastern, and SAW meetings, and is currently co-chair of the Eastern Division meeting. As a trustee, his central goals for the ASA would include supporting continued efforts in diversity initiatives, as well as increasing support for contingent faculty and independent scholars.

• Nils-Hennes Stear earned his PhD at Michigan and  is now assistant professor of aesthetics at Uppsala. Most of his work spans aesthetics, ethics, and feminist philosophy. It has appeared in JAAC, the BJA, Ethics, Hypatia, as elsewhere. An ASA member since 2012, he has attended every annual meeting, and several regional ones, since. Besides participating in two program committees and the feminist caucus, he has served as diversity committee chair (2019-2021) and annual meeting program chair (2022); drafted and spearheaded the Irene Chayes Award; and conceived and instituted the Welcoming Luncheon—all in collaboration with valued ASA colleagues and friends. Nils’ priorities include (1) finding actionable, effective ways to make the ASA more inclusive and just; (2) expanding the ASA’s membership and reach; and (3) maximizing the benefit of the Society’s multimillion dollar endowment, while ensuring it continues to protect against future financial challenges. For further information, see here: http://nilsstear.me 

Thanks to all the nominees who stood for election and to all the ASA members who voted.

Sondra Bacharach and Jennifer Judkins will complete their terms as trustees on January 31, 2025. In December 2025, the members of ASA will elect three new trustees. 

American Society For Aesthetics
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