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Conference Announcement Theme: Race and Aesthetics Type: BSA Connections Conference on Philosophy of Race and Philosophical Aesthetics Institution: British Society of Aesthetics (BSA) University of Leeds Location: Leeds (United Kingdom) Date: 19.–20.5.2015 __________________________________________________ Nearly 100 years ago, the two founding giants of the academic field that became philosophy of race—W.E.B. Du Bois and Alain Locke—debated the proper social and artistic conception of black aesthetics. Since then, there has been impressive growth in both philosophy of race and philosophical aesthetics. Unfortunately, the advances in each of these philosophical fields seemed to have gone unnoticed by the other (with some exceptions). Our aim with this conference is to reunite philosophy of race and philosophical aesthetics. To return the spirit of Du Bois and Locke to contemporary discourse, we have invited philosophers who tackle philosophical problems related to race from diverse perspectives and philosophical aestheticians with demonstrated interest in race. We have chosen three intersections between race and aesthetics to focus on: psychology, politics, and methods. Race, Psychology, and Aesthetics Both philosophy of race and philosophical aesthetics are now increasingly connected to sciences of the mind. For example, aesthetic concerns have been central to a substantial literature on imagination, and racial concerns have been central to a substantial literature on implicit biases. Yet, there has been little dialogue between the fields regarding these psychological mechanisms. For this conference, we propose to explore questions such as: - Are there implicit racial biases that affect assessments of aesthetic virtues, such as creativity? What is the significance of such biases for philosophical assessments of aesthetic evaluation? - Are imagination, empathy, and engagement with artistic representations effective methods for reducing or eliminating structural racial inequalities? - Does racial oppression function via aesthetic psychological mechanisms, such as the mechanisms that underlie our judgments of taste and attractiveness? - How do artworks contribute to the experience of being racialized in contemporary society? For example, how might racist tropes in artistic representations—even when they are intended as subversive—contribute to the internalizations of stereotypes that are harmful to members of subordinated racial groups? Race, Politics, and Aesthetics Both philosophy of race and philosophical aesthetics are now increasingly intertwined with moral and political considerations, broadly construed. For example, one of the liveliest debates in philosophical aesthetics in the last few decades concerns the legitimacy of criticizing art on ethical grounds. For this conference, we propose to explore questions such as: - What explains the underrepresentation and ghettoization of non-whites in the art world? Are racialized art curations—such as an exhibit that explicitly focuses on black artists only—ethically or aesthetically justified? - Can art projects that aim to reclaim racist tropes by using those racist tropes—such as the controversial contemporary restaging of Norway’s 1914 human zoo exhibit—ever be justified on moral or aesthetic grounds? - It is commonly assumed that racialized aesthetic preferences, for people and for artifacts, are immune to moral criticism because they are “merely aesthetic”. How is this assumption problematized by recent debates in philosophy of race and philosophical aesthetics? Race, Philosophical (Self-)Conceptions, and Aesthetics The traditional conception of philosophy is one that privileges the Western canon, dominated by white males, and marks certain areas of inquiry as "core". This traditional approach has not only marginalized women and people of color, but also fields such as philosophy of race and philosophical aesthetics. For this conference, we propose to explore questions such as: - Are fields such as philosophy of race and philosophical aesthetics marginalized due to the traditional self-conception of philosophy? - How can the modes and topics of inquiry in philosophy of race and philosophical aesthetics together inform alternative conceptions of philosophy that allow for the flourishing of diverse intellectual projects? - Are there links between demographic diversity and cognitive diversity? How can philosophical studies of race and aesthetics clue us to the contours of such links, if they exist? Conference Program Tuesday, May 19th, 2015 09:00-09:50 registration and coffee 09:50-09:55 opening remarks 10:00-11:05 Nathaniel Adam Tobias Coleman (University College London): 'I'm a Sexual Racist!' 11:10-12:15 A.W. Eaton (University of Illinois - Chicago): 'What Makes You Beautiful': On the Racialization of Bodily Taste 12:15-13:15 catered lunch 13:15-14:20 Sherri Irvin (University of Oklahoma): Icons of False Hope?: The Role of Images in Thinking about Racial Justice 14:25-15:30 Nils-Hennes Stear & Robin Zheng (University of Michigan): Imagining in Oppressive Contexts, or, What's Wrong with Blacking Up? 15:30-15:45 coffee and tea 15:45-16:50 Ron Mallon (Washington University in St Louis): Humor, Automaticity, and Automata 16:55-18:00 Charles W. Mills (Northwestern University): White Lies / Black Humor Wednesday, May 20th, 2015 09:00-09:30 registration and coffee 09:30-10:35 Paul C. Taylor (Pennsylvania State University): An Aesthetics of Resistance: Deweyan Experimentalism and Epistemic Injustice 10:40-11:45 Alia Al-Saji (McGill University): Waiting in Racialized Time: A Phenomenology of Racialization through Image and Film 11:45-13:15 catered lunch 13:15-14:20 James Camien McGuiggan (University of Southampton): Brett Bailey's Exhibit B: A Case Study in Ethics and Art 14:25-15:30 Kristie Dotson (Michigan State University): Negative Space: Black Feminist Thought and Racialized Aestheticization 15:30-15:55 coffee and tea 15:55-17:00 Katharine Jenkins & Jennifer Saul (University of Sheffield): The Pragmatics of Inclusivity: Visual and Linguistic Cues to Group Membership 17:05-17:15 closing remarks by Shirley Tate (University of Leeds) 19:00-21:00 conference dinner at Hansa's Gujarati Vegetarian Restaurant Please click here for talk abstracts: http://raceandaesthetics.weebly.com/abstracts.html Conference Venue Henry Moore Room, Leeds Art Gallery The Headrow, Leeds LS1 3AA Registration and Logistics Space is limited so please register early. We aim to close conference registration by May 10th. Conference Fees Standard conference fee: £30 Concessionary conference fee: £10. Available for students and other unwaged members of the profession. (Conference registration fee includes coffee and tea and catered lunch on both days.) Conference dinner: £20. Conference Registration Please register for the conference using University of Leeds Online Store: http://store.leeds.ac.uk/browse/product.asp?compid=1&modid=1&catid=629 Conference Organizers Shen-yi Liao (University of Leeds / University of Puget Sound) Aaron Meskin (University of Leeds) Conference Assistants Daniel Abrahams (University of Leeds) Kristi Boone (University of Leeds) Conference website: http://raceandaesthetics.weebly.com __________________________________________________ InterPhil List Administration: http://interphil.polylog.org Intercultural Philosophy Calendar: http://cal.polylog.org __________________________________________________
