Aesthetics Work Group at the College of Charleston

• “Monuments and Counter-Monuments” (tentative title), Sarah Cunningham (Art, Virginia Commonwealth University; Chair, Public Arts Commission, Richmond) and Jay Miller (Philosophy, Warren Wilson College; Public Arts Commission, Asheville)
• Performance/discussion: “Arabic and Sufi Music, Poetry, Song and the Art of Maqâm,” Aïcha Redouane (musician, Paris), Habib Yammine (musician, ethnomusicologist, Paris), and Anne Rasmussen (Ethnomusicology, William & Mary).
• “Aesthetic Public Reasons,” Jonathan Neufeld (Philosophy, CofC)
• “Why Play the Notes? Indirect Aesthetic Normativity in Performance,” Guy Rohrbaug (Philosophy, Auburn University)
• AWG Away Game at the College of William & Mary, "From Soccer Chant to Sonic Meme: Encoding Obscenity and Politics in Argentina's 'Hit of the Summer.'" Michael O’Brien (Music, CofC)
• “Art as a Tool for Conceptual Engineering,” Elizabeth Cantalamessa (Philosophy, University of Miami)
• "The Body vs Political Subjugation: Global Use of Noise to Combat Hegemony," Bethany Fincher (Philosophy major, CofC)

2017

• “Why is Plagiarism Bad?” Darren Hudson Hick (Philosophy, CofC)
• “Poetry as Philosophy,” Gustavo Ortiz Millán (Philosophy, Duke/Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México)
• “Leaning into the Red: Black Feminist Responses to 21st Century Postfeminism” Robin James (Philosophy, UNC, Charlotte).
• “Character-Narrators in Opera,” Nina Penner (Music, Duke)
• The 2017 Southeastern Student Conference in Aesthetics (10 visiting students, Julian Dodd, Sherri Irvin)
• “Resisting Body Oppression: An Aesthetic Approach, Sherri Irvin,” Sherri Irvin (Philosophy, Women and Gender Studies, Center for Social Justice at the University of Oklahoma)
• “Authenticity in the Performance of Works of Western Classical Music,” Julian Dodd (Philosophy, University of Manchester)
• “Making Analog: The Prospects and Perils of a Touch-Oriented Media Studies,” David Parisi (Communication, CofC)
• “The Bomb-Ass Protest Song: A Field Manual,” Michael O’Brien (Ethnomusicology, CofC)
“Sherlockian Shrines: The Place of Holmes in the 21st Century,” Tori Rego (English major, CofC)

2016

• “How to End: On Silence and the Unsayable in Poetry” Raena Shirali (Poetry, CofC)
• “Race and Politics in American Comic Literature,” Larry Krasnoff (Philosophy and Jewish Studies, CofC)
• "Dare to be Different: A Subject-Centered Musical Ethnography of South Carolina Sacred Steel Guitarist O’Shay LaBoard, and His Search for Deterritorialized Musical Spaces,” Matthew Lohan (Music alum, CofC)
• “‘Auschwitz? You'll be saying Wowschitz!’: Holocaust comedy in American popular culture,” David Slucki (Jewish Studies, CofC)
• “Leaning Into the Red: Black Feminist Responses to 21st Century Postfeminism” Robin James (Philosophy, UNC, Charlotte). (postponed due to hurricane)
• "Nelson Goodman's Theory of Expression" Anthony Garruzzo (Philosophy major)
• "'Playing' Women: How Video Game Culture Exploits the Female Form" Shannon Haas (English/Film major).
• “Teenage Wasteland: The 1980s Teen Comedy as a Revitalized Screwball Comedy” Elaina Cole (Computer Science major).
• “Film Villains and Moral Education” Caroline Requierme (Computing and the Arts major).
• “The Quest for a Common Standard: Wittgenstein and Kant on the Rules of Art” Hanne Appelqvist (Aesthetics, University of Helsinki).
• “There are No Things that are Musical Works” Drew Wyckoff (Philosophy Major, CofC).
• “Cover Songs as Critical Commentary” Brooke Klosterman (Philosophy Major, CofC) and Jonathan A Neufeld (Philosophy, CofC).
• “Activism vs. Antagonism: Socially Engaged Art from Bourriaud to Bishop and Beyond,” Jay Miller (Philosophy, Warren Wilson College).

2015

• “Fairy Tales and Moral Education,” Will Raines (Philosophy Major, CofC).
• “Art Exemptions,” Brian Soucek (University of California, Davis School of Law).
• “How different is Black Austrian Studies?" Nancy Nenno (German, CofC).
• "Aesthetic Testimony: No Room for Pessimists,” Robert Kraut (Philosophy, The Ohio State University).
• "On Subterfuge: Deception, Subversion, and Critique in African American Political Thought,” Mari Crabtree (African American Studies, CofC).
• “Fluxus as a Problem for Art History and Aesthetics,” Marian Mazzone (Art History, CofC).
• "Aesthetic Responsibility,” Susan Wolf (Philosophy, UNC, Chapel Hill) at PhilosoFest15.
• “Types and Tokens in a Social Ontology of Art,” Mathew Rabon (Philosophy Major, CofC).
• “Works of Art and Public Reason,” Jonathan A. Neufeld (Philosophy, CofC)
• “Apocalypse Within: The War Epic as Crisis of Self-Identity,” Garry Hagberg (Philosophy, Bard College).
• “Props and Poetic Devices in Zacharias Werner’s Romantic Plays,” Amy Emm (German, Citadel)
• “Art, Authenticity and Appropriation” Rebecca Stanley (Student, Philosophy, CofC).
• “A Civilization of Discontents: Social Media in the Golden Age of Crisis in the Humanities,” Eric Jarosinsky (@NeinQuarterly).
• “Ecomusicology: Music and political activism in Appalachia,” Abigail Tennenbaum (Student, Political Science, CofC).
• “Liveness, media, and the overflowing carnivalesque of murga porteña” Michael O’Brien (Music, CofC).
• Discussion of Guy Debord’s Society of the Spectacle
• “"Participatory Culture and Performative Process in René Pollesch's Theater” Morgan Koerner (German, CofC).
• Discussion of Jacques Rancière’s Aesthetics and its Discontents

2014

• “Make It Funky; Or, Music’s Cognitive Travels and the Despotism of Rhythm,” Paul Taylor (Philosophy and African American Studies, Penn State).
• “Philosophy in Song,” Ayala Asherov-Kalus (Songwriter, Music, CofC).
• “Sound Sculpture,” Margaret Moore (Philosophy, University of Tennessee).
• “Reading Danto’s Red Squares as a Political Thought Experiment, Or, ‘Catching the Conscience of our Kings,’” Lydia Goehr (Philosophy and Music, Columbia University).
• “How to be an Optimist about Aesthetic Testimony,” Rachel McKinnon (Philosophy, CofC).
• “Paleostructure: Biological, Spiritual, and Architectural Evolution at the Oxford Museum,” Nathaniel Walker (Art History, CofC).
• “The Concept of Freedom in Sartre and Adorno," Stefan Koester (Philosophy/Economics student, CofC).
• "Like Themselves: Personhood, Intellectual Disability and the Utopian Imagination," Claire Curtis (Political Science, CofC).
• "Ethical Ideals in Artworks: Schopenhauer and Murdoch on Self Lossness in Aesthetic Experience," Scott Clifton (Philosophy, CofC).
• Violin and Piano Recital: Troy Gardner and Elizabeth Korelse.
• "Poetry After Auschwitz," Johannes Wich-Schwarz (German, Maryville University).
• "The Aesthetics of Affirmative Action," Brian Soucek (University of California, Davis School of Law).
• "Bad Art and the Mere Exposure Effect," Jennifer Wright (Psychology, CofC) and Jonathan Neufeld (Philosophy, CofC).
• "Mirror Neurons and Simulation Theory: A Neurophysiological Foundation for Cinematic Empathy," Dan Shaw (Philosophy, Lock Haven University).

2013

• "Games, Striving and Topologies of Choice," Thi Nguyen (Philosophy, Utah Valley State University via Skype).
• Introduction to inaugural issue of Urban Cultural Studies, Ben Fraser (Spanish, CofC).
• "A Social Ontology of Art," Mathew Rabon (Philosophy student, CofC).
• "Affect in German Theater after the Performative Turn: Elfriede Jelinek’s Theater Texts in Performance," Morgan Koerner (German, CofC).
• Discussion of "Bach Defended Against his Devotees" by T. A. Adorno.
• Discussion of Chapters 3-4 of Philosophy of the Performing Arts, by David Davies.
• Roundtable discussion of The Lives of Animals with Jonathan Neufeld (Philosophy, CofC), Simon Lewis (English, CofC), and Ornaith O'Dowd (Philosophy, CofC) (Co-contribution to CollegeReads!).
• Discussion of Chapters 1-2 of Philosophy of the Performing Arts, by David Davies.

2012

• “Lisa Sanditz and the Suburban Sublime,” Jennifer Baker (Philosophy, CofC).
• Public Lecture, "Cover Records as Social Commentary," Ted Gracyk (Philosophy, MN State, Moorhead).
• “Why Birds Don’t Make Music,” Ted Gracyk (Philosophy, MN State, Moorhead).
• Public Lecture, “Participatory Art,” Michael Kelly (Philosophy, UNC, Charlotte).
• "Participatory Art and Aesthetics," (AWG meeting) Michael Kelly (Philosophy, UNC, Charlotte).
• “The Transgender Gaze in Film,” Richard Nunan (Philosophy, CofC).
• Discussion of “Living Takes Many Forms,” by Shannon Jackson and “Microutopias: Public Practice in the Public Sphere,” by Carol Becker.
• Discussion of “Living as Form,” by Nato Thompson and “Eventwork: The Fourfold Matrix of Contemporary Social Movements,” by Brian Holmes.
• Discussion of “Participation as Spectacle: Where Are We Now?” by Claire Bishop and
“Democratizing Urbanization and the Search for a New Civic Imagination,” by Teddy Cruz.

2011

• “Metaphor and Metaphysics in Zhuangzi," Tyler Ray (Philosophy and Religious Studies student, CofC).
• “The Norms of Nature Appreciation,” Glenn Parsons (Philosophy, Ryerson University, Toronto).
• Discussion of “Interaction and Nature Appreciation,” by Robert Stecker.
• “Tibetan Poetry in Exile,” Amberjade Mwekali (Philosophy student, CofC).
• “Emotional and Ethical Expression in Music,” Jonathan Neufeld (Philosophy, CofC).