The Aesthetics Work Group is an interdisciplinary group of professors and students who meet periodic A.
The Aesthetics Work Group is an interdisciplinary group of professors and students who meet periodically to discuss theoretical works about and in the arts. The work is often (usually) works in progress by members of AWG and visitors from other institutions. It is led by Jonathan Neufeld in the philosophy department and is regularly attended by students and faculty from German, Jewish Studies, Eng
Operating as usual
09/20/2023
Friday! 4:15! Alumni Center.
On Wednesday, to start thinking about Friday's talk, Jonathan Neufeld will lead a discussion of professor Latour's article, “How Stoicism Influenced Music from the French Renaissance to Pink Floyd" at The Conversation. 14 glebe, 4:15. Everybody's welcome to join.
09/09/2023
AWGers! Here's an event you might be interested in happening on Sept 14:
01/26/2023
It's CofC day! That's the official annual giving day at the College. If you are interested in giving to AWG and everything it does, today is a great day to do it. Here's a link (and you can use the dropdown menu to pick AWG): https://give.cofc.edu/philosophy
Today is CofC's annual giving day. The Philosophy Department at CofC would like to do do even more to support its students. While we have extraordinary faculty who dedicate serious time to help students develop their research interests, the financial resources provided at a South Carolina state institution often fall short of the work our students put in. We've set up a Student Opportunity Fund aimed directly at supporting the work of philosophy students. We would appreciate any support you might throw their way! Thanks! https://cofcday.cofc.edu/campaigns/philosophy-department
01/25/2023
AWGers!! We will be having at least three events this Spring: one on the aesthetics of "third places" (bars, cafes, pubs...), one on the ontology and politics of Taylor's Versions (Taylor Swift's rerecording of her back catalog), and one on a topic as yet to be determined by a scholar of literature and art in the Hispanophone Caribbean. Keep an eye out for announcements!
This started as one of the most lunatic of Morgan Koerner DaF-Dozent's ideas. He once claimed that he likes theater best when things go wrong on stage--that's when things really happen. The world has obliged. How can you not want to watch when the central question has become, "What could go right?"
And, I have to say, this is probably the best/nerdiest title/subtitle ever, for one of these. You should take a look.
This Wednesday at 7pm, German 468 will present their final project "2Faust2Furious: Das Unzulängliche, Hier word's Ereignis!" on livestream on youtube live! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYA2wI6Ld6UzPi1d9MBeaPA/live
Originally planned as a live show in RITA auditorium, the performance has become a DIY multimedia zoom production thanks to the resilience and ingenuity of the 15 course participants! English subtitles will be provided for most of the production!
Our Zoom meetings are going well! Last week, Molly Hampton (WGS/PoliSci major) discussed her paper in progress, “Applying a Feminist Lens to Latrinalia: Bathroom Stalls as Counterpublic Pocket Utopias." Molly argued that the unique space of the women’s bathroom stall, neither quite public nor really private, has not yet been well captured by the latrinalia literature. Like street art, where the street is internal to the meaning of the work (as Nick Riggle argues), so too is the stall internal to the meaning of women’s latrinalia. But what does this mean? Molly argues that the space is better characterized in terms of feminist counterpublics and pocket utopias. By considering latrinalia in feminist terms, we learn something important both about bathroom graffiti and about public reason.
Next week, Irina Erman will discuss her paper "Sympathetic Vampires and Zombies with Brains: The Modern Monster as a Master of Self-Control."
We will be doing a Zoom Aesthetics WorkGroup today at 4:15 EST. If you are interested in joining, message Jonathan Neufeld here or shoot him an email. Sorry for the late notice--it only now occurred to me to advertise this more broadly, since Zoom is universally accessible.) Here's the abstract of the short talk by Julia McReynolds-Pérez (Sociology, CofC) (images chosen by Neufeld more or less at random):
“This article analyzes the use of the fetal engineer meme by online abortion rights activists in Argentina’s abortion legalization debate of 2018. The fetal engineer started out as an image of an approximately 10-week fetus on an anti-abortion protest sign, which was captioned with the phrase, “I want to be an engineer.” Abortion rights activists circulated memes and various images ridiculing the fetal engineer online in order to criticize the hypocrisy of anti-abortion activists. The fetal engineer meme raises important questions about the nature of online social movement strategies and how they differ from face-to-face interactions. This case is useful for theorizing the specific uses of humor as an affective strategy for responding to the grotesque and cultivating a particular type of social movement collective identity.”
Here's a good article about AWGer Bethany Fincher who not only just graduated with a perfect 4.0, but also received top honors in the philosophy department and the school of Humanities and Social Sciences. (One of the other perfect 4.0s was achieved by another AWGer, Harper Richards! We are a small but academically mighty group!)
today.cofc.edu Collegeof Charleston student Bethany Fincher had to overcome personal issues to flourish as a double major in philosophy and art history.
Thanks to everyone for contributing to a fantastic year of AWG discussions. Our student participants presented at, or will be presenting at, conferences. Bethany Fincher will be presenting at the American Society for Aesthetics conference in Santa Fe and, thanks to generous contributions by AWG members, is now only about $150 short of having full support for her trip. If you can spare even a little for student support, or for programming next year, there is a link to donate below. Make sure you indicate in comments that your contribution is for AWG!
We have a number of new participants, some of whom will lead discussions next year. Keep an eye on this space as the schedule for the 2019-2020 season unfolds. As a reminder, here's what went on in 2018-2019:
--“Entitled: Artistic Legitimation and the Democratization of Taste,” Jennifer Lena (Sociology/Arts Administration, Columbia University, Teachers College)
--“Propaganda and the Moving Image,” Sheryl Tuttle Ross (Philosophy, University of Wisconsin, LaCrosse)
--"A Machine in the Garden," Aaron Palmore (Classics ,CofC)
--Chinese Aesthetics Roundtable, Julianne Chung (Philosophy, University of Louisville); James Harold (Philosophy, Mt. Holyoke).
--"Collective Memory and the Acousmatic Experience," Phillip Greene (Music/Art History major, CofC)
--“Towards a Participatory Future of Privacy: A Study of Angela Richter’s Supernerds,” Sarah Koellner (German, CofC)
--Disability and Performance in German Theater (tentative), Caroline Weist (German, University of Richmond)
--“Monuments and Counter-Monuments” (tentative title), 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).
--"From Soccer Chant to Sonic Meme," Michael O'Brien (Music, CofC)
--“Aesthetic Public Reasons,” Jonathan Neufeld (Philosophy, CofC)
--“Why Play the Notes? Indirect Aesthetic Normativity in Performance,” Guy Rohrbaugh (Philosophy, Auburn University)
Congratulations to AWGer, Philosophy and Art History student Bethany Fincher who was just accepted to present at the meeting of the Rocky Mountain Division of the American Society for Aesthetics in Santa Fe! Bethany presented her work last year at AWG will now be taking it to a professional conference!
Please consider contributing to AWG so that we can cover some of Bethany's expenses. $31 covers a student membership to the ASA. $75 covers student conference registration. Any amount would help to cover travel and hotel expenses! https://giving.cofc.edu/philosophy
giving.cofc.edu Giving back to the College of Charleston
Hello all! Our Spring 2019 schedule is looking fantastic. Our first meeting will be led by Caroline Weist (German, University of Richmond) on January 17 at 4:45pm. I will send out details soon. In the meantime, here's what the schedule looks like so far:
-1/17: "Drama and Dementia: Stabilizing the State through Peter Weiss’ Marat/Sade," Caroline Weist (German, University of Richmond)
-2/1: "Collective Memory and the Acousmatic Experience Through the Work of Susan Philipsz.” Phillip Greene (CofC Arts Management major)
-2/14: Roundtable on East Asian Aesthetics, Julianne Chung (Philosophy, University of Louisville), James Harold (Philosophy, Mt. Holyoke College)
-2/28: TBA, Sarah Koellner (German, CofC)
-3/28: Technology and Nature in Latin Poetry (tentative title), Aaron Palmore (Classics, CofC)
-4/11: "Propaganda and the Moving Image," Sheryl Tuttle Ross (Philosophy, University of Wisconsin, La Crosse)
-Date TBD: Entitled: Artistic Legitimation and the Democratization of Taste," Jennifer Lena (Sociology and Arts Administration, Teachers College and Columbia University)
Looking forward to a great term!
Wow! What a concert by Aïcha Redouane, Habib Yammine and Anne Rasmussen. Aïcha's voice was astonishing. Just to geek out for a second: I have never heard anybody do so much with subtle changes of the timbre of their voice just by making tiny changes in their embouchure (the shape of their mouth). Or someone who sang melismatically through consonants. An Habib's riq (tambourine) playing was fantastic. He got so many tones out of the drum as he strung together 4 distinct 5 beat patterns in a wonderful rhythmic tapestry. I bet you didn't know you could make the drumhead of a tambourines sing (watch the video!!). Turns out you can. And Anne Rasmussen, who I (Neufeld) know as a quanun player, plays a mean oud!
The crowd participated and helped to translate Arabic poetry (thanks to my colleague Garrett Davidson and his visiting friend David both of whom are translators of classical Arabic poetry). AWG definitely needs to do more music and poetry performances. This was great. You can buy some CDs of theirs here: https://www.amazon.com/Aicha-Redouane/e/B000AQ2002/ref=dp_byline_cont_music_1
There is talk tomorrow by Professor Simon Lewis that AWG participants will find interesting. It explores how the reflections of a South African poet on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission might inform Charleston's search for racial reconciliation. It's in 227 Addlestone at 7PM.
The Aesthetics WorkGroup's first meeting was pretty great. Guy's paper was sharp and provocative and generated a bunch of questions. The most remarkable non-philosophy-related thing that happened was that award-winning food writer Hanna Raskin showed up. She heard about the group from Jennifer and had time and interest to come talk about score compliance. After, three of us asked her where we should go to dinner, and we all went to David Schuttenberg's new pop-up-ish project, Kwei Fei. Upon arrival, Hanna turned to us and said, "I'm glad you came, because now I can do this..." and turned to the chef and said "Just give us the whole menu." I don't know if it helped that he knew who she was but WOW was the food good. And plentiful. It was a fantastic night. (And Hanna is going to come do an AWG on the ethics of food writing.)
shopthedaily.com Chef David Schuttenberg joins The Daily with a dinner residency every Friday and Saturday night from 6pm to 12am with his new Sichuan concept Kwei Fei.With a fondness for and background in Asian cuisine, Schuttenberg's menu at Kwei Fei will serve lively, Sichuan leaning dishes featuring carefully so...
Since 2015, 10 undergraduates have presented work first discussed in AWG at professional (7) or student (3) conferences. Three of those students presented at more than one professional conference. Go team!
If you are interested in supporting AWG's mission (and, for example, helping students pay for travel and lodging when they are accepted to conferences), please consider giving at the website linked below (make sure to write "AWG" in the comments). Thanks!
giving.cofc.edu Giving back to the College of Charleston
I promised a pre-term preview of the coming year in AWG, so here it is. This is still a partial list (I haven’t yet included the students who will present work, e.g.), but it will give you the flavor of the year. Our first visitor, Guy Rohrbaugh (Auburn), will be here talking about musical performance (“Why Play the Notes? Indirect Aesthetic Normativity in Performance”) on August 31. On October 25-6, we will have a very special performance event with Aïcha Redouane & Habib Yammine - Ensemble Al-Adwâr, and Anne Rasmussen (William & Mary), “Arabic and Sufi Music, Poetry, Song and the Art of Maqâm.” In the spring, we will have a roundtable on East Asian Aesthetics with Julianne Chung (Louisville) and James Harold (Mt. Holyoke), a presentation on “Propaganda and the Moving Image” by Sheryl Tuttle Ross (U of Wisconsin, LaCrosse), and Jennifer Lena (Teachers College, Columbia University) will talk about her new book Entitled: Artistic Legitimation and the Democratization of Taste. Finally, Jay Miller (Warren-Wilson) will present something on countermonuments.
If you or your students have work that you are interested in presenting, do let me know! If you know of someone who should be on this mailing, please let me know so I can reach out to them. I will update everyone again once term has begun next month. In the meantime, have a T-shirt and enjoy the rest of your summer!
shop.spreadshirt.com Philosophy Kitsch | Lousy "goods" that nobody needs and few want. Designed by a professional philosopher.
The 2018-19 season of AWG is shaping up! We will have 6 visitors presenting works in progress, 1 musical group with a performance/discussion and we already have two students who want to present. I will update later in the summer when the schedule has firmed up a bit.
It will be an exciting year and I (Neufeld) am looking forward to being back in town! (If you are interested in supporting AWG, please donate a little something here: giving.cofc.edu/philosophy) OR, if you would prefer to wear your support on your sleeve (chest, really) then buy a fashionable AWG T-Shirt here (all proceeds go to AWG). https://shop.spreadshirt.com/PhilosophyKitsch/aesthetics+workgroup+cofc-A107377585
giving.cofc.edu Giving back to the College of Charleston
Congratulations to Javier Gómez-Lavin, CofC Philosophy class of 2012 and one of the founding members of AWG, on his successful PhD dissertation defense! Javi will start a postdoc at the University of Pennsylvania in the fall.
twitter.com “Congratulations to Javier Gómez-Lavin PhD., who defended his dissertation (“The Fragmented Mind”) on Wednesday! Here he is pictured (center) with committee members (L-R) Shaun Nichols (Arizona), Jesse Prinz, Eric Mandelbaum, and John Greenwood.”
Otro Sur - College of Charleston Latin American Ensemble
Whew. What a year. Nice job, AWGers and thanks to all faculty, students and community members who participated.
--“Poetry as Philosophy,” Gustavo Ortiz Millán (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)
--“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)
--“‘Auschwitz? You'll be saying Wowschitz!’: Holocaust comedy in American popular culture,” David Slucki (Jewish Studies, CofC)
--"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).
From Mari N. Crabtree:
What seamlessly combines Blaxploitation and kung-fu with lines like "At long last, our friendship bonded by the struggle against The Man has been brought to an end by kung-fu treachery!"?
Black Dynamite
Monday, April 3 at 6:30 pm
Septima Clark Auditorium
If you are interested in supporting the work that AWG does for students, you can make a tax deductible donation at the link below. (Note that it is currently tied to Philosophy's Foundation account--make sure you write "AWG" in comments to dedicate it to AWG activities.)
Currently, AWG is able to do what it does out of the goodness of presenters' hearts (they are usually not paid), and through ad hoc funding: we ask departments to contribute on a case by case basis; twice a year we can request Dean's discretionary funding; we applied for a grant from the American Society for Aesthetics for the conference, etc. We have no permanent, dedicated funding source.
Part of our goal is establishing a fundraising site is to start building a fund so that AWG can continue to help students to prepare to present their work as well as helping them take advantage of opportunities to travel and present their work elsewhere. Several of our students (Matt Rabon, Tori Rego, Anthony Garruzzo, Brooke Klosterman) have gone on to present work discussed at AWG at conferences across the country. Because the College has very limited funding for student travel (available only within a restricted timeframe), it is difficult for students to find support. Building an AWG-dedicated fund will open more opportunities to more students.
If you are interested in supporting the work that AWG does for students, you can make a tax deductible donation at the link below. (Note that it is currently tied to Philosophy's Foundation account--make sure you write "AWG" in comments to dedicate it to AWG activities.)
Currently, AWG is able to do what it does out of the goodness of presenters' hearts (they are usually not paid), and through ad hoc funding: we ask departments to contribute on a case by case basis; twice a year we can request Dean's discretionary funding; we applied for a grant from the American Society for Aesthetics for the conference, etc. We have no permanent, dedicated funding source.
Part of our goal is establishing a fundraising site is to start building a fund so that AWG can continue to help students to prepare to present their work as well as helping them take advantage of opportunities to travel and present their work elsewhere. Several of our students (Matt Rabon, Tori Rego, Anthony Garruzzo, Brooke Klosterman) have gone on to present work discussed at AWG at conferences across the country. Because the College has very limited funding for student travel (available only within a restricted timeframe), it is difficult for students to find support. Building an AWG-dedicated fund will open more opportunities to more students.
giving.cofc.edu Giving back to the College of Charleston
There were so many interesting papers delivered by the students attending last weekend's conference. For example, Tyler Pugeda from Cal State Northridge delivered a talk on the ontology of American Sign Language poems. I (Neufeld) had never seen a philosophy talk delivered in ASL with a live interpreter before. Given that the talk was about ASL poetry (poetry composed in ASL, not poetry in another language translated into ASL) and it gave a brief argument for the distinctiveness of ASL poetry and ASL literature more generally, it was particularly important that the talk be given in ASL. First, it was an amazing (to me, at least) performance. The fluidity and expression of Jana Swenson's interpretation gave the impression of a single delivery being made between the two of them (a single performance). But, of course (and the talk's account of ASL poetry and literature as distinct made this point vivid, if only implicitly), we non ASL speakers only got the spoken-English part of the story. While the talk was 'just' an argument supporting the claim that ASL poems are Doddian (Doddish?) abstract objects (!), the performance of the talk raised all sorts of interesting questions about interpretation and translation not to mention equity and representation.
Sherri Irvin (and ASL interpreter Jana Swenson) delivering her plenary "Against Body Oppression: an Aesthetic Approach" to the Southeastern Student Conference in Aesthetics. Julian Dodd is there up front waiting to give his, "Authenticity in the Performance of Western Classical Music." Thanks to them and to the talented bunch of students who delivered talks throughout the day who made for a fruitful and fun conference.
You can see most of the student presenters here: Will Kidder (Albany), Josh Myers (Miami), Reagan Petty (Wofford), Maia Wellborn (Furman), Tyler Pugeda (Cal State, Northridge), Stephanie Holt (UNC, Charlotte), Melani Shahin (Fordham), Sydney Harvey (UMKC), Adam Grimes (Warren Wilson).
Here's a more detailed schedule of the upcoming Southeastern Student Conference in Aesthetics at the College of Charleston.
Here is a list of the papers accepted to the 2017 Southeastern Student Conference in Aesthetics. Thanks so much to Anthony Garruzzo, Caroline Requierme and Harper Richards (all undergrads at CofC) for their hard work on the program committee (they each read and commented on every submitted paper). The conference was quite competitive, so we had to make some tough choices as we accepted only half of the submissions. Congratulations to everybody on the program!
The Spring schedule is shaping up VERY nicely. Dates and times not yet finalized, but here's a list of people and topics.
· Tori Rego (CofC, English major): Sherlock Holmes and literary travel
· Michael O’Brien (Ethnomusicology, CofC): “The Bomb-Ass Protest Song: A Field Manual”
· David Parisi (CofC Communications): Aesthetics and touch
· Nina Penner (Musicology, Duke): Philosophy of Operatic Storytelling
· Javier Gomez-Lavin (Philosophy, CUNY Grad Center): Simulating the margins (videogames and empathizing with marginalized experiences)
· Sherri Irvin (Philosophy, WGS, Center for Social Justice, University of Oklahoma): Inclusion Content in Sculpture (public lecture plus conference roundtable)
· Julian Dodd (Philosophy, University of Manchester): TBA (conference roundtable)
· Robin James (Philosophy, UNC Charlotte): Black feminist responses to 21st-century postfeminism (rescheduled from fall)
· Harper Richards (CofC, Psychology major): TBA
AWG has T-Shirts! Concept by Neufeld, beautiful design by Bestman. (If you want to know why the 9 red squares, go read the first two pages of Danto's Transfiguration of the Commonplace.)
Buy them here: https://shop.spreadshirt.com/PhilosophyKitsch/
The Aesthetics Work Group is an interdisciplinary group of professors and students who meet periodically to discuss theoretical works about and in the arts. The work is often (usually) works in progress by members of AWG and visitors from other institutions. It is led by Jonathan Neufeld in the philosophy department and is regularly attended by students and faculty from German, Jewish Studies, English, African American Studies, Music, Art, Art History, Political Science, and Psychology.
Here is a list of AWG events since 2011:
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)
• “‘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).
• "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
• 4/28/15: "Apocalypse Within: The War Epic as Crisis of Self," Garry Hagberg (Philosophy, Bard College)
• 4/16/15: “Props and Poetic Devices in Zacharias Werner’s Romantic Plays,” Amy Emm (German, Citadel)
• 4/10/15: “Individual Memories, Brazilian Longings: Nostalgia, Popular Music and Television,” Dan Sharp (Music, Tulane)
• 4/3/15: "Art, Authenticity and Appropriation," Rebecca Stanley (Philosophy and Political Science student, CofC)
• 3/26/15: "A Civilization of Discontents: Social Media in the Golden Age of Crisis in the Humanities," Eric Jarosinski ()
• 3/13/15: "Ecomusicology and Political Protest in Appalachia," Abby Tennenbaum (Political Science student, CofC)
• 2/26/15: "Liveness, media, and the overflowing carnivalesque of murga porteña," Michael O'Brien (Music, CofC)
• 2/19/15: Discussion of Guy Debord's Society of the Spectacle
• 2/6/15: "Participatory Culture and Performative Process in René Pollesch's Theater," Morgan Koerner (German, CofC)
• 1/22/15: discussion of Jacques Rancière's "Aesthetics As Politics"
2014
• 11/21/14: "Make It Funky; Or, Music’s Cognitive Travels and the Despotism of Rhythm," Paul Taylor (Philosophy and African AmericanStudies, Penn State)
• 11/7/14: “Philosophy in Song,” Ayala Asherov-Kalus (Songwriter, Music, CofC)
• 10/16/14: Title TBA, Margaret Moore (Philosophy, University of Tennessee)
• 10/10/14: “Reading Danto’s Red Squares as a Political Thought Experiment, Or, ‘Catching the Conscience of our Kings,’” Lydia Goehr (Philosophy and Music, Columbia University)
• 9/18/14: “How to be an Optimist about Aesthetic Testimony,” Rachel McKinnon (Philosophy, CofC)
• 8/29/14: “Paleostructure: Biological, Spiritual, and Architectural Evolution at the Oxford Museum,” Nathaniel Walker (Art History, CofC)
• 4/11/14: "The Concept of Freedom in Sartre and Adorno," Stefan Koester (Philosophy/Economics student, CofC)
• 4/3/14: "Like Themselves: Personhood, Intellectual Disability and the Utopian Imagination," Claire Curtis (Political Philosophy, CofC)
• 3/28/14: "Ethical Ideals in Artworks: Schopenhauer and Murdoch on SelfLossness in Aesthetic Experience," Scott Clifton (Philosophy, CofC)
• 3/17/14: Violin and Piano Recital: Troy Gardner and Elizabeth Korelse
• 3/13/14: "Poetry After Auschwitz," Johannes Wich-Schwarz (German, Maryville University)
• 2/17/14: "The Aesthetics of Affirmative Action," Brian Soucek (University of California, Davis School of Law)
• 1/31/14: "Bad Art and the Mere Exposure Effect," Jennifer Wright (Psychology, CofC) and Jonathan Neufeld (Philosophy, CofC)
• 1/17/14: "Mirror Neurons and Simulation Theory: A Neurophysiological Foundation for Cinematic Empathy," Dan Shaw (Philosophy, Lock Haven University)
2013
• 11/15/13: "Games, Striving and Topologies of Choice," Thi Nguyen (Philosophy, Utah Valley State University via Skype)
• 10/4/13: Introduction to inauguaral issue of Urban Cultural Studies, Ben Fraser (Spanish, CofC)
• 9/19/13: "A Social Ontology of Art," Mathew Rabon (Philosophy student, CofC)
• 9/5/13: "Affect in German Theater after the Performative Turn: Elfriede Jelinek’s Theater Texts in Performance," Morgan Koerner (German, CofC)
• 4/12/13: Discussion of "Bach Defended Against his Devotees" by T. A. Adorno.
• 2/22/13: Discussion of Chapters 3-4 of Philosophy of the Performing Arts, by David Davies.
• 2/14/13: Roundtable discussion of The Lives of Animals with Jonathan Neufeld (Philosophy, CofC), Simon Lewis (English, CofC), and Ornaith O'Dowd (Philosophy, CofC)
• 2/6/13: 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.
• “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)
The Aesthetics Work Group is an interdisciplinary group of professors and students who meet periodically to discuss theoretical works about and in the arts. The work is often (usually) works in progress by members of AWG and visitors from other institutions. It is led by Jonathan Neufeld in the philosophy department and is regularly attended by students and faculty from German, Jewish Studies, English, African American Studies, Music, Art, Art History, Political Science, and Psychology.
Here is a list of AWG events since 2011:
2019
• “Entitled: Artistic Legitimation and the Democratization of Taste,” Jennifer Lena (Sociology/Arts Administration, Teacher’s College and Columbia University)
• “Propaganda and the Moving Image,” Sheryl Tuttle Ross (Philosophy, University of Wisconsin, LaCrosse)
• East Asian Aesthetics Roundtable, Julianne Chung (Philosophy, University of Louisville); James Harold (Philosophy, Mt. Holyoke).
• "Genealogy of Sound in the Gallery" (tentative title), Phillip Greene (Music/Art History major, CofC)
• "Disability and Performance in German Theater" (tentative title), Caroline Weist (German, University of Richmond)
• “Give and Take in Iconography between Mexico and Spain, 1600-1800” (tentative), María Carillo Marquina (Art History major, CofC)
• “Surveillance, Privacy and Art (tentative),” Sarah Koellner (German, CofC)
Ethics, Judgment and Food Writing (tentative), Hanna Raskin (Award-winning food writer for the Post and Courier and other publications)
2018
MUSC College of Health Professions With fifty years of history educating thousands of students from the state of South Carolina and bey
Lowcountry Graduate Center The Lowcountry Graduate Center (LGC) is a S.C. state-funded college consortium dedicated to providin
Trident Technical College Trident Technical College is your community college. Tuition is free thru Spring '24!
AAPC Parent Information Hub The Academic Advising and Planning Center (AAPC) at the College of Charleston assists undergraduate
The Citadel Alumni Association The Association is organized and shall operate a supporting organization exclusively for the benefit
Daniel Library - The Citadel Connect with friends and ideas; read, research, and reflect; and, explore a variety of subjects from
College of Charleston Center for Student Learning The Center for Student Learning offers free academic support services to College of Charleston stude
Charleston Culinary Group Your source for all things food-related at the College of Charleston!
Montessori Community School PTA “Free the child's potential, and you will transform him into the world” ~Maria Montessori