The Aesthetics of Frustration: Diversity and the ASA
Sherri Irvin University of Oklahoma
As I began to write a more standard aesthetics paper on an entirely different topic, my thoughts turned to several episodes in which scholars of color presented their work at ASA meetings with recep- tions ranging from chilly to hostile. Some have stated that they will not likely return to the ASA due to these experiences. Because I be- lieve the resources of aesthetics can shed considerable light on social and political dynamics, I will examine some aesthetic elements of this situation and use them to inform a schematic proposal about how we might move forward.
I don’t have the answers—finding them is not a task for one person, and scholars belonging to the communities that have been margin- alized and excluded in our professional spaces must be centrally involved. But serious discussion of these matters, which have been personally and professionally painful for me and far more so for The American Society for Aesthetics: others, is badly needed, and I hope this contribution will renew a An Association for Aesthetics, discussion that was engaged by A.W. Eaton, Charles Peterson, and Criticism, and Theory of the Arts Paul C. Taylor in the Aesthetics for Birds blog in late 2017.
1. Volume 41 Number 2 SUMMER 2021 In 2010, the distinguished legal scholar and Yavapai Supreme Court justice Rebecca Tsosie was plenary speaker at the ASA annual meet- ing. I was struck not only by the critical Indigenous perspective she 1 The Aesthetics of Frustration: Diversity and brought to her discussion of the collection of Native American cul- the ASA tural objects in non-Native museums, but also by her gender pre- by Sherri Irvin sentation. Tsosie, who is Yaqui, wore long dark hair, makeup, Zuni 5 In Memoriam: Joseph Zalman Margolis turquoise jewelry, a pencil skirt and stiletto heels. Even her voice had a more feminine register than I am accustomed to hearing in academic contexts. Caught by surprise, I realized how rarely I have 10 Black Studies Reading List for encountered this sort of femme presentation during my career as a Philosophers of Art woman philosopher. While I have no preference for femme presen- by Nicholas Whittaker tation over the myriad other ways a person might live their gender, 12 News from the National Office I found it refreshing to see a scholar who unapologetically com- bined feminine gender presentation with intellectual power. 13 Aesthetics News And then the question period started. A white male philosopher 20 Calls for Papers occupying a prominent position in the ASA stood up—a choice nei- 27 Active Aestheticians ther typical nor necessary—to accuse Tsosie of an elementary blun- der that, he suggested, undermined her entire project: a confusion between something’s being believed by a group of people and its being true. He stated that she had clearly never taken Philosophy 101. She responded, graciously, “Tell me what your test for truth is, and I’ll engage it.” He replied, condescendingly, “That’s just silly.” The question period went on as though nothing had happened. This highly accomplished scholar, whom the ASA had invited to offer a perspective from another discipline, was treated as though she was utterly incompetent. This dynamic occurs frequently enough for women of color that it is explored in two prominent anthologies. (Gutiérrez y Muhs et al. 2012; Flores Niemann et al. 2020) aesthetics-online.org
SUMMER 2021 1 I am using evaluative terms (such as ‘condescending’) that I take to women in the orchestra. But evidence suggests an additional phe- be appropriate to what I observed. These evaluations are grounded nomenon: knowledge of the performer’s gender serves as a filter in both what was said and how it was said. As Yuriko Saito (2016, that affects how we hear the sound the performer produces. The 226) argues, how we deploy our bodies, including “tone of voice, fa- filter itself is invisible to us: we think we are hearing the sound and cial expressions, and bodily movements,” is an aesthetic matter that its aesthetic qualities directly. But it may be that the music sounds deeply informs the moral quality of our actions. The point, to state more powerful, more dynamic, when it issues from a body we un- the obvious, is not that one should refrain from critical discourse derstand as male; and it sounds a bit too delicate, tentative, when it with a scholar because she is a person of color. There are respectful issues from a body we understand as female.1 and valuable ways to engage a seeming clash of epistemic assump- tions, but the exchange that actually occurred was a failure both How a performance strikes us—be it a musical performance or a morally and intellectually, since the questioner refused to delve into philosophy talk—may be shaped by filters we are unaware of. The the epistemic substance after delivering his insult. implicit bias literature establishes that race and gender serve as fil- ters in just this way, leading to diminished ratings of the credentials In 2017, I was present when a prominent white male philosopher and achievements of women and people of color.2 Importantly, be- rudely interrupted a speaker on a panel consisting mostly of wom- longing to the group that is targeted does not inoculate you against en of color to complain about how time was being managed in the acting on these forms of bias.3 session. Having noted the little time that remained, he proceeded to ask an extremely long question in which he mischaracterized the Implicit bias is often treated as a largely cognitive phenomenon, a speaker’s central thesis, continuing along the same trajectory even matter of associations among concepts. But when we are in embod- after she corrected him. In Taylor’s (2017) characterization, which I ied encounters, our responses span the cognitive, emotional, physi- endorse, the questioner cal, behavioral, aesthetic and ethical. Moreover, the context of the encounter may shape our expectations about who and what we will languorously … mansplained and whitesplained her, in and should find there. These matters—how we encounter each oth- a long, obtuse question that displayed not just near-total er as embodied persons, the filters through which we perceive each ignorance of the theoretical resources that animated the other, how our perception and imagination inform our interpreta- paper, but also nearer-total indifference to the possibility tion and treatment of each other—are deeply relevant to aesthetics. that his incomprehension might reflect his own misunder- standing rather than the author’s mistakes. Wittgenstein (1966) suggested that a central concept in aesthetics is the matter of what strikes us as right or fitting in a context. Our Here, women of color are presumed incompetent to organize their aesthetic sense is active in detecting violations of our sense of fit- own session or identify the thesis of their own research. tingness: a door hung a bit too high, a suit cut too short. One of our aesthetic impulses is to make adjustments until things seem right to At the same meeting, artist Fahamu Pecou discussed his work and us, until they seem to fit. This is a matter of feel, of sensibility, not of related conceptual matters, only to face white philosophers asking rationality or objective criteria. questions about the logistics of sagging pants: wouldn’t it be hard to run from the police? These episodes were discussed by A.W. We can bring these ideas together in a consideration of the situation Eaton (2017) and Paul Taylor (2017) in the Aesthetics for Birds blog, involving Prof. Tsosie. As I mentioned, I was struck by how her em- followed by Charles Peterson’s (2017) reflections on the need for bodied presence upended my expectations about who I would find organizational transformation. I commend these posts to you as es- at the ASA. It stands to reason that others, too, registered this. More- sential though painful reading. Taylor gives this searing description over, this form of raced and gendered embodiment is not neutral, of the question period after Pecou’s talk: as the research on implicit bias tells us: it tends to activate distorting filters that lead to underrating the performance of the person thus And there we were, chattering away in front of the Urban embodied. The seeming—indeed, the actual—lack of fit may have Negro exhibit at an old world’s fair, with question after triggered a corrective mechanism: something feels wrong, especial- question inviting the speaker to reveal the exotic myster- ly given that this speaker is on the plenary stage; something doesn’t ies behind what we were seeing.… What are those crea- fit; we (“we”) need to fix it. We need to convey to the speaker and all tures doing? What might they have been thinking? here present that neither she nor her work belongs in that position.
Just as Taylor describes in his post, I personally know philosophers The panel including multiple women of color supports a similar of color who may never return to ASA meetings because of their ex- analysis. Something about this situation feels wrong. It violates ex- periences receiving chilly and ignorant responses to their own work pectations about who will be present and what will and should oc- and watching the same happen to others. cur at the ASA. Not only was the composition of the panel surpris- ing, but the form of discourse was out of place, tending toward the postcolonial and continental. The participants did not even manage 2. time in the session in the way we understand to be right and fit- Our evaluations often seem to us to be direct, appropriate responses ting. Corrective action was required: to restore the sense that things to the content of what we are encountering. We are occasionally are right and fitting, the participants and all present needed to be conscious of the distorting effects of, say, anger, hunger, or dislike. informed or reminded of how ASA participants should comport But evidence suggests that filters distorting what we perceive and themselves. The need for corrective action was especially urgent how we evaluate it are pervasive and often invisible to us. A 1997 given that more and more of these kinds of people and kinds of analysis by Goldin and Rouse established that the practice of mask- events have been cropping up: the 2017 meeting featured several ing the identity of musicians during auditions accounted for a large events involving scholars and artists of color who did not travel increase in the number of women hired into major orchestras. Why within the channels that have been carved in the intellectual terrain would this be? Of course, overt gender bias played a part: some by longstanding participants. evaluators rated women unfavorably because they just didn’t want
2 ASA NEWSLETTER Obviously, the white men whose interventions I have described meetings that the resources for noticing exclusionary dynamics are would reject my analysis. And my project here is not psychiatric: grossly underdeveloped. This absence, like the absence of people the point is not to defend the attribution of a particular mental land- of color, is a tremendous loss from every possible perspective, not scape to a particular actor. But at the same time, one may not know least the epistemic. Scholars working in other disciplines, including one’s own mind. The mechanisms I am discussing are deeply self- Sara Ahmed, Jack Halberstam, Tobin Siebers, and Rosemarie Gar- concealing. The situation is shrouded in plausible deniability: the land-Thomson, have offered analyses of aesthetic aspects of queer- actors can claim that it is merely incidental that those targeted hap- ness and disability that could tremendously enrich the discourse of pened to be women of color. If we accept that narrative without philosophical aesthetics, but their work remains largely unknown further consideration, we will remain stuck. here... invisible.
As may be obvious, this situation creates a vicious cycle in which 3. exclusionary dynamics are reinforced by multiple factors. When A number of things need to be made visible. I’m trying to start that scholars from communities largely absent from the ASA’s intel- project here by creating what José Medina (2013) describes as epis- lectual spaces submit their work, it may be rejected because those temic friction: I’m offering an analysis of events that rubs up against tasked with evaluating it do not see that the topics are a “good and calls into question alternative understandings. Epistemic fric- fit” for our conference or journal or feel that the work is lacking tion is a corrective to epistemic insensitivity, a state of being lulled in “quality” because they do not recognize the legitimacy of the into uncritical acceptance of a narrative that an empowered or methods or sources employed—which is itself a function of prior dominant group might wish us to buy into, such as the narrative conditions of exclusion and absence. When these scholars’ work is that we’ve been doing all we reasonably can about diversity and included through an alternate mechanism, such as a keynote lec- everything is mostly fine. ture or panel presentation, hostile or ignorant audience responses actively reinforce the exclusionary dynamics that prevented these What else needs to be made visible? In Black Is Beautiful: A Philosophy scholars and their work from being better represented in the ASA of Black Aesthetics (2016), Paul Taylor describes four kinds of cultural from the start, communicating to all present that the exclusion was invisibility for Black people: invisibility of presence, where there is and remains appropriate: these scholars and their work do not be- a sheer absence of Black people in a context; invisibility of person- long here. Nominal or token inclusion that doesn’t directly address hood, where Black people are present but their status as persons these exclusionary conditions makes the situation worse. goes unrecognized; invisibility of perspective, where the bare moral personhood of Black people may be acknowledged but their dis- We need a communal project of nurturing the development of con- tinct and legitimate perspectives on things are not; and invisibility ceptual resources, creating epistemic friction, holding each other of plurality, when the distinctiveness of a Black perspective may be accountable and learning to be accountable when others help us to recognized but that perspective is assumed to be monolithic, such see, however uncomfortable that may be. The key to all of this is to that there is only one or a very small stock catalogue of Black ways find ways to center, support, and provide opportunities for com- of being. munity for scholars currently subject to forces of invisibility, includ- ing absence and isolation. A collective that does not include, invite, Fahamu Pecou was, literally, visible, and the fact that he had been support and celebrate the contributions of people of color, queer invited to speak suggests acknowledgement of his personhood and people, fat people, and disabled people cannot think, intend, or will perspective. His work and discussion made visible a Black youth itself into true inclusiveness. As Charles Peterson (2017) has written, subculture and its participants, acknowledging Black personhood, perspective, and plurality. But despite the fact that Blackness and To open up the ASA as a space of inclusivity, a real strug- Black people were, in a sense, visible in all the ways Taylor dis- gle must be waged. This struggle cannot be thrust exclu- cusses, visibility is a matter not only of presentation but of uptake. sively on the shoulders of marginalized members and Whether something is visible to me depends on whether I have their allies and must be waged by all members of the or- the resources to process it. And the discussion following Pecou’s ganization. This is a programmatic struggle, a discursive presentation suggests that many did not possess those resources: struggle and it is an internal struggle that necessarily must as Taylor describes, some of the discussion seemed scarcely to ac- be waged by the majority members. knowledge Black personhood, much less perspectives and plurality. The community we need must be built consciously, intentionally, We are, then, in a situation where people are present and things with commitment and energy, with intellectual and administrative are happening, but what we need to see is not always visible to us labor. This is an architectural project, and it cannot be haphazard. because we lack the resources: conceptual, perceptual, cognitive, We need to think actively, creatively, and collectively about how even emotional. I don’t except myself: I have been called out by a to build organizational infrastructure that supports true commu- member of the ASA for a lack of attention to racial plurality beyond nity, true valuing not just of racialized bodies in the room but of the Blackness, and I no doubt have many other limitations that I’m un- kinds of intellectual contributions that have long been absent—es- aware of. pecially contributions on topics and employing methods and para- digms that violate settled expectations. We need to move away from This gives us a hint about what is needed. Rendering the invisible defending what feels right and fitting and toward a different set visible is a communal epistemic project, for it involves conceptual of aesthetic values, perhaps complexity, complication, excitement, and perceptual resources that some already have and must be em- uncertainty. powered to impart to others. Crucially, the very people who have been targeted by exclusionary activity are the ones most likely to This must be a project of care, first and foremost because of wounds possess these resources. The historic and contemporary absence and that have been inflicted on many people of color in the events I de- invisibility of people of color in the ASA is why so many of us lack scribed; not to mention the wounds of isolation, frustration, and dis- the resources to see what is presented. This is also true of queer appointment for those who have attended ASA meetings without people, fat people, and disabled people: so few are present in our finding supportive community. We need to create opportunities of
SUMMER 2021 3 welcome and social bonding that foreground the needs, interests strangers, create relationship, acknowledge our common humanity, and concerns of people who have not usually found an intellectual suggest that we are here for each other. These forms of looking can home in our academic spaces. be critical in our ongoing sense of ourselves as persons. But when we encounter someone who is, in Garland-Thomson’s terms, “un- Interestingly, the 2020 Annual Meeting of the ASA, which was usually embodied,” we often fail in acknowledgement: we either held virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic, offers some clues stare or look away. Staring treats a person as an exotic other. But as about how this might be done. The program committee, led by C. Garland-Thomson powerfully argues, looking away, too, is dam- Thi Nguyen, devised carefully-structured opportunities for social aging: it makes a person invisible. Truly seeing, and seeing truly, interaction, including a variety of activities where people could par- consists in finding a way to look with acknowledgement and ap- ticipate in ways of their choosing or try out ideas in a supportive, preciation, without the exoticizing and objectifying stare, and find- low-stakes environment. Perhaps the fact that each person took up ing a way to hear what is being said without a distorting filter that an equal amount of real estate within their own little Zoom rect- impugns its validity. Looking and listening in these ways is the angle helped break down the clustering together of people who mechanism through which personhood, perspectives, and plurality already know each other and diminish some of the usual power are revealed. We must support each other in developing the capac- dynamics. Scholars from historically excluded communities made ity and resources to look, and to see. presentations about topics that have not been much discussed at the ASA, and in my observation these were warmly received with lively discussion and a supportive tone. It is interesting to consider whether the fact that many presenters and audience members were participating from visible domestic spaces may have subtly human- ized us for each other, reminding us that we are whole people with References lives, not philosophy machines that need to have our programming continually honed through aggressive questioning. Also, of course, Ahmed, Sara. 2006. Queer Phenomenology. Duke University Press. the prospects for virtual participation with a low registration fee made possible the participation of disabled scholars, fat scholars, Banaji, Mahzarin R., and Anthony G. Greenwald. 2016. Blindspot: economically marginalized scholars, scholars with family care re- Hidden Biases of Good People. Bantam. sponsibilities, and others for whom travel is an obstacle to atten- dance at in-person meetings. Dotson, Kristie. 2011. “Tracking Epistemic Violence, Tracking Prac- tices of Silencing.” Hypatia 26: 236-257. Because the 2020 meeting was so successful, I hope the ASA will consider revising or rescinding the policy adopted January 29, 2020, Dutt, Kuheli, et al. 2016. “Gender Differences in Recommendation that prohibits video presentation at ASA Annual Meetings (in all Letters for Postdoctoral Fellowships in Geoscience.” Nature Geosci- but exceptional circumstances) on the grounds that it “significantly ence 9.11: 805. reduces opportunities for dialogue and discussion, reduces regis- tration revenues, and presents expensive technology challenges.”4 Eaton, A.W. 2017. “The ASA at 75: How Are We Doing with Diver- Leaving aside the fact that the prospects for an in-person meeting in sity and Inclusion?” Aesthetics for Birds. https://aestheticsforbirds. Montréal look tenuous as of this writing in early August 2021 due com/2017/11/27/the-asa-at-75-how-are-we-doing-with-diversity- to a surge in the Delta variant of COVID-19, we now know (through and-inclusion/. many months of experience and experimentation) that there are great prospects for meaningful and even improved forms of intel- Garland-Thomson, Rosemarie. 2009. Staring: How We Look. Ox- lectual contact via videoconferencing. In-person engagement—not ford University Press. to mention a few days of excused absence from the normal circum- stances of work and life—can be enjoyable and intellectually stimu- Goldin, Claudia, and Cecilia Rouse. 1997 Orchestrating Impartial- lating for some, but it “reduces opportunities for dialogue and dis- ity: The Impact of ‘Blind’ Auditions on Female Musicians. Working cussion” to zero for those for whom travel is prohibitive for a wide Paper No. 5903. National Bureau of Economic Research. https:// variety of reasons. Members of communities that tend to be absent www.nber.org/papers/w5903. from our meetings are disproportionately likely to experience one or more financial, health or life circumstances that prevent them Gutiérrez y Muhs, Gabriella, Yolanda Flores Niemann, Carmen G. from traveling. Why not think creatively about how to design op- Gonzalez and Angela P. Harris 2012. Presumed Incompetent: The portunities for effective intellectual and social engagement between Intersections of Race and Class for Women in Academia. Utah State in-person and remote participants? University Press.
More broadly, we need an ethicoaesthetics of community that in- Halberstam, Jack. 2011. The Queer Art of Failure. volves intentional design of opportunities for participation and effective engagement. In our design process, we should not just Medina, José. 2013. The Epistemology of Resistance: Gender and acknowledge but foreground the needs, interests, and concerns of Racial Oppression, Epistemic Injustice, and Resistant Imaginations. those who have not historically found an intellectual home within Oxford University Press. the ASA – for without such foregrounding, it will come more natu- rally to prioritize the needs of those who already find the ASA to be Moss-Racusin, Corinne A., John F. Dovidio, Victoria L. Brescoll, a welcoming space. We need not just nominal inclusion, but active Mark J. Graham, and Jo Handelsman. 2012. “Science faculty’s subtle welcoming of people and competent uptake of perspectives that gender biases favor male students.” Proceedings of the National have been historically marginalized or excluded.5 Academy of Sciences 109.41: 16474-16479.
In her book Staring: How We Look, disability theorist Rosemarie Gar- Niemann, Yolanda Flores, Gabriella Gutiérrez y Muhs, & Carmen land-Thomson (2009) notes that some kinds of looks, even between G. Gonzalez, eds. 2020. Presumed Incompetent II: Race, Class,
4 ASA NEWSLETTER Power, and Resistance of Women in Academia. University Press of Colorado. In Memoriam: Peterson, Charles. 2017. “The ASA at 75: Diversity and the Tip- ping Point.” Aesthetics for Birds. https://aestheticsforbirds. Joseph Zalman Margo- com/2017/11/29/the-asa-at-75-diversity-and-the-tipping-point/.
Pew Research Center. 2015. Exploring Racial Bias Among Biracial lis (May 16, 1924 - June and Single-Race Adults: The IAT. https://www.pewsocialtrends. org/2015/08/19/exploring-racial-bias-among-biracial-and-single- 8, 2021) race-adults-the-iat/.
Saito, Yuriko. 2016. “Body Aesthetics and the Cultivation of Moral Virtues.” In Sherri Irvin, ed., Body Aesthetics. Oxford University Press.
Siebers, Tobin. 2010. Disability Aesthetics. University of Michigan Press.
Taylor, Paul C. 2016. Black is Beautiful: A Philosophy of Black Aes- thetics. Wiley.
Taylor, Paul C. 2017. “The ASA at 75: ‘Splaining and Safaris.” Aes- thetics for Birds. https://aestheticsforbirds.com/2017/11/27/the- Joseph Margolis asa-at-75-splaining-and-safaris/. The entries to follow are some memorial thoughts from the Julie C. Wittgenstein, Ludwig. 1966. Lectures and Conversations on Aes- Van Camp, Andrea Baldini, and Aili Bresnahan on Joseph Margolis, thetics, Psychology and Religious Belief, ed. Cyril Barrett. Basil President of the ASA from 1988-1990 and Laura H. Carnell Chair in Blackwell. Philosophy at Temple University from 1991 until his death in June of this year. Additional information on his life can be found in this obituary from The Philadelphia Inquirer obituary, Jul 19, 2021, online:
here
3. Moss-Racusin et al. 2012 and Pew Research Center 2015 discuss relevant findings. Special Session to Commemorate the Work of Joe Margolis
4.
© Sherri Irvin 2021
SUMMER 2021 5 exam. Fisher and Dyke signed off early on but I went through end- Joseph Margolis: the less revisions trying to reconcile the starkly different world views of Margolis and Beardsley. This was in the era before word-processing or the internet, so every request for revision involved retyping-cut- early years at Temple paste-xerox-mail, but my draft was finally accepted by both. Then tragedy struck with Beardsley’s debilitating stroke. My defense was in December 1981 in the Beardsley living room of the charm- Julie C. Van Camp ing townhouse on Delancey Street in Center City. Almost the entire Professor Emerita of Philosophy, California State faculty and many graduate students were there and faculty went around the room with their questions. I finally received my degree University, Long Beach in January 1982.
Convinced that I would never land a tenure-track job in philosophy I arrived at Temple University’s Department of Philosophy in fall (which I finally did in 1990), I drifted away from the department 1969, the same semester as Monroe Beardsley, who had just left and lost touch with almost everybody, especially once I relocated Swarthmore, and one year after Joe Margolis. John Fisher, who be- to California and now Denver. I did send update notes to Beardsley came editor of the Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism a few years until his death in 1985, but confess that I didn’t make much effort to later, was already there. I had always understood that it was Fisher stay in touch with anybody else. I re-entered aesthetics and started who made the most of an infusion of state funds in the 1960s to participating in both ASA and APA meetings in the 1990s. recruit such stellar faculty as Margolis and Beardsley. My under- graduate advisor had told me that if I was serious about aesthetics, In 2000, I organized a session on “The Legacy of Monroe Beardsley” Temple was the only place to go and I have never regretted that for the ASA Annual Meeting, with presentations by George Dickie, decision. Richard Shusterman, Anita Silvers, and Michael Wreen. In a tangled exchange by email, it was determined that Margolis would partici- I took two seminars with Margolis, one on epistemology and one on pate from the audience, promising what he called a “carnivorous” metaphysics. I no longer remember what we read. I do remember critique. As a member of the APA Pacific program committee I was being terrified of him! But that turned out to be great preparation delighted to organize a session on “The Work of Joseph Margolis” for sessions at the American Philosophical Association which fea- in spring 2001 for the Pacific meeting in San Francisco. The papers tured ferocious “commentary” and supposed “discussion” for the by Göran Hermerén, Dale Jacquette, and Joanne B. Waugh were two papers I presented at Eastern meetings in the 1970s, the typical published in Metaphilosophy in October 2005 (36:5). It is a testament climate before pressures (mainly from women) started to move the to his longevity as a scholar that a session I organized twenty years atmosphere to slightly more constructive and civilized dialogue. I ago felt at the time like a tribute to a much-loved member of the learned to muster my courage and defend my positions, no matter profession in the twilight of his career! the onslaught of challenges. And for that I am grateful. I am both sorry and sad that I did not have much contact with him Another striking memory that has stayed with me was his response in recent decades. I’ve been delighted to learn that so many young- to Nelson Goodman’s Languages of Art. Originally published in er members of the profession have benefitted from his insight and 1968, Goodman’s proposals created an unforgettable earthquake in guidance. aesthetics, and the controversies he generated linger even today. As far as I know, Margolis was first out of the gate with a serious cri- tique of Goodman (“Numerical Identity and Reference in the Arts,” British Journal of Aesthetics 1970, 10: 138–46). Beardsley’s response was to assign Goodman’s book along with his own magnum opus, Aesthetics: Problems in the Philosophy of Criticism and W.E. Kennick’s anthology Art and Philosophy for our aesthetics seminar in fall 1969. I am not aware of any journal articles by Beardsley critiquing Good- man.
Margolis’s prolific output averaged an article a week and a book a year. (I sometimes wondered if people just couldn’t keep up with everything and gave up trying to do comprehensive analysis.) He famously wrote one article in his sleep. His habit in the 70s was to dictate articles which the department secretary, Grace Stuart, would transcribe. He was surprised that he had no memory of one of her transcriptions and concluded that he had dictated it in his sleep. I don’t know the article, but that episode is so characteristic of his boundless intellectual energy that I want to believe it happened.
Margolis was a member of my dissertation committee, which was directed by Beardsley, with Fisher and Charles Dyke filling out the membership. Although I did get my proposal approved and even finished a first chapter by 1976, my despair about the collapse of the job market led me to take a leave of absence to go to law school (Georgetown). In 1981, I decided to see if I could finish the disserta- tion and was optimistic that I was on a roll after passing the DC Bar
6 ASA NEWSLETTER prose into a different language. In all honesty, it turned out to be a The “Uncanny” Life one-of-a-kind seminar in contemporary philosophy. Though his most famous contributions are in the field of aesthetics, and Philosophy of it is difficult to find an area of philosophy Margolis didn’t write about. One of his most cited papers, “The Concept of Disease,” concerns the philosophy of medicine.3 In it, he argues that diag- Joseph Margolis: A nosing diseases partly depends on ideological considerations. And 1 his positions were often—If not always—far from the mainstream. Farewell Joe was never a “fashionable” philosopher: he would often defend views that would question the very assumptions of well-established philosophical fields. For instance, he was one of the very few mod- ern champions of relativism, which he endorsed as a way to reject Andrea Baldini any form of Kantian or post-Kantian universalism in all domains of Associate Professor of Aesthetics and Art Theory human understanding and action, from epistemology to ethics and, at the School of Arts of Nanjing University and di- of course, aesthetics.4 rector of the NJU Center for Sino-Italian Cultural Opting for relativism was not a provocative gesture for Margolis. Studies It was, in his view, a philosophical move to accommodate the com- plexity of our cultural world. Perhaps many are not aware that, as an The philosopher of art Joseph Margolis passed away on June 8th undergraduate, Margolis studied English literature. This exposure of this year. I received the news about his passing while I was rid- to literary studies profoundly informed his philosophical views. By ing the subway on my way to a meeting with one of my students. witnessing firsthand and from within the informality and pluralism The sad update was mentioned in an email that a common friend of literary interpretations, Margolis never settled for a principled sent to me. Joe, as we usually called him, was 97 years old, born on theory of interpretation, favoring what he defined as a “radical” May 16, 1924. He received his PhD from Columbia in 1953, where one, which refuses any form of absolute foundation and conceptu- he met—among others—the influential philosopher and art critic alizes our interpretative activities as savoir-faire rather than science. Arthur Danto. He started teaching at Temple University in 1968, and would never retire. A signature feature of his theory of interpretation is the rejection of intentionalism.5 In some of his most notable contributions to the The news hit me hard: after reading the email, I missed my subway philosophy of language and the theory of linguistic meaning, Mar- stop not once, but twice, ending up being a bit late for my meeting. golis attacked Grice’s widely accepted account of an utterance’s My mind started running faster than the train I was on, and years meaning as determined by the utterer’s intention.6 Margolis’s con- of memories started rushing through my head. I couldn’t hold my tention was that such a model abstracts “from the fullest use of tears, just as I can’t while writing these few words to remember and language.” His rejection of intentionalism in artistic interpretation celebrate one of the greatest aestheticians of the 20th centuries, and follows similar lines: it emphasizes the difficulties of referring in a dear friend. some privileged sense to an author’s intentions as the final author- ity in deciding among competing interpretations. On his relativistic I met Joe in the late summer of 2008, when I started my PhD at Tem- model, competing interpretations need not be mutually exclusive. ple University. Margolis would later become my advisor. The deep For Margolis, the possibility of an artwork’s plurality of meaning(s) and personal relationship that I developed with him was not unu- must be taken as a sign of the constructivist nature of the world of sual among his students. Many of them could tell countless stories human culture. The cultural world is, in effect, created by our very not only of his extraordinary philosophical acumen and argumenta- interpretative activity. tive wit, but also of his profound kindness and authentic humanity, which made Margolis very much loved in academia. To use one His theory of interpretation, in connection with his constructiv- of his favorite terms, he was an “uncanny” individual in the most ism, has significant repercussions at the level of artistic ontology.7 positive sense of the world: a rare mix of intellectual prowess and In Margolis’s views, artworks are culturally emergent entities.8 In heartfelt sensibility. general, the formula is as follows: artworks are better understood as “careers” of interpretations historically situated in a particular Margolis was one of the main reasons why I went to Temple for cultural context. In this sense, the ontology of an artwork is never my PhD. In my early days as an undergraduate student in Italy, fixed, or “determinate,” as Margolis would say, but always in flux— I was naturally drawn towards his work, for he had the unusual a precipitate of social interactions—and yet “determinable.” ability of writing about complex philosophical problems with the rigor typical of the so-called “analytic” tradition, while at the same The far-reaching goal of Margolis’s aesthetics immediately appears time showing the historical and cultural sensibility of “continental” when considering that his ontology of art functions as a model for approaches. This hybrid nature of his philosophizing would charac- his theory of the self.9 Humans are, for Margolis, just like artworks: terize more and more of his production in his later years, develop- culturally emergent entities, “second-natured” creatures whose ing a highly original and far-reaching pragmatist philosophy. identity depends on their very self-interpretative activities. It is therefore not surprising that, for Margolis, aesthetics occupies a I was lucky enough to experience first-hand Margolis’s wide range key role among the philosophical disciplines. In effect, what we do of philosophical interests during what would have become one of when we create art is a metaphor and even a metonym for what we the moments that I treasure the most as a student. In 2009, I trans- do when creating ourselves as persons. lated into Italian one of his books: What, After All, Is a Work of Art?2 For a whole year, we had weekly meetings where we would discuss By constantly emphasizing the existential meaning of theorizing, for hours his views so that I could find the best ways to render his Margolis’s philosophy is a profound form of humanism. He nev-
SUMMER 2021 7 er understood or treated philosophy as a mere academic game to show off one’s wits, or simply a job. In the presence of Margolis, as A few inadequate well as in his writings, I always felt something that reminded me of the original spirit of Western philosophy as it emerged in Ancient Greece: doing philosophy is, ultimately, thinking about how we words in remembrance should live our lives.
I’m not sure whether his philosophy helped Margolis figure eve- of Joseph Margolis rything out about his own life, which like many lives had its share of hardship. He fought in World War II, where he also lost a twin brother. And his second wife, whom he loved very much, passed Aili Bresnahan away not long ago. But he found ways to cope with his own trag- Associate Professor, Philosophy, University of edies and traumas, showing some form of inner peace that follows Dayton and US Fulbright Scholar, Centre for from fully implementing the maxim “know thyself.” Dance Research, University of Roehampton Still, Margolis certainly knew how to live a good life, and that is perhaps the greatest lesson that he taught me. Of the many persons Joseph Margolis was a philosopher with a world-historical outlook, I have met in my life, he was one of the very few that seemed to something that he attributed to surviving multiple world wars and enjoy a deep sense of happiness in his life. And I cannot but thank changes in culture. He read widely in analytic, continental, and clas- Margolis for sharing some of his wisdom with me. sical pragmatist philosophy as well as literature and work in other disciplines. He embraced a pluralist view of the interpretation of In a moment of sadness, where also the world is facing an epochal culture and its artifacts; one in which false claims can be made but challenge due to the COVID-19 pandemic, I treasure the moments that allows for many different true interpretations that can change we had: the happiness that we shared during the dozen years we over time with concomitant changes in history and culture. He re- knew each other personally. I will never forget our “philosophical” ceived his PhD in Philosophy in 1953 from Columbia University on meals, where we would discuss our work while enjoying food and the GI Bill after service in WWII, where Arthur C. Danto and Marx drink. In that informal setting, I learned many important lessons not W. Wartofsky were fellow students (Danto also there after WWII just about philosophy, but about life – insights that are guiding my service). At the time, Susanne K. Langer was a member of the fac- life decisions while bringing some light even in the darkest hours. ulty. Farewell, my dear friend Joe. Margolis saw the world, including artworks, human selves and our place in it, as something necessarily requiring interpretation and re- interpretation, imagination, creativity, and what he called “cultural 1 This essay originally appeared as a blog post at
One of my tasks as his research assistant was to record his seminar lectures on a small, portable tape-recorder, the tapes from which
8 ASA NEWSLETTER would then go, unedited, to his typist to prepare as draft chapters for a new book. There was always a new book in progress. In his seminars, one could watch Margolis in the process of composing new material out loud, based on some preparation but often us- ing student questions as improvisational prompts to develop new ASA Digital Archives ideas. After each seminar, I would follow him into his office like a puppy (uninvited but never turned away) and pepper him with ideas and questions. My questions were often both relentless and confused, and there were times that he had to use examples from For the last several years, we have been dance or from literature or make an illustrative drawing for me on collecting and digitizing important ASA paper to help me to understand. He would then give me drafts of his work-in-progress to read and to discuss in the same way, as well archives. By placing these on the Mem- as suggestions for others’ articles and books that could help me fill bers section of the ASA website, they in the gaps in my education. No questions were off-limits and his answers to these, and to my follow-up questions, were thorough are available to all members. We are still and candid. missing a few key documents. If you are
Those few hours after each seminar were precious to me, it color- cleaning out your office, please see if you ed my graduate school experience in the golden and sometimes might have any of these. You can mail too-bright light of his brilliant and art-sensitive mind, and I am not alone among Margolis’ students to have experienced his dedi- them to us for scanning and we’ll reim- cated patience, time, and attention. If I went to him for feedback burse your postage. Or you can scan a on a submitted paper, he could usually pick it out quickly out of a huge, seemingly unmanageable stack of other papers and materi- PDF yourself and send. Contact
SUMMER 2021 9 Black Studies Reading List for Philosophers of Art Created by Nicholas Whittaker (CUNY Grad Center)
ence, history of aesthetics (especially A brilliantly deep contemplation of Derrida, Marx, and Kant) both Walker and her work, with deep ramifications for theorizing about gallery art in the 21st century. 2. Black, White, and In Color: Essays on American Literature and Culture by Useful for: philosophy of visual art, Hortense Spillers philosophy of modern art, philoso-
Nicholas Whittaker The brilliance of Spillers collected all 6. None Like Us: Blackness, Belonging, in one place! A foundational text that Aesthetic Life by Stephen Best illustrates the centrality of semiot-
10 ASA NEWSLETTER
Useful for: philosophy of music This brilliant text argues that black cinema isn’t a genre, but a way of looking, which reveals the complex- 13. The Devil Finds Work by James Bald- ity of art experience. win
SUMMER 2021 11 by participants after such a pation in the presentations News from the long hiatus. The Southern Di- and discussions. The finance vision meeting is going ahead committee and board of trust- National Office with its in-person meeting ees investigated this thor- in October, again, comply- oughly for the Montréal meet- I wish I could say we were returning to pre- ing with University and state ing, but the costs and logistics pandemic “normal” after a year and a half, requirements at Auburn Uni- were prohibitive. At our but it’s becoming clear that this won’t hap- versity. The tide is turning in suggestion, we encouraged pen soon or ever. It’s not just the relentless the US, as major employers, other meeting organizers to press of COVID variants, but the realization universities, performing arts investigate the availability that our experiences during the pandemic venues, and entire cities are of high-tech classrooms on have forever shaped our expectations about requiring proof of vaccina- neighboring campuses, but what is appropriate and necessary for our tion for entry. The ASA will those turned out not to be Society. I’ve appreciated hearing from so comply with all such require- reasonable options either. In many of our members via e-mail, Zoom ments, of course, and urges the coming years, it’s possible meetings, and finally in-person last month in anyone planning to attend that universities or conference Santa Fe. A few observations on how things an ASA event to complete hotels will be able to provide are going: vaccination. We presume the facilities and staff that that everyone attending one make hybrids feasible for a • Unemployed Membership of our meetings understands small society, but we’re not Category: In June 2020, the that they are assuming risks there yet. Board of Trustees approved by venturing out and that this new membership the ASA cannot guarantee • Friends of the ASA: We are category for Unemployed their health and safety from delighted that we were able members, defined as anyone COVID or anything else now to raise almost $9,000 for who does not have a full-time or ever. travel grants to the Montréal professional or academic meeting for persons present- appointment. The rate is $25/ • Virtual meetings: It is clear ing on the program, but year-GREEN, the same as the from email in the past year lacking institutional travel student green membership and evaluations from our support. The Trustees will rate. At this writing we have several virtual meetings that make a final decision this 35 members in this category. there is a continuing inter- November, but their ex- Many are brand-new, but est in some virtual meetings, pressed preference so far is many are long-time mem- even when we are able to for any unused funds, as well bers that we might have lost meet in person. The Feminist as newly raised funds, to be entirely without this new Caucus Committee has al- used for this purpose for the option. ready committed to a second 2022 meeting. Donations are symposium in summer 2022 welcome at any time and can • Overall membership: We on Zoom, which will make it be made online on the ASA are holding our own, with possible for persons unable website. 637 as of today. We expect to travel for whatever reason that to climb a bit more with to participate. We welcome • Elections: As announced, registrations for the Montréal comparable activities by we will be electing two new meeting, regaining ground other ASA groups, especially trustees this December. In we lost the last two years. We including the Diversity Com- December 2022, we will elect continue to look for ways to mittee. We are also looking three new trustees and a new make membership attractive at the possibility of another Vice-President. In 2024, the to a wide variety of constitu- Summer Virtual Aesthetics Trustees will be searching for ents and are always open to Festival in 2022, perhaps in my replacement as Secretary- your ideas. collaboration with the Kent Treasurer, as I am term- Aesthetics Centre and the limited and will complete my • In-person meetings: The British Society of Aesthetics. service on January 31, 2025. Rocky Mountain Division If a group of ASA members meeting in Santa Fe last wants to organize a no-cost month was a great success, virtual symposium with our first in-person meeting ASA sponsorship, they are Julie Van Camp since the Phoenix Annual welcome to submit a proposal Secretary-Treasurer & Executive Director Meeting in October 2019. We at any time. American Society for Aesthetics did all we could to ensure 1550 Larimer St. #644 compliance with require- • Hybrid meetings: We have Denver, CO 80202-1602 ments with the government been asked about having of the State of New Mexico genuine hybrid meetings,
12 ASA NEWSLETTER Interview from Rematriation A.W. Eaton is Associate Professor of Philos- Aesthetics News Magazine:
SUMMER 2021 13 mation on the current trustees and the ASA Why us, you ask? It’s worth noting first that made clear for many people how essential By-laws, see the ASA webpage
14 ASA NEWSLETTER ation of practices that have historically Pacific Meeting March 19-21. The results are is currently researching fallen outside of the ‘fine art’ purview available here:
SUMMER 2021 15 as the Mexican-African tual meeting, we will extensively publicize • When you complete the meet- practice titled La Danza de as soon as this decision is made. ing registration, you will be los Diablos in the region sent the link to book a room located between Oaxaca Please check for details and updates for ad- at the hotel at our conference and Chiapas. mission to Canada on this Canadian gov- rate. ernment site:
The project is directed by Jeff Friedman, As- • On your laptop:
Join Us in Montréal for the 79th • Registration is now available Annual Meeting on the web page with a credit November 17-20, 2021 card. To pay with a cheque, please use the mail-in form in We are pleased to invite you to join us at the this issue. 79th Annual Meeting of the American Soci- ety for Aesthetics in Montréal, Canada, No- • A substantial discount is vember 17-20, 2021. For complete informa- available for early-bird tion, please see the ASA website:
Program Committee: Sonia Sedivy, Univer- • ASA members also receive a sity of Toronto, Program Chair. Program substantial discount. Be sure Committee: Hanne Apelqvist, Thomas F. to log in to this website first DeFrantz, Julian Dodd, John Dyck, John before registering. Gibson, Artisia Green, Sandra Shapshay, E. Hande Tuna, Michel Xhignesse • If you cancel at least 30 days before the meeting, you will GOOD NEWS! The Canadian government receive a full refund. has announced that US citizens/residents will be admitted August 9 and all others Lodging: September 7. You must be vaccinated and submit a negative test. So long as we can be • We hope you will join us admitted to Canada with proof of vaccina- in staying at the conference tion and a negative test, but with NO quar- hotel. This helps us meet antine requirement, we expect to go ahead our lodging guarantee and with the meeting in Montréal. If this changes receive free meeting rooms. and it is necessary for us to switch to a vir-
16 ASA NEWSLETTER 2021 ASA Prize Winners
Irene H. Chayes New Voices Awards winners in 2019 were Shannon Brick and Zoe Cunliffe, both at the CUNY Graduate Pro- The winners of the 2021 Irene H. Chayes gram. The winners in 2020 were Christopher Want to New Voices Awards are Irene Martínez Jenkins, Oberlin College, and Hannah Kim, Marín (Uppsala University) and Nicholas Stanford University. Whittaker (CUNY Graduate Center). Register or Applicants were asked to demonstrate the Martínez Marín’s paper is “Akrasia and the following characteristics: Request a Structure of Aesthetic Rationality.” 1. The author’s understanding of the barriers that lead to the underrepre- Rebate for the sentation of women, ethnic and racial minorities, non-gender-conforming individuals, persons with disabilities, Annual ASA persons from low-socio-economic- status backgrounds, and other mem- bers of groups historically underrep- Meeting by resented in higher education careers. Evidence of this understanding may Mail? be drawn from the author’s life expe- riences and educational background, and should be explained in a short Irene Martínez Marín personal statement.
Nicholas Whittaker’s paper is “Black Voices 2. The author’s capacity to apply their on Aesthetic Love.” understanding of the conditions of underrepresentation to their research. Applicants should demonstrate this critical perspective by, for example, proposing research topics that per- tain in a substantial way to the artis- Go to the ASA tic production or aesthetic experience website and of underrepresented groups. Preference is given to applicants who are students, faculty on fixed-term, non-tenure- find stream contracts, or not in academic employ- Nicholas Whittaker ment. Award recipients each receive a $1,000 prize. Papers were reviewed anonymously downloadable Both papers will be presented at the ASA with all other papers for the meeting by Annual Meeting November 17-20, 2021. They the ASA program committee, without any registration were selected from 12 applicants for the prize information on their request for the New this year. Voices Award or other support. Eligibility for the Irene H. Chayes New Voices Award and rebate The awards were established in 2017 by the was reviewed by the co-chairs of the ASA Board of Trustees of the ASA, at the request diversity committee. The final selection was of the ASA Diversity Committee, to nour- made jointly by the Chairs of the Program forms. ish and sustain an ethos of inclusivity in all Committee (Sonia Sedivy) and the Diversity aspects of the Society’s activities, and in the Committee (Nils-Hennes Steer and Paloma discipline of aesthetics more broadly. Atencia-Linares). The winning papers will be presented at the Annual Meeting in No- The winners in 2018 in the inaugural compe- vember. tition were Emmanuel Ordóñez Angulo, Uni- versity College, London, and Daniel Wilson, Applicants for the 2022 awards should ap- University of Auckland, New Zealand. The ply by March 1, 2022. Guidelines: SUMMER 2021 17 aesthetics-online.org/page/chayesprize> of the “match” in terms of the Eleven nominations were received for the qualities of movement that guide prize. Dr Pakes recently retired from the These awards have been made possible by both musicians and dancers. University of Roehampton, where she taught the generosity of a large bequest from the since 2003. She previous taught at what is estate of Irene H. Chayes to the American The interdisciplinary field of somaesthetics now called Trinity-Laban, where she also Society for Aesthetics. Irene Hendry Chayes is understood broadly as the critical study completed the PhD. (1916-2014) received her B.A. and M.A. from and meliorative cultivation of the experience New York University and her Ph.D. from and performance of the living body (or soma) The review committee noted: Johns Hopkins University. She taught litera- as a site of sensory appreciation (aesthesis) ture at the University of Maryland, Hollins and creative self-stylization. Contributions Anna Pakes’s book—the first College, and SUNY Binghamton. exploring the field of somaesthetics through monograph on the metaphysics one—or more—of the many disciplines that of dance to appear in a decade— Somaesthetics Research Award already inform this field are welcome: phi- makes significant and original losophy, aesthetics, arts and design research, contributions to the understand- Solveig Aasen has won the inaugural So- technology studies, somatic, health, sports, ing of central aspects of dance of maesthetics Research Prize for 2021 for her and social sciences, history, physiology, interest to the ASA dance com- article “Crossmodal Aesthetics: How Dance psychology and pedagogy. munity. It is truly exceptional in and Music Can Match,” published in The bringing out the importance of Philosophical Quarterly 71.2, 223-240 (2020). The next prize will be awarded in 2023 dance ontology both for assessing The full text is available in Research Archive. for work published between May 1, 2021 aspects of dance practice and for - February 28, 2023. The Submission dead- the ontology of art more generally, line is March 1, 2023. Complete guidelines: and does so in a way that provides 18 ASA NEWSLETTER alone. Not only is this an unrealis- tic standard to uphold, but I show that a definition of intentional con- trol based on the skeptic’s position does not prohibit an agent from realizing the features of a work by means beyond their own actions. An agent can exercise intentional control over the features of a work if they successfully anticipate the effect that the remote consequenc- es of their actions will have on these. This, I argue, entails that Jonathan Gilmore to exert intentional control over the features of a work is to exer- The review committee said: Claire Anscomb cise “creative agency”, which is a species of executive agency. Con- Apt Imaginings offers an original She will present the paper at the ASA Annual sequently, I defend the idea that and deep exploration of the con- Meeting in Montréal November 17-20, 2021. the origins of automatic images nections between fiction, art, and Her paper, selected by the JAAC editorial in creative agency grounds their imagination. Gilmore makes a board review committee from eight nomina- artistic significance. strong argument for the idea that tions, will be presented at the Annual Meet- the norms for the appropriate- ing in November and will be published in the ness of our emotions and desires Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism. Outstanding Student Paper Prize toward fictional things can be con- trary to the norms that govern our Dr Anscomb received her PhD from the Uni- Alex Fisher has won the Outstanding Student emotions and desires toward anal- versity of Kent in the History and Philosophy Paper for the 79th Annual Meeting, to be ogous things in the real world. of Art in 2019. For more information about held in Montréal November 17-20, 2021. The book is rich with sensitive her work: SUMMER 2021 19 fictional cases, exemplified by She received her bachelor’s degree from Har- cepted papers. (We do not run concurrent Miranda Fricker’s introduction vard University, an M.Phil from Oxford Uni- sessions, and the number of accepted papers of testimonial injustice. Second, versity, and her Ph.D. from Yale University. will be manageable for pre-reading.) The a phenomenon is only illustrated author will have three to five minutes to in- with a fictional case, and is then Amie Thomasson (Dartmouth College), the troduce the paper, followed by a ten-minute argued to actually occur with real chair of the selection committee, said, Sarah presentation by the commentator, with the cases. These two uses of fictional Lewis’s paper ‘Groundwork: Race and Aes- remaining session time allotted for ques- cases are compared to rival ac- thetics in the era of Stand Your Ground Law’ tion and answer. This format will be strictly counts of thought experiments, is a beautifully written, original and pen- followed to facilitate in-depth discussion. before it is argued that fictional etrating paper that reflects on the concept of Paper submissions must not exceed 3,000 cases are in various circumstances ‘grounding’ as it considers a range of works words in length and must be accompanied preferable to both thought experi- of art that address racialized life in the US. It by 200 to 300-word abstracts. Submissions ments and real cases. is important work that insightfully bridges should be anonymized for review. philosophy and art criticism, in a way that fits in perfectly with the legacy of Arthur Proposals for panels, author-meets-critics Arthur Danto/American Society for Aesthetics Danto’s own work. sessions, and other special sessions should Prize include a brief description of the topic or The competition this year included 15 papers. theme, the names and affiliations of all pro- The American Philosophical Association The selection committee also awarded an posed participants, and long abstracts of all and the American Society for Aesthetics are Honorable Mention to Michel-Antoine Xhig- papers (400 to 500-word each). These ses- pleased to announce that Professor Sarah nesse for “What Makes a Kind an Art-Kind?” sions will last an hour and a half with at least Elizabeth Lewis (Harvard University) has Xhignesse teaches at Capilano University in half-hour reserved for question and answer been selected as the winner of the 2022 Ar- Canada. and they will not be part of the pre-read ses- thur Danto/American Society for Aesthetics sions. Prize for her paper, “Groundwork: Race and Aesthetics in the Era of Stand Your Ground $1000 will be available for Irene H. Chayes Law.” It was published in Art Journal 79:4 Travel grants from the American Society for (2020) 92-113. Aesthetics for presenters with no other ac- Calls for Papers cess to travel funds. To apply, notify meet- ing organizers when submitting your paper American Society for Aesthetics that you wish to be considered and include Pacific Division Meeting an estimate of your travel costs. Please do Berkeley City Club not include this information in your paper. Berkeley, CA March 18-19, 2022 Please send submissions in PDF format to 20 ASA NEWSLETTER losophy of art are invited. We also welcome your travel costs. Don’t include this in your of the Salish Sea. The region (sometimes re- volunteers to serve as session chairs and paper. ferred to as the Pacific Northwest) stretches commentators. roughly from Portland, Oregon to British ASA Policies on Discrimination, Harass- Columbia. Salish Sea is the indigenous name Submissions on the themes, The Arts and the ment, and Respectful Behavior will be in ef- for the region. Pandemic, or Social Justice and the Arts, are fect for this meeting. The ASA Ombudsper- especially encouraged, as are submissions son will be present throughout the meeting. For more information, please see the web- from writers who self-identify with tradi- site: SUMMER 2021 21 com/2021/07/06/xiv-inter-university- That in itself is an unanswered question. But a harmful influence to works of art? In what workshop-on-mind-art-and-morality-aes- as difficult as it is to answer, it seems to be way can and how should we deal with or re- thetic-normativity-murcia-5-6-may-2022/> clear to many of the art world’s stakehold- act to art that appears racist or sexist to some ers that art has the right to be immoral. Ever recipients? Scientific Committee: Paloma Atencia-Linares since Baudelaire’s Les Fleurs du Mal, it even (UNED) seems as if art must be evil and immoral if it Original contributions in German, English, does not want to appear affirmative, boring, or French that discuss questions such as Zsolt Bátori (Kodolányi János Universi- unattractive, or embarrassingly moralistic. these in a profound and thorough way— ty y Budapest University of Technology Can art only fulfil its mission if it provokes whether in a purely theoretical manner or and Economics) the moral feel-ings of many people? Or does using art of any kind as an example—are re- Carla Carmona (Universidad de Sevilla) the demand that art should not bow to the quested by 31.12.2021 (Issue 1) or 30.6.2022 Matilde Carrasco (Universidad de prevailing morality, but should disturb and (Issue 2) by email to the editorial office of the Murcia) devalue it, fail to recognise the nature of art ZÄK: 22 ASA NEWSLETTER straightforward. While the presence of those plinary and cultural backgrounds. The jour- The Editors welcome submissions on any gathered may be intentional, the politics of nal also welcomes those works that embrace philosophically informed exploration of ar- belonging shape how being together is di- ethical, social, religious, environmental, and tistic forms as activist interventions., includ- versely experienced. Who was able to attend cultural concerns, reflecting aesthetics’ -his ing, but not limited to: the gathering? How do race, gender, sexual torically interdisciplinary character as well identity, class, disability, religion, place, as its recent developments. • Ethics and morality in and of artistic and age impact who is welcomed, affirmed, We are particularly interested in those pa- activism or protected once assembled? How might pers on aesthetic issues that have not been • Relationships between aesthetic the time signatures and spaces of assembly adequately addressed in the Anglophone value and artistic activism provide both occasion for new solidarities aesthetic discourse, whether regarding cul- • Affect and effect in and of creative or openings for appropriation? Once the as- tural traditions or authors. A comparative activism sembly disperses, where does that collective perspective is particularly welcome. • Race, creativity, and social justice: action go? How are its residues alchemized, from jazz music to BLM and beyond condensed, or diluted? In the interest of broadening our scope and • Advancing an aesthetic theory of increasing accessibility to our readers, CA creative activism Increasingly, gatherings are facilitated, also welcomes shorter, more targeted piec- • Didacticism and its discontents framed, and disseminated by technological es of current interest in aesthetics and phi- • Pandemic shock, climate grief, and devices and artificial intelligence systems. losophy of art. These 300-800 word “Short compassion fatigue: artistic responses What are the technologies that allow as- Notes” offer an opportunity for discussion to overwhelming topics sembly? How have those technologies been and may present points of view on topics • Catharsis and creative activism: com- crafted, and how are they deployed by peo- such as modes of appreciation of environ- patible or opposing forces? ple engaged in critical movement, through ment or of a theater performance, an insight • Creative activists as futurists: the role and beyond? How do dance studios mate- gained from a book, or a response to an ar- of artistic imagination in accelerating rialize, and what sorts of shared rhetorics ticle previously published in CA, as well as social change and generating future of corporeal agreement/disavowal are em- a summary of a recently published book on solutions bedded in their operations? In our contem- aesthetics that is not available in English. • Creative activism evaluation: how porary moment, in relation to all manner of does scholarship from aesthetics previous events, how has protest continued Once accepted and copy-edited, articles and and art criticism help us determine to dance? Short Notes are published with the most re- outcomes and effectiveness? cent appearing at the top of the Journal page. • First-order change versus second-or- Possible areas of focus may include strate- We welcome the use of visual images and der change: can art achieve systemic gies of assembly in particular contexts (such auditory and video clips to illustrate the text, alteration or only awareness and as Native American powwows, vogue balls, provided that the necessary permission has individual empowerment? multinational dance competitions, or public been obtained by the author. Please visit our • Critically analyzing the forms, claims protests), gathering as both shared belief journal page at SUMMER 2021 23 Call for Nominations to of which were adopted. periences we might not share. Committee on DHRB The complete policies are available on the Participants in ASA meetings and other ASA website under ASA Policies: ASA-sponsored activities should hold them- 24 ASA NEWSLETTER be known to be unwelcome, mittee member or an ASA Trustee or Officer son act in the matter, they will select a mem- which may include instances about a possible violation of the policy. If the ber of the Respectful Behavior committee to of non-consensual sexual incident has been reported to someone other be the investigator. The ASA Board reserves contact, stalking, repeated than the Ombudsperson, that person will in- the right to appoint an external investigator flirtations, lewd or lascivious form the Ombudsperson. in place of the Ombudsperson. behavior, advances, proposi- tions, and pressure to engage If the Ombudsperson has a conflict of inter- The investigator will interview the com- in sexual activity. est, or cannot for some other reason act in plainant, respondent and any witnesses. The the matter, they will select a member of the investigator may or may not recommend a • Inappropriate use of sexual Respectful Behavior committee to be the fa- formal sanction against the respondent. The images in public spaces, cilitator. ASA President and Board must approve any including the display of of- sanction. (The only exception is for interim fensive or sexually suggestive The Ombudsperson or facilitator will con- remedial action, in which case the President objects or pictures, apart from duct an initial interview as soon as possible may act alone. See “Resolution” below for an purposes of scholarly discus- with the person or persons reported as the example.) sion. If potentially offensive target of disrespectful behavior or harass- content is included in ex- ment, and determine what action that per- If the respondent is a Board member or Of- amples presented at an ASA son or persons want taken, if any. ficer of the ASA, then they will recuse them- program, audience members selves from any discussions with the Board should be alerted first. If endorsed as appropriate by both the Om- about the complaint. budsperson and the person or persons tar- • Communication includes geted in violation of this policy, the Ombud- The investigator will file a written report spoken and written words in sperson or facilitator will attempt to bring of the complaint and the investigation. The or on social media supported about an informal resolution. Engaging in an complainant and respondent will receive a by ASA, clothing, etc. informal resolution process does not remove summary of the report with all identifying the right to file a complaint, in the event that details, including names of witnesses, re- • Note: Neither occasional the informal process fails. dacted. compliments of a socially acceptable nature nor con- If an informal resolution is obtained, the sensual personal or social re- Ombudsperson will submit a confidential 3) Resolution lationships constitute sexual report of the incident, summary of findings, harassment. and informal resolution to the ASA Officers. Whether or not a formal complaint is filed, if there is good reason to think that a seri- The ASA does not maintain an anonymous ous violation of this policy has occurred, Membership information and compliance hotline for consultation or complaints. If the ASA President, in consultation with the anyone experiences or witnesses an example Ombudsperson, may take interim remedial This policy will be available in full on the of inappropriate conduct addressed in this action, such as immediately revoking the ASA website and will be published annually policy, but is not comfortable consulting conference registration of the respondent. in the ASA Newsletter. All transactions on with any of the persons listed in paragraph the ASA website (e.g., membership, meeting 1) of this section, that person is encouraged If there is good reason to think that the ASA registration) will require confirmation that to talk with a trusted friend immediately to President has violated the policy, then the the member has read and agrees to comply establish an evidentiary record that might be Vice-President will act in their stead with with this policy. Notice of this requirement available for future consultations or future regards to the complaint. will include a link to the complete policy. complaints. The resolution of a complaint may include, but is not restricted to, one or more of the Reporting 2) Complaint: following: If any ASA member is the target of or wit- While any member of the ASA may report • The respondent makes a ver- ness to harassment, discrimination, or other an alleged incident to the Ombudsperson bal apology to the complain- inappropriate behavior, that member is en- or the Respectful Behavior Committee, only ant. couraged to report the incident to the ASA someone who is the target of disrespectful Ombudsperson or a member of the Respect- behavior or harassment may file a complaint. • The respondent submits, via ful Behavior Committee. A complaint must be made in writing, and the Ombudsperson, a written must be filed with the Ombudsperson or apology to the complainant. There are two ways to involve the Ombud- with any Officer or Trustee of the ASA, no sperson or the Respectful Behavior Commit- more than one year after the incident. The • The respondent voluntarily tee: consultation or filing a complaint. We person receiving the written complaint shall leaves conference for the du- encourage consultation as a first step. transmit it at the earliest opportunity to the ration of that conference. Ombudsperson for investigation and shall maintain the confidentiality of the report. • The ASA President (or their 1) Consultation: delegate, if the President is The Ombudsperson will investigate the not attending the conference) Any member of the Society may inform the complaint. If the Ombudsperson has a con- revokes conference registra- Ombudsperson, a Respectful Behavior Com- flict of interest, or cannot for some other rea- tion of the respondent while SUMMER 2021 25 conference is in progress. The Ombudsperson prepares two annual Terms will extend from January 1 – Decem- reports. The first report, containing very ber 31 for three years. Members may serve • The respondent agrees not general information about the number of one additional term after initial appoint- to attend ASA meetings or members who have consulted with the Om- ment; after one year off the committee, pre- sponsored conferences for budsperson and the types of complaints and vious members may again be considered for one year or a longer period issues raised, is provided to the Board of membership. (with compliance monitored Trustees and is available to ASA members by the ASA Secretary). as an addendum to the minutes of the Board When applications are received on Septem- meeting at which it was submitted. ber 15, the Secretary-Treasurer will share • The ASA revokes member- them with the leadership (chairs and assis- ship of the respondent, either The second report describes each consul- tant chairs) of the Feminist Caucus Commit- for a given period or in tation and what resolution, if any, was tee and Diversity Committee. Each Com- perpetuity. achieved, with all identifying information mittee will be asked to identify preferred removed. This report is held as a confiden- candidates, after appropriate consultation • Any other such restitution, as tial record in the ASA’s national office and with the membership of the full committee determined by complainant, may be consulted only by officers of the ASA of current ASA members. At least three pre- respondent, and the Ombud- in the course of their duties. ferred candidates should be recommended, sperson, following consul- listed either alphabetically or rank-ordered, tation with the Respectful The Ombudsperson will be nominated by by each committee. The Officers and Trust- Behavior committee. the ASA President, with the approval of the ees will be required to give very serious con- Board of Trustees, for a term of three years. sideration to these recommendations from The Feminist Caucus Committee and the each committee in making their final selec- ASA Ombudsperson Diversity Committee will provide a list of tions. The lists of preferred candidates by potential candidates, and a general invita- the committees must be sent to the Officers The Ombudsperson is the primary resource tion to self-nomination to all ASA members no later than December 1, so the Trustee bal- and point of contact for ASA members re- will be the basis for the list of candidates, loting can be completed in December. garding concerns about discrimination, to which the officers and Board of Trustees including sexual harassment, which is rec- may add. In making the selections, the Officers and ognized as a form of discrimination. The Trustees should be mindful of the overall Ombudsperson is responsible for educating The Ombudsperson is a volunteer position. makeup of the Committee and aim for diver- the ASA membership about this policy. For availability at any of the four ASA meet- sity in all its forms, including race, gender, ings each year (the three divisional meetings sexual orientation, disability, seniority and The Ombudsperson shall receive com- and the Annual Meeting), reasonable travel security within the profession, and experi- plaints of discrimination and harassment costs, consistent with other ASA reimburse- ence with comparable institutional commit- and, where possible, serve as a resource to ments, will be provided. If professional ser- tees. members regarding such complaints. The vices are necessary to respond to a formal Ombudsperson shall serve as a resource by, complaint, consulting rates will be negoti- Members must be members of the ASA among other things, (i) educating the com- ated on a case-by-case basis. throughout their term of service on the com- plainant about this policy; (ii) facilitating mittee. informal resolution of concerns where ap- propriate; (iii) investigating complaints of Respectful Behavior Committee Working with the Ombudsperson, the Com- harassment and discrimination; and (iv) rec- mittee shall review for possible revision the ommending sanctions where appropriate. The Committee shall consist of six persons, existing policy each biennium following its The Ombudsperson should, if necessary, be nominated (including self-nominated), with adoption or subsequent revision, taking into able to consult with a complainant rapidly, selection by the ASA Board of Trustees. account recommendations received from within a 24-hour period. Nominations shall be solicited by bulk e- ASA members and the Board of Trustees, mail sent to all current ASA members, with and shall be responsible for making recom- The Ombudsperson does not provide legal additional announcements, as appropriate, mendations for future revisions, as appro- advice. on the ASA website announcements, Face- priate, with final revisions approved by the book, Twitter, and the ASA Newsletter. Board of Trustees. Where appropriate, the Ombudsperson shall consult with the Feminist Caucus Com- The nomination deadline for initial estab- Members should be available to serve as mittee or the Diversity Committee for advice lishment of the committee shall be Novem- Acting Ombudsperson when the Ombud- regarding specific complaints. ber 15, 2018, with submissions to be sent sperson finds it necessary to recuse due to to 26 ASA NEWSLETTER crimination, Harassment, and Respectful Behavior. The Ombudsperson shall be considered a voting member of the committee. A quo- rum for purposes of voting shall be 50% of the membership plus one. Members shall be subject to all ASA policies, including but not limited to the current policies on Conflict of Interest and on Privacy and Data. The Om- budsperson shall serve as chair of the com- Friends of the ASA mittee. As the membership of the Committee regu- larly rotates, the names shall be available on the ASA website with this posting of the In the past year, the ASA Trustees have surveyed the impact of policy, once approved. COVID and the financial calamities in higher education on our members to see what the ASA might do to help. The Trustees learned from many members that their employers had cancelled or suspended travel and research accounts to present their work at professional meetings. In response, they decided last winter to establish the Friends of ASA to raise funds to address these Active problems. Aestheticians Nineteen ASA members, including all of the trustees and offi- cers in January, donated a total of $8,805 for $1000 travel grants HANNAH KIM will begin as an assistant for persons with papers accepted for the Annual Meeting who professor at Macalester College in Fall 2021. do not have institutional travel support. Ten members donat- ed at least $100: María José Alcarez León, David Davies, Susan Feagin, Thomas Leddy, Russell L. Quacchia, Brian Soucek, Paul Thom, Julie Van Camp, Peg Brand Weiser, and Michel-Antoine Xhignesse. If any funds from the Friends donations are left after the Montreal meeting, the trustees will determine expenditure in 2022, with priority for travel grants to the Annual meeting in Portland, Oregon. These funds are in addition to eight $1000 Irene H. Chayes Travel grants, also for presenters without institutional travel support, and $1000 travel grants for all full-time students with papers accepted for the meeting and all prize winners. Anyone wishing to contribute to this fund for the 2022 Annu- al Meeting can donate on the ASA website under Donations: ASA is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization. All donors will re- ceive a receipt which you can use for your tax returns. If you are donating a charitable roll-over from your retirement account, please mail the check to: American Society for Aesthetics, Friends of ASA, 1550 Larimer St #644, Denver, CO 80202-1602 SUMMER 2021 27 Planning Ahead? ASA Events in 2021-2 The American Society for Aesthetics is pleased to welcome submissions for ASA opportunities for 2021-2. Dance Aesthetics: A14Africa Workshop, Rutgers University, October 14, 2021 Salish Sea Aesthetics Workshop II, Victoria, BC, November 12-14, 2021 ASA Annual Meeting, Montreal, November 17-20, 2021 ASA Pacific Meeting, Berkeley, March 18-19, 2022 ASA Eastern Meeting, Philadelphia, April 22-23, 2022 ASA Rocky Mountain Division, Santa Fe, July 15-17, 2022 ASA Annual Meeting, Portland, OR, November 16-19, 2022 For the complete list of ASA Meetings and Workshops: Scroll down to MEETINGS near the bottom of the page on the ASA website. Click “more” to see the complete list. 28 ASA NEWSLETTER ASA Opportunities in 2022 The American Society for Aesthetics is pleased to welcome submissions for ASA opportunities for 2022. Dissertation Fellowship for 2022-2023 Social Justice and the Arts Prize Outstanding Monograph Prize Irene H. Chayes New Voices Award Selma Jeanne Cohen Prize in Dance Aesthetics SUMMER 2021 29 30 ASA NEWSLETTER AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR AESTHETICS 79th Annual Meeting – November 17-20, 2021 Doubletree by Hilton, 1255 Jeanne Mance St Montreal, Quebec MAIL-IN REGISTRATION Mail to: The American Society for Aesthetics - c/o J. Van Camp 1550 Larimer St. #644 - Denver, CO 80202-1602 NAME ______ NAME ON NAME TAG ______ INSTITUTIONAL AFFILIATION ______ MAILING ADDRESS ______ ______ E-MAIL ______PHONE ______ASA member (2021) Early Bird registration (postmark by Oct. 13) Amount Enclosed Member-3-day: $120 Member-1-day: $55 Student/unemployed member-3-day: $65 1-day: $25 Regular registration (postmark after Oct. 13) Member-3-day: $180 Member-1-day: $65 Student/unemployed member-3-day: $95 1-day: $35 Non-Member of ASA Early Bird registration (postmark by Oct. 13) Non-Member 3-day: $215 Non-member 1-day: $80 Student/unemployed Non-Member 3-day: $115 1-day: $75 Regular registration (postmark after Oct. 13) Non-Member 3-day: $270 1-day: $125 Student/unemployed Non-Member 3-day: $140 1-day: $85 TOTAL (US dollars only) Make checks payable to The American Society for Aesthetics AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR AESTHETICS 79th Annual Meeting – November 17-20, 2021 Doubletree by Hilton, 1255 Jeanne Mance St Montreal, Quebec REBATES ON REGISTRATION Mail to: The American Society for Aesthetics - c/o J. Van Camp 1550 Larimer St. #644 - Denver, CO 80202-1602 OR Send via e-mail to: [email protected] I hereby request a rebate of my paid lodging at the Doubletree by Hilton/Montreal during the ASA 79th Annual Meeting, as calculated below. I understand that the maximum rebate is the registration fee I paid to attend the meeting. I also understand that this rebate is only available to persons who are not receiving an ASA travel grant for this meeting. $30 USD/night for lodging at the conference rate at the Doubletree by Hilton: _____number of nights x $30/night: $______ $15 USD/night for lodging shared with another ASA participant and paid at one-half the room rate: _____number of nights x $15/night: $______ NAME ______ MAILING ADDRESS ______ ______ E-MAIL ______ PAYMENT METHODS: _____A credit on the credit card I used to register for the meeting. _____A paper check mailed to the address above. _____Payment to my direct-pay account at the ASA bank (US personal accounts only) DOCUMENTATION: Please send a scan showing your paid lodging bill at the Doubletree from when you check-out. A reservation before the meeting is insufficient documentation. (We have on file your meeting registration, so it is not needed.) SIGNATURE: ______ DATE:______ ASA Newsletter edited by Shelby Moser & Michel-Antoine Xhignesse ISSN 1089-1668 The Newsletter is published three times a year by the American Society for Aesthetics. For subscription or membership information: ASA, c/o Julie Van Camp, 1550 Larimer St. #644, Denver, CO 80202-1602 Tel. 562-331-4424; email: Send calls for papers, event announcements, conference reports, and other items of interest to: Shelby Moser, Department of Philosophy, Azusa Pacific University, 901 E Alosta Ave, Azusa, CA 91702. Deadlines: December 1, April 15, August 1 SUMMER 2021 31