aesthetics at ubc The Philosophy Department at the University of British Columbia is home to a lively research group in aesthetics and the philosophy of art. In addition to three phiosophy faculty, the group numbers several philosophy graduate students who are either writing dissertations or papers in aesthetics. Faculty and students in Interdisciplinary Studies, the Department of English Literature, the School of Music, the School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture also participate in the group's activities. Events include reading groups, visiting speakers, mini-conferences, and seminars.

Josh Johnston speaking at the Pacific ASA

Kendall Walton visits Fiction

Dustin Stokes, Vince Bergeron, and Dom Lopes studying oeno-aesthetics in Napa

faculty Dominic Lopes teaches philosophy at UBC and works on depiction, the evaluation of pictures, theories of art and the ontology of art, and computer art and new art forms. He's now writing a book on computer art, and his next major project is a book on art and appreciation. Bence Nanay holds a twofold appointment,* teaching at Syracuse University in the fall and at UBC in the spring. He complements his specialization in philosophy of mind and philosophy of biology with an interest in aesthetics, especially depiction and theories of imagination. * That's an aesthetics joke. John Woods is Professor Emeritus at UBC and divides his time between UBC and Kings College London. Although he sometimes dabbles in logic, he's now getting down to truly serious work on fiction. current students Yuichi Amitani is a PhD candidate at UBC working primarily in philosophy of biology. His main interest in aesthetics is the ontology of art. Vincent Bergeron is completing a doctoral dissertation in the philosophy of neuroscience, and he has interests in several topics in aesthetics, including musical expression, ontology of art, artistic value, and aesthetics and cognitive science. Gemma Celestino Fernandez is a PhD candidate whose main interests are in philosophy of language, metaphysics, formal semantics, aesthetics, and ethics. She's writing a dissertation on fiction and propositional attitude ascriptions. Steve DiPaola is an Associate Professor at Simon Fraser University. An expert in computer graphics systems, he is working towards an interdisciplinary PhD at UBC on painterly rendering of portraits. Jill Fellows is a PhD student in philosophy. She is planning to work on the absurd. Jillian Isenberg is a PhD student working on issues in philosophy of language at its intersections with biology and art. Her main interest in aesthetics is fiction, particularly with respect to reference and epistemology. Josh Johnston plans to write a dissertation defending a particularist conception of ethical and aesthetic value. Other interests include the history of aesthetics, the epistemology and metaphysics of aesthetic value, perception and taste, genre classification, and the philosophy of film. Brian Laetz is a PhD student at UBC specializing in aesthetics. He's currently working on papers on mass art, the status of aesthetic testimony, and evolutionary explanations of aesthetic phenomena. Zoe McDougall is a PhD student in interdisciplinary studies working on collaborations between artists and engineers developing smart environments. Nola Semczyszyn is a PhD student in philosophy. She is planning to write a dissertation on scientific images. past students Eden Kail Fenrick wrote an MA thesis on the role of identification in dance appreciation in 2003. She now teaches philosophy in Halifax. Nick Jones visited UBC from the University of Nottingham in 2004, where he wrote a doctoral dissertation with Gregory Currie. Jennifer Neilson took a BA and an MA in philosophy at UBC, writing an MA paper on the paradox of negative emotions. She's now a doctoral student at the University of Texas. Alessandro Pignocchi was a visiting student from Paris in the spring of 2007. While at UBC, he wrote a paper on motor schemas in drawing. Dustin Stokes defended his doctoral dissertation, "Minimal Creativity: A Cognitive Model" in 2005. He has gone on to pursue his interests in aesthetics and cognitive science as a postdoctoral fellow first at the University of Sussex and now at the University of Toronto. His papers have appeared in several journals.

aesthetics group news Congratulations to Vince Bergeron, who has accepted a tenure-track position at the University of Ottawa. Congratulations to Brian Laetz, whose paper on horror has been accepted by Film and Philosophy, and whose paper on aesthetic testimony is appearing in the Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism. Congratulations again to Brian Laetz and to Josh Johnston, whose paper on fantasy is appearing in Philosophy and Literature. Congratulations to Josh Johnston and Jill Fellows, who are presenting their paper on moralism on May 31 at the Canadian Society for Aesthetics meeting in Vancouver and at the American Society for Aesthetics Meeting in Northhampton, Massachusetts in October. Last September, Vince presented a critique of moderate moralism at the British Society of Aesthetics Annual Meeting at St Edmund's Hall, Oxford. In October, Josh Johnston presented a paper on aesthetic empiricism and contextualism at the Western Canadian Philosophical Association meeting in Saskatoon. In February, Gemma Celestino presented her paper, "Fictional Contingencies," at GAF Buenos Aires. Gemma and Jillian Isenberg were on the program of the ASA Pacific Division meeting in March. current events September 2008 The annual aesthetics retreat is back! Watch this space for details. upcoming events Summer 2008 Catharine Abell (University of Manchester) will be visiting for three months, July to September. 2009–10 Derek Matravers (Open University and Cambridge University) will be visiting for the year. He'll teach a graduate seminar and an undergraduate course. past events March 14, 2008 Kathryn Brown (UBC AHVAT), Bence Nanay (UBC), and James Young (UVic) are speaking as part of a day-long interdisciplinary workshop on Art and Spectatorship co-hosted by the Philosophy Department and the Department of Art History, Visual Art, and Theory. For full details, see the flyer. March 6-7, 2008 Berys Gaut (St Andrews University) is giving a seminar on the afternoon of March 6 and talk on "Medium-Specificity Arguments and Cinema" in the Philosophy Colloquium at 3 pm on March 7. 2007–08 Dominic Lopes is teaching an undergraduate course in aesthetics during the fall term. It will feature his book manuscript on computer art. During the spring term, Bence Nanay is giving a seminar on Fiction, Narrative, and the Mind. Berys Gaut will visit during the spring to give a lecture and a seminar. Summer 2007 Bence Nanay is running a weekly discussion group on depiction at sundry watering holes around town. 2006–07 Dominic Lopes gave a seminar on topics in aesthetics and epistemology. The seminar culminated in a one-day mini-conference in May. Meanwhile, Gemma Celestino and Jillian Isenberg ran a biweekly reading group in partnership with LOGOS Barcelona on the logic, semantics, and aesthetics of fiction. Visiting speakers this year included Gary Iseminger. 2005–06 Dominic Lopes gave a seminar on the ontology of art in conjunction with the Art, Technology, and Ontology Project sponsored by the Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies. The project brought faculty and students together from several disciplines to discuss new technologies in art. Visiting speakers this year included Robert Hopkins, Peter Kivy, Amie Thomasson, and Kendall Walton. Pre-2005 In August 2003, UBC hosted the Knowing Art Conference, which was sponsored by SSHRC. Speakers who visited to give colloquium talks included Noël Carroll, Jerrold Levinson, and Jenefer Robinson. James Shelley spent a term at UBC as a Visiting Professor and gave a seminar on early modern aesthetics. Matthew Kieran spent a sabbatical year at UBC in 2002–03.