As part of our commitment to increasing diversity and inclusion within British aesthetics and philosophy of art, the British Society of Aesthetics will bestow up to two New Horizons Awards for the best papers submitted to the Annual Conference by a member of a group traditionally underrepresented in philosophical aesthetics. The winner(s) will receive a £500 honorarium and a travel grant of up to £1000 to attend the conference, and will be encouraged to revise the paper for submission to the British Journal of Aesthetics.

Eligibility:

  • Applicants should be postgraduate students or early career researchers (either having received their PhD not more than 7 years before the submission deadline, or not yet in permanent employment);
  • Applicants should be members of an underrepresented group, including but not limited to: BAME; disabled; trans/non-binary gender identity; low socioeconomic status; first in their family to attend university. Women are not an underrepresented group for the purposes of this award. 

Applying for the Award:

  • When submitting an anonymised paper on any topic for the Annual Conference (according to the instructions for submission here — deadline 3 March 2025); applicants need to include how they meet the eligibility requirements in the covering email. This can also be sent in a separate email if the paper has already been submitted.
  • Please note that the Equity and Diversity Committee may request further information.

Decision procedure:

  • All submissions for the New Horizons Award will be considered by the Equity and Diversity Committee. They will select the winners of the New Horizons Award. If, in the opinion of the panel, only one essay (or no essay) merits a New Horizon Award, only one winner (or no winner) may be selected. The decision of the judges is final.

Data protection:

  • With respect to personal data, the BSA follows the requirements of the GDPR/Data Protection Act 2018:
  • The purpose of the collection of data is to ascertain eligibility for the Award, which the BSA Trustees consider a proportionate means of achieving the Society’s aim of encouraging and enabling underrepresented groups to participate in philosophical aesthetics;
  • We request the minimum amount of data relevant to our purpose;
  • We make every effort to ensure accuracy;
  • We limit the storage of the data, deleting all personal information once the list of eligible submitters has been determined (though we retain anonymized statistics);
  • We use only data that has been provided with explicit consent;
  • Data concerning protected characteristics is deployed solely for assessing eligibility for the Award, with appropriate safeguards and without sharing the data outside the Trustees Committee;
  • We deploy appropriate security measures to protect the data, including encryption and anonymization.

If you have any questions about the requirements or procedures, please contact the BSA Managers, Caroline Auty and Alice Dickinson, at admin@british-aesthetics.org.