26 – 27 May, 2023
Darwin College, University of Kent
We are pleased to announce the 8th BSA Postgraduate Conference, which will take place as a hybrid event (online and in-person) later this month.
The theme of this year’s conference is Aesthetics and the Body. Topics may include (but are not limited to): bodily beauty, sexual attractiveness, body positivity and body oppression, eroticism and the arts, the role of the body in performance, the importance of felt bodily experience in aesthetic appreciation, somaesthetics, disability aesthetics, the ethnic and cultural specificity of bodies in relation to aesthetic traditions and ideals, the role of bodily style in moral comportment, etc.
Keynote Speakers
Prof. Sherri Irvin, Presidential Research Professor of Philosophy and Women’s and Gender Studies, University of Oklahoma
Prof. Irvin is the associate Dean of the Graduate College at the University of Oklahoma, as well as the Presidential Research Professor of Philosophy and Women’s and Gender Studies at the University of Oklahoma. She specializes in aesthetics and the philosophy of art and has written on matters related to contemporary art and on aesthetic experience in everyday life. Her edited collection ‘Body Aesthetics’ (Oxford University Press, 2016) is a multiauthored collection that treats the aesthetics of the body in relation to social justice, art, evolutionary theory, race, gender, disability, sexuality and sport. She also serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, Philosophy Compass, and the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
Prof. Sophie Grace Chappell, Professor of Philosophy, Open University
Prof. Chappell has been Professor of Philosophy at The Open University since 2006. Her main interests in philosophy are ethics, the philosophy of literature, and the philosophy of sex and gender. She has recently published ‘Epiphanies: An Ethics of Experience’ (Oxford University Press, 2022) and is currently working on a new book: ‘Trans Figured: How to survive as a transgender person in a cisgender world’. Sophie Grace Chappell was Director of the Scots Philosophical Club 2003-2006, a Governor of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy 2012-2018, and Treasurer of the Mind Association 2000- 2021. Since 2021 she has been Executive Editor of The Philosophical Quarterly.
Anne O Nomis, independent scholar
Anne O Nomis is an Historian, Sexuality Educator, Speaker and Authoress. She has a Masters degree from University College London and is winner of the Auckland University prize for Legal History writing. Her first book, titled ‘The History & Arts of the Dominatrix’ (2013) traces the history of dominant women through the ages, from the ancient world, to the female flagellants and whip-wielding governesses of the 17th-19th Century, to the bizarre ladies of the 20th Century underground. Her second book, ‘Flight of the Goddess’ is due for completion shortly, after three years of research on the island of Cyprus, Berlin’s Museum Island collections and the British Museum in London.
The conference will be open and free to all. In order to make the conference as accessible as possible, it will be a hybrid event with livestreaming, and the recordings will be made available to the wider public after the fact. One of the main aims of this conference is not only to provide PGs with networking opportunities but also to encourage and help their presentation skills. In an increasingly digital world not only is networking painfully difficult (especially for disabled PGs who are undertaking their research in isolation due to their chronic health conditions) but the opportunities to practice public speaking are increasingly lacking. This is why we will host an online/hybrid event before the conference where PGs will get support on how to set up their lighting, prepare compelling papers and speak with members of the organising committee before the main event.
This year’s conference is organised by:
A J Bravo
C A York
Dr Hans Maes