Aaron Meskin to Head Department of Philosophy

The Department of Philosophy is pleased to announce that Dr. Aaron Meskin will join the faculty as department head in July 2019. Meskin, who is currently Professor of Philosophical Aesthetics at University of Leeds in the United Kingdom, has taught at Leeds since 2005. He previously worked at Texas Tech University and earned his PhD from Rutgers University.

His areas of interest include Aesthetics and Philosophy of Art, Philosophical Psychology, Philosophy of Film, Philosophy of Food, and Philosophy of Literature with particular attention paid to underexplored art forms and scientifically informed approaches to the study of the arts. He is a co-editor of five books including The Art of Comics: A Philosophical Approach (Wiley) and Aesthetics and the Sciences of Mind (OUP), has written more than twenty book chapters, and has published articles in a wide range of journals including The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, British Journal of Aesthetics, Australasian Journal of Philosophy, Inquiry, Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, and WIREs Cognitive Science.

“Philosophers of art have tended to focus on fine or 'high' art—I've worked on art forms such as comics, videogames, improvisational dance, rap, and the short story,” explains Meskin. He has co-authored with a wide range of philosophers in Europe, the US, and Japan and has shown a commitment to multi-disciplinary collaboration by working with linguists, psychologists, and dancers. While at Leeds he worked with others to put on a number of major international events, including conferences on dance improvisation, race and aesthetics, the aesthetics and psychology of fashion, and post-punk.

In addition to teaching and research duties, Meskin is a former treasurer and officer of the British Society of Aesthetics and a former trustee of the American Society for Aesthetics. He serves as an area editor for Ergo,an editorial consultant for the British Journal of Aesthetics, and is on the editorial boards of Philosophy Compass and Debates in Aesthetics.

His current research includes work with scholars at The National Autonomous University of Mexico focusing on the aesthetics and philosophy of food. He also has an ongoing collaboration, with two psychologists at the University of Leeds and a major UK tea and coffee company, exploring the effect of ethical information on the experience of eating and drinking.

Meskin looks forward to joining the UGA community and is eager to explore Athens’ rich creative culture. "I was really impressed by students and faculty during my visit to the University of Georgia,” he says. “The people I met were intellectually engaged, excited about the University and the town of Athens, generous with their time, and a pleasure to talk to. I couldn't be more excited about moving to UGA with my family next summer."