Southern Aesthetics Workshop Held at UGA

The Southern Aesthetics Workshop was held at the Demosthenian Hall and the Athenaeum on September 19-20. This year the program was co-chaired by Michael Dickson from the University of South Carolina and UGA’s own Aaron Meskin, Head of the Philosophy Department. 

This annual pre-read workshop is an opportunity for philosophers working in aesthetics to receive more in-depth feedback on ongoing projects than they might at an ordinary conference presentation. The papers this year spanned a broad range of topics including the aesthetic value of reality, appropriate responses to internet humor, befriending videogame characters, and our perception of the ontological status of fictional characters. 

"It was a real pleasure to host the Southern Aesthetics Workshop in Athens for the first time,” offers Meskin. “I was particularly proud of the UGA graduate students who spoke at the event—Nathan Pagel, Rissa Willis, Danielle Kotrla, and Mingxi Xu. They brilliantly represented UGA and the UGA Aesthetics Lab.”

The artist keynote on September 19 featured Athens local David Barbe who discussed the value that limitations, such as the use of older recording technologies, can offer musicians in the studio. Kathleen Higgins, from The University of Texas at Austin, was featured as the invited keynote speaker on September 20 where she gave a talk on "Humor and Grief."