Cave Hill Philosophy Symposium (CHiPS) 2013
Conversations IX: Grounding Aesthetics

November 11 - 13, 2013
Hosted by the Department of History and Philosophy, The University of the West Indies,
Cave Hill Campus, Barbados

The broad theme for the ninth Cave Hill Philosophy Symposium (CHiPS) will be issues related to aesthetics. Most of the philosophical reflection under the heading ‘aesthetics’, especially within mainstream Western philosophy, presents itself as an esoteric engagement with a very limited number of masterpieces in a very limited variety of genres/forms. While not wishing to exclude the usual suspects, we believe that what is of concern to aesthetics is of fundamental concern to all of us, shapes our understandings of self and others in countless ways, and deserves integration into much of our present-day social and political thinking. To that end, we hope to provoke discussion of the, perhaps, over-narrow boundaries of aesthetics’ concern as it is generally conceived; what might be learnt from examination of the ways different cultures view the role of aesthetic categories and activities; how distinctively aesthetic categories shape our thinking in other areas; and other such concerns. In keeping with the spirit of our conversations, we hope to bring together thinkers operating in and across different cultural and philosophical traditions as well as other disciplines that share a boundary with philosophy. In addition to regular paper presentations, we would also welcome suggestions for workshops, demonstrations and other relevant activities.

Our keynote speaker will be Dr. Nkiru Nzegwu, Professor of Africana Studies and Philosophy, Interpretation and Culture at Binghamton University, USA. An accomplished painter, her academic areas of expertise include African aesthetics, African philosophy, African feminist issues and multicultural studies in art. She is the founder of the Africa Knowledge Project, which publishes five peer-reviewed journals and hosts three databases. Dr. Nzegwu is the editor of JENdA: A Journal of Culture and African Women Studies and co-editor of West African Review.

In an effort to ensure well-prepared, quality presentations, abstracts (300-500 words) are due by August 26, 2013. Participants whose abstracts are accepted by the vetting committee will then be required to submit their completed papers via email as an attachment in Open or LibreOffice, Word, or Wordperfect by the firm deadline of October 14, 2013. (These papers will then be posted on-line for other participants to consult prior to the conference with the intention that time at the Symposium can be devoted much more to discussion than to exposition of the written papers.) We hope that revised papers will continue to be available on-line: those from the earlier symposia can be accessed from http://cavehill.uwi.edu/fhe/histphil/chips.aspx.


Contact persons:

Prof. Frederick Ochieng’-Odhiambo: frederick.ochieng-odhiambo@cavehill.uwi.edu

Prof. Ed Brandon: edbrandon@gmail.com

Ms. Roxanne Burton: roxanneeburton@gmail.com