“Arts” and “aesthetics” have been integrally linked since the eighteenth century, but this was not always the case. Aesthetics, originally denoting knowledge through sense perception, only later became concerned with taste and judgment, or value and beauty, and integral over time to what we now call “criticism.” Art, initially describing craft, practical skill or technique with matter, language and sound, later migrated to embrace formalism and individual as well as cultural expression.
The 2016-17 CCA Seminar “Arts and Aesthetics” will explore the divergences and convergences of these related but fundamentally different ideas, approaching them from the perspectives of philosophy, literary history, art history, the fine arts, the history of science, and political and cultural theory. Topics are likely to include form and formalism; the history of criticism and critique; theories of perception; and questions of representation ranging from photography, painting, sculpture, and music to architecture, performance, literature, and conceptual as well as outsider art. Throughout, the idea of the “liberal arts” and their status in 2016—what will be Rutgers University’s 250th year—will be an abiding concern.
Co-Directors
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Galperin, William
Department of English
Faculty Fellows
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Elisabeth Camp
Department of Philosophy -
Manu Chander
Department of English (Newark) -
Lynn Festa
Department of English -
Jeffrey Friedman
Department of Dance -
Suzy Kim
Department of Asian Languages and Cultures -
Jane Sharp
Department of Art History -
Abigail Zitin
Department of English
Postdoctoral Associates
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Jocelyn Rodal
Department of English, University of California-Los Angeles -
Daniel Villegas-Vélez
Department of Music, University of Pennsylvania -
Colin Williamson
Film and Screen Studies Program, Pace University
Graduate Fellows
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Giuditta Cirnigliaro
Department of Italian -
Amy Cooper
Department of English -
Bakary Diaby
Department of English -
Hudson McFann
Department of Geography -
Florencia San Martín
Department of Art History