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2Titian's "Rape of Europa": The Intersection of Ethics and AestheticsDissertation, The University of Chicago. 2003.Titian's Rape of Europa is a work often touted as the greatest Italian Renaissance painting in an American collection. It is also considered one of Titian's finest works and it's not hard to see why. The painting is rightfully praised for its subtle modulations of luminous colors and its wide array of palpably sensual textures. If this were all there were to the painting, then I would say that its univocal acclaim and pride of place in the canon would be entirely justified. But there is a dark s…Read more
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1986Feminist PornographyIn Mari Mikkola (ed.), Beyond Speech: Pornography and Analytic Feminist Philosophy, Oxford University Press. pp. 243-257. 2017.
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534AsexualityIn Brian D. Earp, Clare Chambers & Lori Watson (eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of Sex and Sexuality, Routledge Handbooks in Philosophy. pp. 131-146. 2022.In this essay, we aim to provide an overview of the political and philosophical issues pertaining to asexuality. The first section, “What Is Asexuality?,” offers an account of asexuality. The second section, “Asexuality as a Unique Sexual Orientation,” argues that asexuality should be understood as a unique sexual orientation. The third section, “Asexuality and Oppression,” discusses the various forms of oppression facing asexual persons today. The fourth section, “The Goods of Asexuality,” articu…Read more
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57Exploring Beauty and Truth in Worlds of Color: An Introduction to the JAAC Special Issue on Race and AestheticsJournal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 77 (4): 363-366. 2019.
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190‘A Lady on the Street but a Freak in the Bed’: On the Distinction Between Erotic Art and PornographyBritish Journal of Aesthetics 58 (4): 469-488. 2018.How, if at all, are we to distinguish between the works that we call ‘art’ and those that we call ‘pornography’? This question gets a grip because from classical Greek vases and the frescoes of Pompeii to Renaissance mythological painting and sculpture to Modernist prints, the European artistic tradition is chock-full of art that looks a lot like pornography. In this paper I propose a way of thinking about the distinction that is grounded in art historical considerations regarding the function o…Read more
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1707Artifacts and Their FunctionsIn Sarah Anne Carter & Ivan Gaskell (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of History and Material Culture, Oxford University Press. 2020.How do artifacts get their functions? It is typically thought that an artifact’s function depends on its maker’s intentions. This chapter argues that this common understanding is fatally flawed. Nor can artifact function be understood in terms of current uses or capacities. Instead, it proposes that we understand artifact function on the etiological model that Ruth Millikan and others have proposed for the biological realm. This model offers a robustly normative conception of function, but it do…Read more
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6Talk to Her (edited book)Routledge. 2008.Pedro Almodóvar is one of the most renowned film directors of recent years. Talk to Her is one of the most discussed and controversial of all his films. Dealing principally with the issue of rape, it also offers profound insights into the nature of love and friendship whilst raising important philosophical and moral questions in unsettling and often paradoxical ways. This is the first book to explore and address the philosophical aspects of Almodóvar’s film. Opening with a helpful introduction b…Read more
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492Where Ethics and Aesthetics Meet: Titian's Rape of EuropaHypatia 18 (4). 2003.Titian's Rape of Europa is highly praised for its luminous colors and sensual textures. But the painting has an overlooked dark side, namely that it eroticizes rape. I argue that this is an ethical defect that diminishes the painting aesthetically. This argument-that an artwork can be worse off qua work of art precisely because it is somehow ethically problematic-demonstrates that feminist concerns about art can play a legitimate role in art criticism and aesthetic appreciation
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72Do Subaltern Artifacts Belong in Art Museums?In James O. Young & Conrad G. Brunk (eds.), The Ethics of Cultural Appropriation, Wiley-blackwell. 2009.This chapter contains sections titled: 1 2 3 4 5 6.
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96Reply to Carroll: The Artistic Value of a Particular Kind of Moral FlawJournal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 71 (4): 376-380. 2013.
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407Feminist Philosophy of ArtPhilosophy Compass 3 (5): 873-893. 2008.This article outlines the issues addressed by feminist philosophy of art, critically surveys major developments in the field, and concludes by considering directions in which the field is moving.
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43Strange Tools vs. Plain Tools?: Comments on Alva NoëPhilosophy and Phenomenological Research 94 (1): 222-229. 2017.
Chicago, Illinois, United States of America
Areas of Specialization
Aesthetics |
Philosophy of Gender, Race, and Sexuality |