White Rose Aesthetics Forum (WRAF) Annual Conference

The White Rose Aesthetics Forum (WRAF) is pleased to invite you to its one-day conference on philosophical aesthetics, which will take place on Tuesday 20th September 2016 at the University of Sheffield. This conference was made possible by the generous funding of the British Society of Aesthetics.

The conference will feature three talks from early-career academics, each followed by a brief response from faculty members at White Rose universities. We are also pleased to host two keynote speakers – Prof. Sherri Irvin (Oklahoma) and Dr Hans Maes (Kent). Finally, we are grateful to 川派古琴学会 (The Chuan-pai Guqin Society) for a very special event – a live performance on the guqin.

To register for the conference, please complete this short registration form:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSci6lKI-8nY2HiRtJqa1FcFvtZeHWQF3bgSJ4vwMphuvcwWNw/viewform

The deadline for registrations is Monday 12th September.


The programme is as follows:


9.30 - 10.00: Registration

10.00 - 11.20: Hans Maes (Kent) - ‘Portraits of Philosophers and the Philosophy of Portraits’

11.30 - 12.40: Ashley Watkins (St Andrews) - ‘Care, Character, and the Make-Believe Structure of Dramatic Acting’

12.40 - 13.40: Lunch

13.10 - 13.35: Live performance of guqin music

13.40 - 14.50: Ouyang, Xiao 欧阳霄 (Cork) - ‘Resonance to the Dao - a Supra-musicology of Guqin’

15.00 - 16.10: Enrico Terrone (Turin) - ‘Are You Imagining Me? Four Theses on Imagination and the Film Experience’

16.20 - 17.40: Sherri Irvin (Oklahoma) - ‘Transforming Negative Aesthetic Responses to the Body’



Following the conference, there will be a dinner in Sheffield. Please take care to include any dietary requirements while filling out the registration form. Please note that tea, coffee and refreshments will be available free of charge, but there will not be a free conference lunch. Food and drink will be available to purchase nearby during the lunch break.

Disabled parking is available, and the venue (including toilet facilities) is wheelchair-accessible. A portable induction loop system will be used. Other accessibility requirements can be provided upon request, including but not limited to: a signer, a sighted guide, formatted materials (large print, Braille, etc.), food and water for assistance animals, and a quiet space.

Travel reimbursement of up to £40 is available to ten postgraduate students on a first-come, first-served basis. These attendance bursaries are available to postgraduate students affiliated to any UK university.

Some reimbursement is also available for other accessibility costs, e.g., childcare provision. Please indicate on the registration form if you would like to apply for this.

All questions and correspondence can be addressed to the conference organisers at [email protected]