DEPARTMENT HEAD, PROFESSOR - Aesthetics and Philosophy of Art, Philosophical Psychology, Philosophy of Food I moved to the University of Georgia to take on the role of Head of Philosophy in July 2019. Before that, I was Professor of Philosophical Aesthetics at the University of Leeds in Leeds, England. From 1999-2005 I taught at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas. The primary focus of my research is in the fields of aesthetics and the philosophy of art. I have published extensively on a wide variety of topics in those areas, including aesthetic testimony, authorship, the definition of art, emotional responses to fiction, the epistemology of photography, style, and the philosophical questions raised by comics, dance, film, short stories, theater, and video games. Sometimes I use experimental methods. Outside of aesthetics, I have co-authored works on the metaphysics of information and the cognitive architecture of the imagination. In recent years I've been working on the philosophy of food. I am President of the Georgia Philosophical Society and serve on UGA's University Council. I am also a Faculty Fellow at the University's Institute for Artificial Intelligence. Education Education: Rutgers University, PhD, Philosophy, 2000 Brown University, AB, Philosophy, 1989 Research Research Areas: Aesthetics Selected Publications Selected Publications: Publications: Selected journal articles “Dual Character Art Concepts,” (with Shen-yi Liao and Joshua Knobe), Pacific Philosophical Quarterly, 2020. doi.org/10.1111/papq.12301 “Delicious but Immoral? Ethical Information Influences Consumer Expectations and Experience of Food,” (with Beth Armstrong and Pam Blundell-Birtill), Frontiers in Psychology 10, 2019. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00843 ‘Aesthetics and Cognitive Science,’ (with Jon Robson, Anna Ichino, Kris Goffin and Annelies Monseré), WIREs Cognitive Science 9(1), 2018: doi: 10.1002/wcs.1445 ‘Aesthetic Adjectives: Experimental Semantics and Context-Sensitivity,’ (with Shen-yi Liao), Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 94(2), 2017: 371-398. ‘Aesthetic Adjectives Lack Uniform Behavior,’ (with Shen-yi Liao and Louise McNally), Inquiry 59(6), 2016: pp. 618-631. 'Taste and Acquaintance,' (with Jon Robson), The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 2015, 73(2): 127-139. 'Comics, Prints, and Multiplicity' (with Roy Cook), The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 2015, 73(1): 57-67. 'Mere Exposure to Bad Art,' (with Mark Phelan, Margaret Moore and Matthew Kieran), British Journal of Aesthetics 2013, 53(2): 1-25. 'Defining Comics?' Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 65, 2007: pp. 369-379. [A shortened version appears in Aesthetics: A Reader in Philosophy of the Arts, ed. David Goldblatt and Lee Brown, third edition. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, 2011.] 'An Objective Counterfactual Theory of Information,' (with Jonathan Cohen), Australasian Journal of Philosophy, 84 (3), 2006: pp. 333-352. 'Aesthetic Testimony: What Can We Learn From Others About Beauty and Art?' Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 69 (1), 2004: pp. 65-91. 'On the Epistemic Value of Photographs,' (with Jonathan Cohen), The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 62 (2), 2004: pp. 197-210. Edited Volumes Opposite: Poems, Philosophy and Coffee (co-edited with an introduction by Helen Mort and Aaron Meskin). Valley Press, 2019. Once Upon a Time (by Peter Kivy, edited with an introduction by Aaron Meskin). Rowman and Littlefield, 2019. The Routledge Companion to Comics (co-edited with an introduction by Frank Bramlett, Roy T Cook and Aaron Meskin). Routledge, 2016. Aesthetics and The Sciences of Mind (co-edited with an introduction by Gregory Currie, Matthew Kieran, Aaron Meskin and Jon Robson). Oxford University Press, 2014. Philosophical Aesthetics and the Sciences of Art (co-edited with an introduction by Gregory Currie, Matthew Kieran, Aaron Meskin and Margaret Moore). Cambridge University Press, 2014. The Art of Comics: A Philosophical Approach (co-edited with Roy T Cook). Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2012. Courses Taught Courses Regularly Taught: PHIL 4230/6230 PHIL 2010H PHIL 4700/6700 Awards, Honors and Recognitions Of note: President, Georgia Philosophical Society Organizing Committee, Southern Division of the American Society for Aesthetics Editorial Board, British Journal of Aesthetics Editorial Board, Debates in Aesthetics Area Editor (Aesthetics), Ergo
