2022/2023 Update: Our talks will continue in hybrid format this year, with some taking place both in person at the University of St Andrews and online. The registration details will be posted here, on our Facebook event, and via our mailing list.
SAF is generously funded by the British Society of Aesthetics and the Scots Philosophical Association.
From 2015 until 2020 SAF was hosted by the University of Edinburgh. From 2020 onwards, we are hosted by the University of St Andrews, with Professor Berys Gaut as Faculty Advisor.
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Clotilde (Clo) is currently Associate Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of St Andrews. Her PhD thesis was in aesthetics, on the topic of film and medium specificity, and was supervised by Berys Gaut. She has taught aesthetics, ethics, metaethics, and the history of philosophy at the University of St Andrews. Her current research interests include metaphilosophy, experimental aesthetics and social aesthetics.
Tom is currently Associate Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of St Andrews. He has a PhD in Philosophy from University of Nottingham. His thesis defended the view that various traditionally rejected, ignored, and undervalued types of responses (e.g. olfactory, gustatory, and somatosensory) are relevant to our aesthetic appreciation of art and non-art artefacts. In the past, he has taught at University of Nottingham and University of Edinburgh. His current research areas include the aesthetics of food and drink, epistemic injustice in art discourse, and moral learning from fiction.
Eric is a doctoral student in philosophy at the University of St Andrews. His research mainly involves the role that emotion, and in particular affect, plays in our response to narratives. Other interests include the aesthetic appreciation of virtual reality and emotion in religious experience. His thesis is being supervised by Berys Gaut.
Sam is a PhD student at the University of St Andrews. His research focuses on the nature depiction and representation in photographic and cinematic art. He is currently working on a project examining the concept of realism in film. Other research interests include the nature of perceptual experiences relating to perceptual media, such as sounds and images, and the role of imagination in pictorial representation.
Colin Troesken completed an MPhil in philosophy at the University of St Andrews, while serving as an organiser of the SAF (2021-2022). Colin’s dissertation focused on the relationship between cognitive and aesthetic value in virtual and digital media. Other research interests include social/political epistemology, the philosophy of imagination, and most recently the aesthetic value of interpersonal relationships.
Ash graduated with a PhD in Philosophy from the University of St Andrews and was an organiser for SAF from 2017 until 2020.
Simon has a PhD in Philosophy from the University of St Andrews. He is also a specialist in online education and learning technology. He has designed some award-winning online Philosphy courses and is now the founder and director of TELdesign.
Panos founded SAF with Nicole Hall in 2015 while studying for his PhD in Philosophy at the University of St Andrews. His work sits at the intersection of ethics and aesthetics. Currently, Panos is a lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Cardiff.
Nicole co-founded SAF while pursuing her PhD in Philosophy at the University of Edinburgh. Currently, she is a postdoctoral researcher working with Emily Brady at Texas A&M University on a project titled 'Aesthetics, Environmental Justice, and Ecological Justice'.