About the group
What is regarded as aesthetically relevant within a certain cultural, historical, and social context? To answer this question, we must take categories such as gender, race, ability, and class into consideration.
Whereas aesthetic theory used to take universal value as its point of departure, today both the art field and theory are diverse. The research group “Aesthetics and politics” wants to explore how diversity and the right to take part on equal terms can be thought in tandem with aesthetic valuation.
Just as politics has aesthetic dimensions, aesthetics has political dimensions. And whereas politics considers aesthetic and social realities, aesthetics considers historical and political conceptions of art and literature. We want to explore these connections.
Research interests
Art and literature are important not only because of their beauty, excellence, or intrinsic value, but also because they express social standing and power.
All kinds of art – literature, visual art, music, and film – articulate, challenge and transcend meanings and values connected with the universal.
The research group “Aesthetics and politics” discusses contemporary art and contemporary literature as well as artistic expressions from earlier periods. We raise questions such as:
- How is identity articulated and negotiated in art and literature?
- What is the impact of gender, race, ability, and class when it comes to recognition and valorization of art?
- How can the arts open to new questions and new knowledge related to diversity?
- How do diversity discourses and cultural discourses interact?
The research group brings together scholars from different fields and departments: literary historians, art historians, gender scholars and media scholars.
It has its origin in gender studies and gender research, specifically the course Gender and aesthetics (in Norwegian) and the RCN funded research project, Conflicts and negotiations (2010-2013), but entails a much wider scope of diversity.
Activities
The group will arrange monthly or bi-monthly afternoon research seminars and/or reading groups.
Once or twice per semester we also will go to expositions, concerts, or talks together, followed by discussions.
Fellowships
PhD fellows and post docs are warmly welcome to the group.
Doctoral projects
The research group’s host department, ILOS, announces PhD fellowships once a year. We welcome promising doctoral projects related to the research foci of the group.
Marie Skłodowska-Curie Action postdoctoral fellowships
The research group is also interested in hosting Marie Skłodowska-Curie Action postdoc fellows from across the world, and has the capacity to work together with a limited number of qualified researchers on applications every year.
If you are interested, you must send us a concise project idea and an academic career plan (including your key qualifications, where you see yourself in ten years, and an explanation of how a stay at our department would help you develop your qualifications) by February 1st if you wish to be considered for working with us on an application the same year.