Feminist Caucus Committee (FCC) - American Society For Aesthetics

Feminist Caucus Committee (FCC)

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The American Society for Aesthetics Feminist Caucus Committee, which began in 1990 as the Feminist Caucus, actively strategizes how to achieve its goals. These include expanding the range of topics under discussion at annual and divisional meetings, as well as within the Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism; increasing the number of women and/or feminists on conference programs, who serve as trustees and officers of the ASA, and as authors within the journal and other publications in aesthetics; and extending the range of teaching options in the classroom beyond traditional, mainstream aesthetics. Membership in the committee is open to all ASA members, whose involvement during annual ASA meetings is especially welcomed. In conjunction with the program committee for annual meetings, the Feminist Caucus Committee usually sponsors a special session plus a business lunch meeting, generously subsidized by the ASA. The ASA supports FCC's goals regarding the Gendered Conference Campaign ( GCC) that includes the participation of women and members of other historically under-represented and excluded groups.

Please consider sharing your research and teaching syllabi through the FCC Newsletter. Research will automatically be added to the Feminist Aesthetics category of PhilPapers online. Complete this FCC form or email published research citations and/or feminist syllabi to fccasaforum@gmail.com.

The American Society for Aesthetics is pleased to announce the Feminist Aesthetics Research Prize to encourage new, unpublished work on feminist aesthetics. The prize will be $1000, with $1400 for travel to the ASA Annual Meeting to present the unpublished work at a special session at the meeting. Find additional information here

In 2020, the FCC celebrated its 30th anniversary with an online zoom session (due to the cancellation of the in-person conference because of the Covid-19 pandemic) entitled "No Place Like Her." Guest panelists included Guerilla Girl Kathe Kollwitz and Maura Reilly (author of Curatorial Activism, Towards an Ethics of Curating [2018 with Foreword by Lucy Lippard]) plus ASA members - Sue Spaid and Rossen Vetzislavov. Winners of the 30th Anniversary of the Feminist Caucus Committee Essay Prize were Sherri Irvin, "Resisting Body Oppression: An Aesthetic Approach," Feminist Philosophical Quarterly, 3:4 (2017), with Honorable mention to Alia Al-Saji, "Glued to the Image: A Critical Phenomenology of Racialization through Works of Art," JAAC 77:4 (2019). The winning paper was the subject of a panel discussion at the 78th Annual Meeting in November 2020, with comments by A.W. Eaton and Sam Liao. In 2015, the FCC celebrated its 25th anniversary with a full day of workshops, and a celebratory reception.

ASA-sponsored speakers at diversity institutes:

-University of California San Diego Summer Program for Women in Philosophy (SPWP); ASA faculty representatives for this program have included Anne W. Eaton (2015), Sondra Bacharach (2016), Mary Beth Willard (2017), Sarah Worth (2018), Julianne Chung (2019), Alexandra King (2020), and Elizabeth Scarbrough (2021).
- Rutgers University Summer Institute for Diversity. ASA faculty representatives for this program have included Jane Forsey (2015), Anna Christina Ribeiro (2016), Mary Beth Willard (2017), Sarah Worth (2018), James Haile (2019), Christy Mag Uidhir (2020), and Julianne Chung (2021), and Meredith Trexler Drees (2022, 2023).
- Summer Immersion Program in Philosophy at Brown: ASA faculty representatives for this program have included Anne W. Eaton (2016), Shen-yi Liao (2017), James Haile (2018, 2019), and Robbie Kubala (2023).

FCC Officers

Co-chairs (as of Fall 2025)

DR. CHERYL FRAZIER (she/her) is an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the College of Southern Maryland in La Plata, Maryland. Her research specialization is on the intersections of Fat Studies and feminist aesthetics. She is especially interested in exploring how we can engage with everyday aesthetic experiences and popular media more responsibly, both as creators of that art/experience and as consumers. In particular, her recent work has focused on developing an account of responsible artistic agency that can help address ongoing invisibility and misrepresentation of fat communities in popular media, and creating a framework for centering the positive value (aesthetic and otherwise) of fat people in philosophical discussions of fatness. In her free time, Cheryl enjoys spending time with her cats, investing entirely too much time into “cozy games” like Echoes of Plum Grove, and exploring roadside oddities from Atlas Obscura.

DR. EMMIE MALONE is currently Assistant Professor of Philosophy at San Jose State University in San Jose, CA. previously of Lone Star College in Houston, TX. She is Immediate Past President of the ASA's Rocky Mountain Division, and the Philpapers.org area editor for Popular Music. Her work in philosophy of art focuses on ontology, ethics, genre, popular music and fashion. She also has teaching and research interests in the history of philosophy, trans philosophy, and the ethics of AI. All of this work is done through a queer feminist lens. Before philosophy, Emmie was a recording and touring drummer in a number of bands, was an award-winning hip-hop producer (working with Lizzo and K-Rino among others), and owned a banh mi food truck. In her free time, she enjoys dancing and baking.

Recent Co-chairs

Many thanks to the ASA members who have served as FCC officers and co-chairs in recent years. Sue Spaid served as co-chair with Gemma Argüello from 2019-23. She continued as co-chair with Elizabeth Scarbrough (2021) and Wiebke Deimling (2022) through Fall 2025, when Cheryl Frazier and Emmie Malone became the new FCC co-chairs. (Gemma stepped down to co-chair the 2023 ASA Annual Meeting program committee.)