Event Overview

This two-day conference, funded by the British Society of Aesthetics, seeks to confront one of the most pressing issues of our time: gender-based violence. How might aesthetic theory—grounded in the pursuit of meaning, form, and the unspeakable—provide an entry point for understanding the pervasive violence endured by women and marginalised communities? Drawing inspiration from Jacqueline Rose’s On Violence and On Violence Against Women, this event examines the aesthetic dimensions of violence. It does so not merely to diagnose or explain, but to ask what is at stake when violence becomes the subject of representation, when it is given shape and texture in ways that are both revealing and complicit. Through a series of dialogues—between scholars, practitioners, and creative voices—the conference will explore how art, philosophy, and theory might challenge, disrupt, or reimagine entrenched patterns of harm.

Keynote Speakers

The Housewife, the Witch, and the Wardrobe - Prof. Gordon CF Bearn & Alison Freeman (Leigh University)

The Spectacle of Disappearance - Prof. Brad Evans (University of Bath)

Philosophy, Voice, and the Aftermath of Violence - Prof. Paul Standish (UCL Institute of Education)

What Can Fictional Representations of Gender-Based Violence Achieve? - Prof. Eileen John (University of Warwick)

Prof. Catherine Wheatley (Kings College London) - Title TBC

Under a Male Artist’s Gaze: Symbolic Gender Violence in the Case of Celia Paul - Prof. Anna Pagès Santacana, Ramon Llull University

They Told Me I Was a Woman: The World Without Eyes - Chantal Meza, artist

Prof. Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak - TBC

Panels

The conference will feature four panels, each engaging with different dimensions of aesthetic practice and gender-based violence. Presentations will span philosophical inquiry, creative practice, and interventions from those working directly with affected communities.

Aesthetics and the Philosophy of Gender-Based Violence