CCA

Art and Aesthetics

Co-convened by Elisabeth Camp (Philosophy) and Dominik Zechner (German and Comparative Literature), the working group Art and Aesthetics, sponsored by the Rutgers Center for Cultural Analysis, engages in an interdisciplinary discourse among philosophers, literary scholars, cultural historians, and others on questions concerning aesthetics.

During the 2025–2026 Academic Year, the CCA Art and Aesthetics working group will be exploring forms of attention, distraction, and aesthetic agency.

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Recent and Future Meetings:

December 18, 2026
Susan Sontag, “Fascinating Fascism”

October 9, 2026
Immanuel Kant, Critique of the Power of Judgment (“Analytic of the Sublime,” §§ 23–29)

March 6, 2026
Claire Bishop, Disordered Attention (Introduction; Chapter 2)
Siegfried Kracauer, “Cult of Distraction”

February 6, 2026
Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Phenomenology of Perception (Chapter 3) & “Cézanne’s Doubt”

December 5, 2025
Whitney Davis, “Looking for Nothing: ‘Evenly Suspended Attention’ in Art-Historical Practice and Theory”

November 7, 2025
Lucy Alford, Forms of Poetic Attention (Introduction; Chapters 1 & 6)

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Meetings are usually held on Zoom. If you have questions about the CCA working group, please reach out to dominik.zechner@rutgers.edu