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Daisy Dixon   BA Joint Honours (UoR), MPhil (Cantab), PhD (Cantab), FHEA

Dr Daisy Dixon

(she/they)

BA Joint Honours (UoR), MPhil (Cantab), PhD (Cantab), FHEA

Teams and roles for Daisy Dixon

Overview

I am a Lecturer in Philosophy specialising in philosophy of art – particularly immoral and dangerous art that entrenches structural injustice. I have published in academic journals on topics including oppressive monuments, aesthetic protest and deceptive art, and I have presented my work on immoral artists on BBC radio and multiple podcasts. My teaching interests span aesthetics, philosophy of language, political philosophy and feminist philosophy. 

Publication

2024

2023

2022

2021

2020

2019

Articles

Book sections

Thesis

Research

Should we display art by immoral artists? How can a painting be harmful? Should we censor problematic art?

Our creative and cultural industries are integral to personal and group identity, which is why the art we make and the way we display it is so important to how we express ourselves and present marginalised narratives. I strongly believe that analytic philosophy can offer vital clarity and answers to problems currently being faced by cultural industries. Philosophical research at the intersection of aesthetics, ethics, and political philosophy is crucial to carefully answering sensitive questions about immoral art and artists and ethical curation, paving the way to more egalitarian curation and dynamic, critical museum spaces.

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It is known that our verbal speech has the power to oppress and liberate social groups. My research in philosophy of art explores how visual art also has this capacity to shape society: through what it says, and through what it does. My work spans philosophy of art, aesthetics, philosophy of language, and political philosophy, and explores the vital intersections of these disciplines to reveal the power and significance of art for humanity. My research explores how visual art behaves like, or as, speech, and the ethical and political dimensions of this. I argue that artworks have propositional meaning, can perform speech acts, are sensitive to curatorial context, and can tell lies. In recent work I explore how art can form oppressive speech, aesthetic mitigation of art-based hate speech, and the nature of aesthetic (in)justice.

Teaching

SE4434 Aesthetic Injustice

SE4358 Philosophy of Language

SE4110 Philosophy through Fiction & Film

MA Philosophical Analysis & Writing

Contact Details