Peg Brand Weiser

University of Oregon, Philosophy, Faculty Member

Indiana University Indianapolis, Philosophy, Emerita

University of Oregon, Robert D. Clark Honors College, Adjunct

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Since returning to the University of Oregon Fall 2022, I have taught new classes in the Philosophy of Sport and Sports Ethics in both the Department of Philosophy and Clark Honors College. As Laureate Professor/Research Professor of Philosophy at the University of Arizona from 2017-2022, I taught classes in Aesthetics, Philosophy of Sport, Feminist Philosophy, and Philosophy in Literature that included my 2023 published Oxford University Press edited volume, Camus's The Plague: Philosophical Perspectives. Recent scholarly publications include "Pittura: A Gendered Template for Painting," "Feminist Criticism: On Disturbatory Art and Beauty," and "Changing Perceptions of Beautiful Bodies: The Athletic Agency Model," winner of the American Society for Aesthetics Somaesthetics Prize (2023). A new essay on university and college governing boards, "Holding Institutions Responsible for Student-Athlete Well-Being," is forthcoming in College Sports and Ethics (Lexington/Rowman & Littlefield). My newest, co-authored publication with Ritwik Agrawal is our online annotated bibliography of over 150 entries, "Feminist Aesthetics and Feminist Philosophy of Art," Oxford Bibliographies in Philosophy. I have recently been nominated for vice president/president of the American Society for Aesthetics, a society in which I have worked for 40 years (voting for members will take place in Dec., 2024).

For scholars interested in studying the sports legacy of a noted philosopher of action and past president of the NCAA, the late Myles Brand (1942-2009), see my co-edited special issue, "The Myles Brand Era at the NCAA: A Tribute and Scholarly Review" Journal of Intercollegiate Sport 14:3 (December, 2021) and a website with over 300 of his speeches, podcasts, and videos at www.mylesbrand.com.

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Feminist Aesthetics and Feminist Philosophy of Art

Oxford Bibliographies, 2024

Feminist aesthetics is the evolving study of both the explicit and the implicit role of gender an... more Feminist aesthetics is the evolving study of both the explicit and the implicit role of gender and sexuality in the activities of creativity, the aesthetic experience of art and nature, and resulting value judgments. The perception, interpretation, and evaluation of occasions of aesthetic appreciation are infused with cognitive preconceptions, implicit biases, emotions, skills, and knowledge based on past lived experiences. In practice, feminist aestheticians have paid close attention to the role of race, class, age, ability, and other social factors in the creation and evaluation of artworks. Whereas modern western European aesthetics deemed an artwork’s contextual factors peripheral to the essence of a viewer’s purely aesthetic, noncontextual, disinterested, or “distanced” experience, 20th-century feminists pioneered a radical break with norms of “good” art by invoking the familiar adage, “The personal is the political.” Attending to the situatedness of who creates and how one judges “art”—a contested concept like “craft,” “quality,” and “genius”—leads to recognition and care about the persons involved: the intersectionality of their personal, racial, sexual, and other identities; their perceived and real positions within the power strata of patriarchy; and the indisputable legitimacy of their voices. For example, artists who engaged in 1970s performance body art expressing female agency held that disinterested aesthetic experience was neither truly possible nor desirable. They rejected the model of the neutral, objective man of taste who claimed to value dispassionately only the formal properties of an artwork while ignoring content that expressed relationships of friendship, love, and, possibly, oppression. The social activity of art inspired by Linda Nochlin’s 1971 question, “Why have there been no great women artists?” (see Nochlin 2021, cited under Foundational Texts) led to the feminist critique: an activist agenda based on uncovering gender biases in notions of truth and rationality as well as excellence in art. Feminist aesthetics often anticipated and prefigured key ideas under discussion today, such as the ethical and political nature of art, embodiment in representation, gender identity, the role of emotions, and testimonial and hermeneutical injustice. “Feminisms” reflects a multiplicity of approaches—Indigenous, Black, Asian, African—that have led to the rediscovery and recognition of neglected artists, writers, musicians, filmmakers, and performers. Their insights on beauty, emotions, and “the male gaze” upend traditionally narrow aesthetic categories of taste, beauty, and excellence, and expand the study of art and its attending rewards into multidisciplinary scholarship that involves artmaking, art theory, history, and criticism, as well as corresponding practices within the disciplines of literature, music, theater, dance, film, and other performative arts. Transnational feminisms highlight common international insights into gendered arts while yet acknowledging differences in power, wealth, and opportunities, while avant-garde feminists challenge traditional concepts, definitions, and arguments. In so doing, they continue to rewrite the canon in aesthetics.

Symposium: Beauty Matters

The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, Dec 1, 1999

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The Aesthetics of Childbirth

Pittura: A Gendered Template for Painting

The Routledge Companion to the Philosophies of Painting and Sculpture, 2023

The allegorizing of painting as a female artist plays an important role in legitimizing and valor... more The allegorizing of painting as a female artist plays an important role in legitimizing and valorizing actual self-portraits by women in ancient Greece and Rome, the Renaissance, and thereafter, leading to issues of identity and agency. I argue that in a patriarchal artworld that minimized women's accomplishments, (1) the valorizing of Pittura served to encourage women to paint and to portray themselves in art; (2) painting oneself as Pittura elevated an artist and her creative work to an iconic and allegorical level equal to male artists who were denied such self-representation; and (3) the valorizing of Painting-as-allegory prioritized the physical action of painting and served to elevate a mode of creating that facilitated women's agency. One focus is on the 1638-39 painting by Artemisia Gentileschi entitled, "Self-Portrait as the Allegory of Painting (La Pittura)."

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Feminist Criticism: On Disturbatory Art and Beauty

A Companion to Arthur C. Danto, 2022

Arthur C. Danto, philosopher and art critic for The Nation from 1984-2009, offered interpretation... more Arthur C. Danto, philosopher and art critic for The Nation from 1984-2009, offered interpretations of artworks by a wide array of artists, including Eva Hesse, Judy Chicago, and Cindy Sherman, whose "disturbatory" works were either ignored or denounced by mainstream critics at the time. Danto's championing of feminist art was deliberate and delightful; he openly endorsed the Guerilla Girls! His feminist art critical writings ultimately shaped the early development of what has come to be known as "feminist aesthetics" particularly his focus on defiant artworks by female artists who sought to reclaim agency and expression of the female body. He revived interest in the neglected topic of beauty while simultaneously advancing radical political goals within the artworld. His call to arms urged art viewers to experience the new--what he often called "art on the edge and over"--wherein, "The experience of art becomes a moral adventure rather than merely an aesthetic interlude" (in Art on the Edge and Over: Searching for Art's Meaning in Contemporary Society 1970s-1990s, 1996).

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Changing Perceptions of Beautiful Bodies: The Athletic Agency Model

Somaesthetics and Sport, 2022

I consider what draws us to perceiving beautiful bodies in art and athletics--repeatedly and over... more I consider what draws us to perceiving beautiful bodies in art and athletics--repeatedly and over time--that is informed by viewers' changing perceptions derived from recent publications in fashion and sport, the philosophy of sport, feminist film theory and aesthetics under the ever-expanding umbrella of somaesthetics. (Brill)
This paper won the American Society for Aesthetics 2023 Somaesthetics Prize.

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Feminist Aesthetics

The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2021

Updated co-authored (with Carolyn Korsmeyer) entry to The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy ori... more

Editors' Introduction to the Special Issue of "The Myles Brand Era at the NCAA: A Tribute and Scholarly Review"

Journal of Intercollegiate Sport, 2021

This Special Issue [available free online] co-edited by Peg Brand Weiser (University of Arizona) ... more This Special Issue [available free online] co-edited by Peg Brand Weiser (University of Arizona) and R. Scott Kretchmar (Pennsylvania State University) is entitled, "The Myles Brand (1942-2009) Era at the NCAA: A Tribute and Scholarly Review." The late Myles Brand was a philosopher (of action theory; social and political applied philosophy, philosophy of sport), former department chair (University of Illinois at Chicago; University of Arizona), dean (Arizona), provost (The Ohio State University), president (University of Oregon; Indiana University), and fourth president of the NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association). [An extensive website created in 2020 by Peg Brand Weiser of over 300 entries of his work--speeches, essays, podcasts, and videos--can be found at a website under his name.] This Special Issue includes insightful essays on the legacy of Myles Brand by authors who dig deeply into continuing controversies within higher education, intercollegiate athletics, and the values, principles, and style of Brand's leadership. They take up the gauntlet to dissect and disseminate Brand's lasting influence on the institution of the NCAA in terms of the decisions and policies enacted between 2003 and 2009 that continue to affect the well-being of today's student-athletes, the sustainability of high-cost intercollegiate competition, and now, the "threat to" or "abandonment of" (depending on your point of view) "amateur status" due to students' newfound economic agency and ability to profit from NILs (Name, Image, Likeness) monetary deals. Essays include a co-authored "Editors' Introduction;" an introductory preface by John R. Thelin ("From Chaos to Coherence: Myles Brand and the Balancing of Academics and Athletics"); a short remembrance by Josh Brand ("Myles Brand, My Father"); and essays by Peg Brand Weiser ("Life is an Adventure: From Action Theory to Action"); R. Scott Kretchmar ("President Brand's Gambit: Inviting Scholars Inside the Tent"); Walter Harrison ("Myles Brand and the Responsibility of Leadership"); Heather Reid ("Amateurism, Professionalism and the Value of College Sports"); Lou Mats ("Myles Brand: Intercollegiate Athletics Within the Limits of the Academic Mission Alone'); Welch Suggs and Jennifer Hoffman ("Myles Brand's Collegiate Model and the Post-Amateurism World of College Sports"); David K. Wiggins ("Myles Brand: A Leader Deeply Committed to Diversity, Inclusiveness, and Social Justice"); C. Keith Harrison, Bernard Franklin, and Whitney Griffin ("Myles Brand's Philosophy of the Value of Intercollegiate Athletics: A Collaborative Effort and the Perspective of Two Black Males on Educational Achievement at the NCAA"); and Rodney Fort ("Myles Brand's College Sports Sustainability: 'Amateurism,' Finances, and Institutional Balance.

"Life is an Adventure: From Action Theory to Action" in Special Issue of "The Myles Brand Era at the NCAA: A Tribute and Scholarly Review"

Journal of Intercollegiate Sport , 2021

Since nearly every author in this Special Issue of The Journal of Intercollegiate Sport entitled,... more Since nearly every author in this Special Issue of The Journal of Intercollegiate Sport entitled, "The Myles Brand Era at the NCAA: A Tribute and Scholarly Review," has noted Brand's academic background and training, and some have even provided partial answers to David K. Wiggins' query regarding "Brand's commitment to diversity, inclusiveness, and social justice," I--as a fellow philosopher--offer to track the progression of Brand's early work in action theory, his theoretical turn to the moral role of education, and finally his legacy of principled leadership on issues of ethics and social justice within intercollegiate athletics. I call this progression "from action theory to action." I hope to show that Brand's writings and speeches from 1970 through 2002 offer a foundation for the conceptual strategies employed in meeting NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) challenges from 2003 through 2009. "Action theory + Aristotle = Applied Philosophy" provides the key to his innovative conceptualization of the applied philosophy of sport that moved him forward into action. [A website of over 300 works--speeches, essays, podcasts, and videos--can be found at www.mylesbrand.com.]

How Beauty Matters

Aesthetics: A Reader in Philosophy of the Arts, 4th ed., 2018

How do we view, understand and appreciate a complex and challenging work of visual art such as Le... more

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Misleading Aesthetic Norms of Beauty: Perceptual Sexism in Elite Women's Sports

Body Aesthetics, 2016

This essay is about the history of challenges that women in elite sports have faced with respect ... more This essay is about the history of challenges that women in elite sports have faced with respect to their gender identity within a society that perpetuates misleading aesthetic norms of beauty; it is a history fraught with controversy and injustice. . . . We recommend both the acknowledgment within the realm of elite sport of perceptual sexism based on misleading aesthetic norms of beauty, and a way of correcting such erroneous categorization that allows athletes the autonomy and agency to choose to compete as male or female based on a declaration of their own gender identity.

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The Role of Luck in Originality and Creativity

The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 2015

In this article I explore the concept of originality from several viewpoints.Within the world of ... more In this article I explore the concept of originality from several viewpoints.Within the world of printmaking, I show that while print dealers may draw attention to originality in order to enhance economic value, artists emphasize the aesthetic value of a work based on the freedom to express artistic intent and to experiment with techniques of the medium. Within the worlds of philosophy and to some extent, psychology, “originality” has been misleadingly tied to the notions of “creativity” and “genius,” thereby replicating a cultural bias that links an artist to particular mental processes that are unnecessarily exclusive.
An experiential account of creativity like the one recently advanced by Bence Nanay not only disadvantages those artists whose lived experiences reflect fewer social opportunities than their counterparts, but also invokes a concept of luck that
undermines the role of originality within an artwork’s overall aesthetic value.

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The Aesthetics of Childbirth

by Peg Brand Weiser and Paula Granger

Philosophical Inquiries into Pregnancy, Childbirth, and Mothering: Maternal Subjects, 2011

Why are images showing women in the act of childbirth less common in recent artworld circles than... more Why are images showing women in the act of childbirth less common in recent artworld circles than before, e.g., in pre-Columbian art or in societies previously considered "primitive"? Artist Judy Chicago, creator of The Birth Project (1980-85)--a series of eighty handcrafted pieces of needlework by more than 130 artisans--offers a cultural challenge to a long-standing taboo on such images. We argue several reasons why a taboo exists and how women have taken it upon themselves to liberate the dissemination of real birth images thereby becoming modern midwives, so to speak, of the pictures of birth.

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Beauty as Pride: A Function of Agency

APA Newsletter on Philosophy and Medicine, 2011

This paper (presented along with others at an APA session with the late Dr. Anita Silvers comment... more This paper (presented along with others at an APA session with the late Dr. Anita Silvers commenting) explores and engages a mode of defiant challenges to the traditional, able-bodied standard of female beauty evidenced throughout the history of art as portrayed by the controversial photographer, Joel-Peter Witkin. Witkin's images of Ann Millett-Gallant, author of the book, The Disabled Body in Contemporary Art, "visualize disability" as they explore issues in agency, otherness, and the medical body.

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ORLAN Revisited: Disembodied Virtual Hybrid Beauty

Beauty Unlimited, 2010

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Feminism and Aesthetics

Alcoff/Blackwell, 2008

Feminist Art Epistemologies: Understanding Feminist Art

HYPATIA: A Journal of Feminist Philosophy, 2006

Feminist art epistemologies (FAEs) greatly aid the understanding of feminist art, particularly wh... more

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Enhancing Artistic Presence through Contemplative Contextual Criticism

Presence: The Speed Art Museum, 2006

"Presence" is a word that can function both as a descriptor of the uniqueness, identity, and stre... more "Presence" is a word that can function both as a descriptor of the uniqueness, identity, and strength of an(y) identifiable, individual work of art (as used in the phrase, its "artistic presence") and, more specifically, and with a capital P, the name of a year-long exhibit consisting of a series of artworks in a uniquely created architectural environment with the Speed Art Museum in Louisville, Kentucky. In addition, as well-known art theorist Donald Preziosi points out in his 2004 essay ["Art and the Contemplation off Presence"] included in this publication, the term "presence" may also refer to the character of the artist that is embodied _in_ a physical work of art, whereby the _form_ of the work is "in some way a _figure_ of its truth--the truth or essence or being of the artist..." Indeed I would suggest an even stronger defense of the artist, what I call the Intentionality Thesis, which states: _The most important spokesperson capable of elucidating the meaning of a work of art is the artist_. The Intentionality Thesis is a substantive component of my recommendation for art viewers to practice what I call "contemplative contextual criticism" (CCC, for short). Such an emphasis on intentionality is often fraught with controversy, but the Intentionality Thesis can function (within the broader framework of one's CCC) as a fruitful interpretive tool that optimizes our actual experiences of art.

CCC is the deliberate cognitive analysis--the act of contemplation--of a work of art that enhances the potential of artistic presence; both of the work itself and the artist who created it. It is the process of studying a work of art in its full context...

The Aesthetic Attitude in [Simone de Beauvoir's] The Ethics of Ambiguity

Simone de Beauvoir studies, 2002

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VIRTUAL BEAUTY - Orlan and Morimura

L & B (Lier en Boog), 2001

This essay offers some thoughts on the editors' (Annette w. Balkema and Henk Slager) project "Exp... more This essay offers some thoughts on the editors' (Annette w. Balkema and Henk Slager) project "Exploding Aesthetics" with the goal of extending aesthetics based on a specific type of artistic output. Both artists--Orlan and Morimura--have already expanded the normal parameters of artistic inquiry and the resulting critical discourse. As an aesthetician, I merely offer some elaboration and philosophical backdrop to their creative enterprise. They constitute the paradigm of the avant-garde artist extraordinaire leading us into the uncharted realm of cyberspace and offering us a provocative glimpse of virtual beauty in which artistic insight complements philosophical inquiry. Motivated by their creativity, this essay explores contrasting definitions of real and virtual beauty as well as suggest some reasons why these definitions may prove useful in stimulating discussions about art and the philosophy of art.

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