Elisabeth Schellekens Dammann

I am Chair Professor of Aesthetics at the University of Uppsala and, since 2023, Head of the Department of Philosophy.

My research interests include the aesthetics of non-perceptual objects, aesthetic cognitivism, the philosophy of conceptual art and the ethics and aesthetics of cultural heritage. I am currently principle investigator on the Templeton-funded research project, Knowledge, Perception and the Prospects of Criticism.

I have held the Chair of Aesthetics in the Philosophy Department since January 2014. In 2023 I became Head of Department. Previously, I was Senior Lecturer at Durham University (2006-14). My research interests include normativity, the relations between aesthetic, moral and epistemic value, Kant, Hume, aesthetic reasons, non-perceptual beauty, subjectivism and objectivism, realism and anti-realism. I have also worked on non-perceptual art, neuroaesthetics and the cognitive value of art.

From 2007 to 2019 I served as Editor (with John Hyman) of the British Journal of Aesthetics (Oxford University Press).

After completing my MA (Hons.) and MSc (Res) at the University of Edinburgh, I moved to King's College London, where I was awarded my PhD in 2003. I held a post-doctoral research fellowship there from 2003 to 2006, when I was appointed at Durham (as Lecturer 2006-08, and Senior Lecturer 2008-14).

I have worked on several research projects, including on the philosophy of conceptual art, empirical aesthetics and the ethics and aesthetics of archaeology. I am currently the Principal Investigator of the Templeton funded project 'Knowledge, Perception, and the Prospects of Criticism', and of 'Aesthetic Perception and Aesthetic Cognition', a project funded by Vetenskapsrådet (2019-2021).

I am married to Guy Dammann, with whom I have two children.