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Embodied Voices, Social Sciences, University of º£½ÇÉçÇø

24^th-25^thApril 2025

In the wake of global movements like Black Lives Matter and #MeToo, questions around the inclusion of oppressed voices and whose body is ‘allowed’ to perform what role sit at the heart of the performing arts community (including poetry, theatre, music and dance). Whether in discussions about colour-blind casting in Hollywood or major opera houses deciding if canonical stage works that problematically depict marginalised people should still be performed, the cultural implications of giving voice to marginalised experiences and ideas through performance are more important now than ever. To date these issues have remained largely untouched by philosophy, yet philosophy can bring important and distinctive understanding to the debate through ethical and aesthetic analysis of performance and embodied voice: What happens when artists invoke other voices in their work, and how does this shape the work’s reception? What are the implications of performing someone else’s lived experience, such as a work that refer to another’s body?

Keynote speakers:

• Jeanette Bicknell (Philosopher of aesthetics, Toronto)
• Ann Cahill (Professor of Philosophy, Elon University) with Christine Hamel (actor, voice and text specialist, scholar and director, Boston University)
• David Davies (Professor of Philosophy, McGill University)
• Jenny Sealey (theatre director, actor and artistic director of Graeae Theatre Company)

This conference is free to attend but places are limited, so please register in advance.