Dena Shottenkirk
Lecturer/Doctoral Scholar
Philosophy
Dena Shottenkirk is an analytic philosopher specializing in aesthetics and epistemology. Her doctoral dissertation, "Nominalism and Its Aftermath: The Philosophy of Nelson Goodman," was published by Springer in 2009. Shottenkirk is also a practicing artist who has a background in art criticism with former staff positions at both Artforum and Art in America. In that arena, also in 2009, Cambridge Scholars Press published her book Cover Up the Dirty Parts! Funding, Fighting and the First Amendment, which presents a critic's view of the art that has caused political uproar along with a philosopher's view of the general epistemological and social roles of art. In 2009-10, she and Dr. Anjan Chatterjee of UPenn (neurology) published a book chapter (published by Novascience) entitled "Those Dumb Artists," which dealt with the cognitive access artists have to their own work. In 2012 she jointly (with Jamie Lindsay) edited a philosophy reader, "Reality, Knowledge, and Values."
Show Scholarly Activities and Professional Accomplishments
Education:
Ph.D., CUNY Graduate Center - 2005 (Philosophy)
M.F.A., Rutgers University Mason Gross School of the Arts - 1981 (Painting / Installations)
B.A., University of Kansas - 1977 (Philosophy)
Areas of Expertise:
Aesthetics is the study of the philosophy of art. Within that are many subcategories, but Dena Shottenkirk's interests lie in how art functions as a form of knowledge and how it conveys meaning. Epistemology is the philosophical study of how we know the world; it concerns itself with questions of how knowledge is processed by us and in what form that is knowledge encapsulated.
Books and Publications
Cover Up the Dirty Parts! Funding, Fighting and the First Amendment. Cambridge Scholars Press. (Books and Publications: Book) 2009
Nominalism and Its Aftermath: The Philosophy of Nelson Goodman. Springer. (Books and Publications: Book) 2009
Shottenkirk, Dena and Anjan Chatterjee. "Those Dumb Artists!" Novascience. (Books and Publications: Chapter) 2009
Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums
American Soceity for Aesthetics. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 2010
Professional Leadership
Serving on the advisory board of an organization formed by a Brooklyn College graduate with the intent of establishing a non-profit (501(c)) for the purpose of establishing an artists' residency program in Italy. This will be made available to M.F.A. graduates of CUNY schools. Postresidency, the artists will return to New York where they will give lectures to the public explaining their residency experience. (Professional Leadership: Public Service) 2009
Community Activities
Volunteer, Habitat for Humanity. 2010
Volunteer, Interfaith Shelter for the Homeless. 2010
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