Aesthetics with a film focus! (where to go?)

[Milow]

Howwwdy folks!

I'm 33 with a lot of Army years behind me and in my senior year. Kind of a late start but I've found I really enjoy this college thing and have recently decided on doing the graduate program thing, currently rushing to get some applications in and figure this all out. Luckily I should have enough GI Bill left to pay for a Master's so cost isn't an issue.

So, any of you philosophers have recommendations for aesthetics programs with a film focus? I've attached a resource from the American Society for Aesthetics that's been helpful but I really wanted to get some feedback on what I can expect, and I really have no clue how this grad school thing works as I've so recently decided to try it while rushing through my BA.

My creds

Degree: I'm graduating in English teaching (my fallback career) from the University of Utah.

GPA: On track for a 3.98 GPA (one A- in history that sunuvabitch).

Letters: I expect two very solid letters and one ok letter. The fourth would be generic.

Research/Experience: I just started a research assistant gig with the theater department. It's all I could find in my rush, but my mentor is a mucho legit Harvard educated department lead and the products range from an Oxford encyclopedia entry to a comprehensive biography. I have 5 years of on and off film-production experience including two of my own short films. I took one philosophy QR course and three film courses; one 5000 level, one honors production 3000 level documentary thing, and one intro theory class. I have some rudimentary knowledge of philosophy as a lifetime Marcus Aurelius and Plato fan who casually reads other authors on occasion.

GRE: I expect my GRE score to be 162V 159Q and 5W or so judging by my practice tests and having people read over my essasys.

-----------------------------

Whattya think? Can I expect to get in anywhere? I'm not too picky on where I go but I'd like to at least have a decent mentor or program behind me. What are the top programs?

Other specialties I should consider? I like classics so ancient philosophy would be a definite "yes" alternative for one. I'm also applying to a few film schools for kicks.

Any Ph.D. programs that an English major has a chance to get into?

How do you feel about UK universities?

 

THANK YOU!

graduateguide.pdf

[maxhgns]

Just so you know, there are no jobs at all. Nobody wants you: research schools think aesthetics is a joke (they shouldn't), and teaching schools think it's a luxury subfield (they shouldn't). That's changing, but very slowly. That's the bad news.

The good news is that the ASA and BSA are great organizations, and very proactive in securing opportunities for their members. Currently, for example, both associations are sponsoring postdoctoral fellowships, as well as graduate studentships. There are so many conferences every year that it's easy to build that part of your CV, and the community is great and very supportive. I doubt you could cultivate such strong research connections so easily in any other subfield.

As for where to attend: with a particular focus on film, CUNY is the obvious choice because of Carroll, but you'll want to have a chat or two with students there about the funding situation, supervision, etc. For aesthetics training in particular, I think that CUNY, McGill, UBC, NYU, and Maryland College-Park are the strongest options in North America (though Santa Cruz will be pretty fearsome once their new hires are tenured). For Maryland, you'll want to ask around about Levinson's availability. But of those, I really think CUNY is far and away the best place for film-related stuff. Weirdly, I think that UBC might be my next choice for film-y things, just on the strength of film-y things usually being more about aesthetics proper than ontology or philosophy of art in particular, and their strengths in epistemology, mind, and philosophy of science seem nicely complementary.

Aesthetics is thriving in UK departments, but getting hired in the UK is horribly difficult (it's horribly difficult everywhere, but the UK has some additional barriers for non-nationals). From memory (I don't have the time/internet access to check more thoroughly at the moment), Kent would be my obvious choice for film stuff, because Murray Smith is there. As far as aesthetics in the UK goes more generally, however, Manchester, Nottingham, York, Birkbeck, and Durham stand out to me as the strongest programs, depending on your particular interests.

My advice to you is that if you go into aesthetics, cultivate a second, highly respectable, high-prestige area of specialization, preferably in a subfield with half-decent job prospects. 

[armchair_revolutionary]

If you are looking to get an MA you have time to figure this out if you are ultimately looking to go the PhD route.

As for the previous poster mentioning the lack of aesthetics jobs I fear this is largely the case in philosophy. I would not say that is as much the case in comparative literature, so I would broaden your horizons to consider the work that is being done there.