The 2023-24 University of Wisconsin-Platteville College of Liberal Arts and Education Faculty Forum Series will kick off on Thursday, Oct. 5 with the topic “Vision: The Noblest of Senses?” Dr. Douglas Adams, assistant professor in the School of Education, will be presenting, with Dr. Hilton Kelly, dean of the College of LAE, and Dr. Claudine Pied, associate professor of sociology, responding.
“I will concentrate on vision’s blurry epistemological status as the primary means for knowing our world,” said Adams. “Our optical genesis begins with Plato and Aristotle, as they elevated sight to the noblest of senses. But, I will quickly shift focus to the mid-nineteenth century. For nearly two centuries, philosophers, artists and social scientists have hardly seen ‘eye-to-eye’ regarding the primacy of visual methodologies. Whether it is vision’s tendency to frame subject/object relations as ‘seer/seen’ or a commodity that can be reproduced, such as a photograph, vision’s status is undoubtedly disoriented. However, is there a way to bifocal the critiques with vision’s potential as a socially just epistemology? I hope to illuminate how innovative scholars incorporate vision into their method(s) of inquiry.”
Open to the public, the forum will take place in Room 136, Doudna Hall from 5-6:30 p.m. Refreshments will be provided.
The LAE Faculty Forum Series, a program instituted in the fall of 2004, is sponsored by UW-Platteville’s College of LAE. The purpose of the forum is to allow faculty to present information in their research areas. Presenters tailor their presentations to a general audience.