Comparative Studies Program Launches New Design, Aesthetics and the Arts Track

The new Design, Aesthetics and the Arts track of the Ph.D. in Comparative Studies will celebrate its launch on November 1st with an introduction of the program and a stimulating discussion of Israeli Art and Design by Yanai Toister of Shenkar College in Ramat Gan, Israel.

The Design, Aesthetics, and the Arts (DAA) Track was founded in partnership with Shenkar, with guidance and facilitation from Professor Toister, who is also an associate professor and former director for Shenkar’s Unit of History and Philosophy. Shenkar has world-class programs in the visual arts, fashion and all aspects of design, including the history and philosophy of design. Its faculty “serves as a center for the academic study of design, with the most up-to-date, relevant and forward-looking courses, while cooperating with external elements from the world of design and industry.” They have the 6th ranked fashion school in the world and the 9th ranked industrial design department in Europe and the Americas, according to The Business of Fashion and Red Dot Design Awards, respectively. Prof. Toister’s art has been exhibited in numerous museums and gallery spaces (including Sandroni.Rey, Los Angeles; Dvir Gallery, Tel Aviv; Kunstahalle Luzern, Switzerland; Bolsky Gallery, Otis College of Art and Design, Los Angeles; Maison Europèenne de la Photographie, Paris; the 11th International Architecture Exhibition at the Venice Biennale; Kunstmuseen Krefeld, Haus Lange, Krefeld, Germany; Israel Museum). His scholarship has been published in various catalogs and journals, and his book, Photography from the Turin Shroud to the Turing Machine has been recently published by Intellect/University of Chicago Press.

The Design, Aesthetics and the Arts track is being led by Academic Program Head, Richard Shusterman, the Dorothy F. Schmidt Eminent Scholar in Humanities and one of the world’s foremost authorities on aesthetics, and particularly somaesthetics, a term he coined. Professor Shusterman is an ideal person to shepherd this program as his work is both interdisciplinary, integrating various fields, and multidisciplinary, comparing across fields, and we expect the track to follow his example. The DAA program’s areas of strength will include the philosophy of aesthetics, the philosophy and theory of design, visual art, visual culture, art history (including digital games), multimedia, architecture, musicology and theatrology.