PhD Research

The overarching aim of my project three-fold: First, I will show how minorities can be empowered or marginalised by obscene artworks; second, I will set out whether obscene, artistic expression deserves censure to protect such groups; and third, I will explain how artworks may provide meaningful social and cultural interactions.

I will expand the category of the obscene, focusing on its role in art and politics, and the way these disciplines interact. Specifically, I will consider the third criterion in Justice Warren Burger’s test of obscenity, on behalf of the Supreme Court of the United States in Miller v. California, as a “work, taken as a whole, [which] lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value” (1973). I will show how this statement is false.

The success of the thesis would be achieved if I can develop a robust account of: What obscenity is; how it presents itself in art; reasons for regulating obscene art when it problematises the position and safety of vulnerable groups and when it does not, e.g., obscene art about wealthy white men may be offensive but does not immediately warrant regulation; and the role of culture in informing our understanding of the public reception of obscene works. I will also consider practical solutions that help galleries and academic institutions to take responsibility when it comes to the exhibition of and access to obscene representations.

This project will enable me to think deeply about cultural aesthetics, broadening the philosophy of art as a discipline. The outcome of the thesis, currently leaning towards the regulation of obscene art, will hopefully spark fruitful conversations about the value of free speech in societies.