Bertrand Russell (1872-1970), Nobel Laureate, famously observed: "What is that terrible loneliness" where "one shivering consciousness looks over the rim of the world into the cold, unfathomable, lifeless abyss". In a short and beautifully crafted film, produced in association with the BBC Ideas 'How it feels to be Human' strand, Professor Brownlee explores ways in which our society can aim to combat loneliness.

See link below:

https://www.bbc.com/ideas/videos/should-we-have-a-right-not-to-be-lonely/p066l54w?autoplay=true

The aim of the Research Development Fund (RDF) is to increase the University's capacity and capability to undertake world-class, innovative and exciting research by providing pump-priming funds. The deadline for submitting applications for the 2018/19 Strategic Awards is Thursday 7 June 2018 at 4pm.

Read here Professor Cassam's engaging new blog on the 'Epistemic Insouciance' of today's political leaders, which is a highly topical and observant commentary based on a paper to be published shortly in The Journal of Philosophical Research.

https://blog.apaonline.org/2018/03/23/epistemic-insouciance/

See also Professor Cassam's TED Talk on the same subject:

TEDx talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-eQ2bR1HFk

It has been announced that Professor Quassim Cassam has been appointed as a member of the Philosophy Sub-Panel for the Criteria Phase of the REF (Research Excellence Framework) 2021.

Title: 'Identity and Community: Metaphysics, Politics, Aesthetics'. Keynote Presentation by Professor Alison Stone (Lancaster). Panel Discussion with Professor Miguel de Beistegui (Warwick) based on his forthcoming book 'The Government of Desire: A Geneology of the Liberal Subject', alongside Daniele Lorenzini (Université Saint-Louis Bruxelles/Columbia University) and Federico Testa (Warwick/Monash).

The history of the concept of identity is marked by a fundamental tension: between the individual as subject, and the example of the group; between identity as an inherent or essential nature or specified as a ratified connection. The relation between identity and community, the relational qualities of each, and the content which they encompass has been subject to repeated reformulation throughout history. On the one hand, it has been argued that the subject itself has been constituted in a new way by concrete changes in the way in which we live: by modernism, capitalism, or new technologies. On the other, new examinations of history have drawn into question narratives regarding different nations, classes, genders and cultures.

The identity of individuals, and the aspects of their lives which are to be considered constitutive of that identity, is an issue which is central to a host of complex political and ethical issues. What does it mean to have an identity: to belong to a nation or a continent, to a race, gender or religion? And what is the connection of this belonging and our individual existence and consciousness? During an ongoing refugee crisis, rising nationalism and within an increasingly globalised world, how have the metaphysical and political boundaries of identity shifted?

Art and aesthetics share this tension. The place of the work of art and the individual artist within a genre or movement remains an open question - whether the author is dead, the work a manifestation of the group; whether the ideas behind the artwork are more important than the socio-economic foundation from which it arises. Corollary to this, discussions of art and the political have opened questions concerning the relation of aesthetics to community, and the possible connection of new identities and new forms of, or values within, aesthetics. Does art play a mediating role in the formation of the new community, allow for the expression of a communal voice, or reveal the individual identity then imitated by the mass?