Personal Information

Born: Michigan (U.S. Citizen)

Education

Ph. D. (Philosophy), University of Pittsburgh, 1979

Dissertation Title: Aristotle's Theory of Actuality and Potentiality

M.A., University of Pittsburgh, 1976

B.A. (Philosophy and Psychology, double major), Michigan State University, Justin Morrill College, 1973

Current Position

Professor and Chair, Department of Philosophy (with tenure)

University of Houston, Houston, TX 77204-3004; (713) 743-3206; e-mail: CFreeland at uh.edu.

Faculty Fellow, The Honors College

Publications

Portraits & Persons, Oxford University Press, June 2010

But is it Art?, Oxford University Press, 2001. Translated into Chinese (2002), Korean (2002), Spanish (2003), German (2003), Dutch (2003); Greek (2005); Polish (2005); Swedish (2006), Tamil (2006), Japanese (2008), Vietnamese (2009); Turkish (2009), Latvian (2009), simple Chinese (2009); under contract for translation into Hebrew, Portugese, and Persian. Republished as Art Theory: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford, 2002.

The Naked and the Undead: Evil and the Appeal of Horror, Westview Press, October 1999.

Editor, Feminist Interpretations of Aristotle Penn State Press; March 1998

Philosophy and Film Routledge; 1995, co-edited with Thomas Wartenberg

Author of over two dozen articles, abstracts and reviews on aesthetics, ancient philosophy, and feminist theory. Forthcoming articles include “The Art of Soody Sharifi,” in Beauty Matters, 2nd edition, Peg Brand, ed. (Indiana) and “Imagery in the Phaedrus: Seeing, Growing, Nourishing,” in Symbolae Osloenses (Oslo). Recently published articles include "Nothing is Simple" in Almodovar's Talk to Her, ed. Anne Eaton (Routledge, 2009) and "Photographs as Icons" in Photography and Philosophy: Essays on the Pencil of Nature, ed. Scott Walden (Blackwell, 2008).

Employment History

University of Houston, 1986 - present

University of Massachusetts, Amherst, 1978-86

Visiting faculty member or fellow at Harvard University, University of Pittsburgh, Mount Holyoke College, Hampshire College, Duke University, University of Pennsylvania, Australian National University, Rice University.

Lectures

Numerous invited lectures at universities and conferences in the U.S.A. and elsewhere (Austria, England, Wales, Canada, France, Hungary, Italy, New Zealand, Australia, Sweden, Portugal, Spain, Norway, Finland).

Professional Service

National professional service for American Philosophical Association

Program Committees, 1986/1994/2009; Nominating Committee 1994; Committee on Computing and Philosophy (1997-1999)

Trustee, American Society for Aesthetics (2003-6); Program Committee Chair (2002); Local Arrangements Chair (2004)

Scholarly referee for two dozen national journals and publishers.

NEH Panelist for Fellowships Program (1997) and for Challenge Grants (2003)

Reviewer for ACLS Pre-Doctoral Dissertation Fellowships (2007, 2009)

Greek reader/reviewer for Hackett Press translations of Aristotle's Poetics and Plato's Protagoras and Charmides

Academic Advisory Committee, Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies, University of Helsinki, 2005-8

Invited participaint, Poetry and Philosophy Research Project, University of Bergen, Norway (2006-11)

Honors and Awards

National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship, 2003

Service Award, College of Humanities, Fine Arts, and Communication, 1999

Educator of the Year, Houston Area Women's Center, 1994

University of Houston Enron Teaching Excellence Award ($3000), 1993

ACLS and NEH Travel Grants (1987)

Andrew Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow, Harvard University (1984-5)

Andrew Mellon Pre-Doctoral Fellow, University of Pittsburgh (1973-4)

National Merit Scholar, Phi Beta Kappa (1972), Michigan State University

Administrative Experience

Chair, Department of Philosophy, 2003- ; led outreach inservice workshops on teaching ethics in school at Lee High School, 2002-6

Interim Dean, College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences, UH, January-June, 2010

Associate Dean for Graduate Studies and Research, August 1995 - July 1998

Supervised grants administration; supervised graduate admissions, Administrator of "City Initiative" weekend program, Newsletter editor, Chair of College committees for computing in the humanities, Film Studies, American Studies

Director of Women's Studies, University of Houston, 1991-1995

Founding director, established Board and Friends Group, raised $10,000 in second and third years; organized and supervised active programs of lectures, courses, and community outreach.

Co-Principal Investigator and Co-Director, Texas Seminar on the Core Curriculum

Co-authored $400,000 NEH grant, coordinated programs in Summers 1992 -1995: scheduled speakers and events; compiled performance reports; attended NEH project directors meeting in Washington, D.C.

Teaching Experience

Graduate seminars and undergraduate courses in feminist philosophy, ethics, aesthetics, history of ancient and modern philosophy; experience in diverse formats, from freshman seminars and honors courses to 320-student lecture and televised distance learning courses

QEP (Quality Enhancement Plan) Grant for Introducing Undergraduate Research in Philosophy of Art, $5000, 2009

Authored three articles on "Teaching Cognitive Science and the Arts" for Newsletter of the American Society for Aesthetics: Film Theory; Visual Art; Music

Provost's Pedagogy Grant for development of on-line course ($5,000), 1997

Teaching excellence award, 1993

Team-teaching experience in five courses (with colleagues in Classics, Art, History, English, Political Science)

Thesis committee membership in Philosophy, Psychology, Political Science, History, Music, Art, Women's Studies, and Creative Writing.

Houston Teachers Institute Seminars "Addressing Evil" (Seminar for public school teachers), 1999; "Film and American Values Through the Decades", 2001; "Art and Society", 2005

Member, Executive Advisory Committee for Yale National Initiative to Strengthen Teaching in the Public Schools, 2005-7

Arts Experience/Publications

• Recent articles published on visual arts:
  Catalog essay for Exhibition by Ashley Hope, Tilton Gallery, New York, November 2007
  Catalog essay for Exhibition "Erewhon" by Jane and Louise Wilson, Blaffer Gallery, University of Houston, January 2005
  Article on reality television for Narration across Media, ed. Marie-Laure Ryan (Nebraska, 2004)
  Lead essay in The Art of Bill Viola, ed. Chris Townsend (Thames & Hudson, 2004)
  Articles on The Passion of the Christ and The Matrix in Open Court series on philosophy and popular culture.
  Exhibition essay for Weihong, Redbud Gallery, Houston (March 2004); Review of FotoFest exibit "Haunted" for SPOT, Summer 2004.

  Panelist, Rachel Hovnanian, The Power and Burden of Beauty, at Meredith Long Gallery, Houston, September 29, 2009

  Board of Directors, Art League of Houston (1998-2000)

  Executive Board of Directors, Houston Center for Photography(1987- 8, 90-91)

  Advisor for Texas Commission for the Humanities grant, Summer 2004

  Editor of SPOT, journal of HCP

  Supporting author of two successful NEA grants

  Curator of photography exhibition The Other (1988)

  Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, Houston, Lectures

  Two DVD Installations by Scandinavian Women, August 2000

  Christine Borland, March 2002

  Jenny Holzer's "Lustmord", July 1997

  Women and their Work Gallery, Austin

  Catalog Essay, Benedikte Flores Ansell, April 2000

  Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

  Curator of film series "Fatal Subtraction: Three Decades of Women in Horror, 1960-1990, 1992

  Houston Ballet

  Background lectures on Dracula for Houston Ballet Guild and Rice University Continuing Education on March 1997