Since 2001, the Temple University Monroe Beardsley Memorial Lecture has coincided with the Eastern Division meetings of the American Society for Aesthetics. During this time we have featured the following illustrious speakers:
2009: Lydia Goehr, Professor of Philosophy at Columbia University, presented "Broken Strings, Dismembered Bodies: Paragonal Theses on the Embodiment and Disembodiment of Music."
2008: Kwame Anthony Appiah, Laurance S. Rockefeller University Professor of Philosophy and the University Center for Human Values at Princeton University, presented "What Should We Do With Museums?"
2007: George Dickie, Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at the University of Illinois at Chicago, presented “The Journey to Aesthetic Experience.”
2006: Robert Farris Thompson, Colonel John Trumball Professor of History of Art at Yale University, unfortunately had to cancel his lecture due to illness.
2005: Naomi Zack, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Oregon at Eugene, presented "Girl with a Pearl Earring and Janet Jackson: About Beauty, Obscenity, and Power."
2004: Rita Felski, William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of English at the University of Virginia, presented “Everyday Beauty.”
2003: Nicholas Wolterstorff, Noah Porter Professor of Philosophical Theology at Yale University, presented “Would You Stomp on a Picture of Your Mother? Would You Kiss an Icon?: Reflections on the Veneration of Pictorial Representations.”
2002: Jerrold Levinson, Distinguished University Professor of Philosophy at the University of Maryland and Post-President of the ASA (2001-2003), presented "Varieties of Musical Pleasure: Musical Chills and Other Delights."
2001: Peter Kivy, Board of Governors Professor of Philosophy at Rutgers University, presented “Mozart’s Second Childhood.”