Jenefer Mary Robinson is an American philosopher, author and emerita professor of philosophy at the
University of Cincinnati
The University of Cincinnati (UC or Cincinnati, informally Cincy) is a public university, public research university in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States. It was founded in 1819 and had an enrollment of over 53,000 students in 2024, making it the ...
. She writes on aesthetics, philosophy of psychology, philosophy of mind and theory of emotions. She has published two monographs, one edited collection, and numerous peer reviewed articles. She is on the editorial Board for the ''
Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism
''The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal covering the study of aesthetics and art criticism. It was published by Wiley-Blackwell on behalf of the American Society for Aesthetics
American Soci ...
'' and was on the editorial board for ''Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews.'' She was president of the American Society of Aesthetics from 2009 until 2013. In 2007 she was a
Leverhulme
The Leverhulme Trust () is a large national grant-making organisation in the United Kingdom. It was established in 1925 under the will of the 1st Viscount Leverhulme (1851–1925), with the instruction that its resources should be used to cover ...
visiting professor of philosophy at the
University of Nottingham
The University of Nottingham is a public research university in Nottingham, England. It was founded as University College Nottingham in 1881, and was granted a royal charter in 1948.
Nottingham's main campus (University Park Campus, Nottingh ...
and in 2006 she received a Rieveschl Award for Scholarly and/or Creative Works. She received the
National Endowment for the Humanities
The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) is an independent federal agency of the U.S. government, established by thNational Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act of 1965(), dedicated to supporting research, education, preserv ...
Fellowship in September 2002. She was interviewed by Hans Maes for his book Conversations on Art and Aesthetics, which also contains her portrait by American photographer
Steve Pyke
Steve Pyke MBE (born 1957) is a British photographer living in New Orleans, Louisiana. Debates in Aesthetics an open access journal published by the British Society of Aesthetics, dedicated Vol. 14 No. 1 to her work.
Career
Jenefer Robinson has published widely on topics related to philosophy of art, literature and music. In ''Deeper than Reason: Emotion and its Role in Literature, Music and Art'' (Oxford University Press, 2005) she developed a new theory of emotion and its connection with the arts. In the book she claims that we not only "self-evidently make emotional responses in the presence of art works, but that some art works (...) need to be experienced emotionally if they are to be properly understood". In her edited collection ''Music and Meaning'' (Cornell University Press, 1997) she brings together ten essays on the nature of musical meaning.
Selected articles
* 'The Art of Distancing: How Formal Devices Manage Our Emotional Responses to Literature', ''The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism.'' Vol. 62, No. 2, Special Issue: Art, Mind, and Cognitive Science (Spring, 2004), pp. 153–162.
* 'Languages of Art at the Turn of the Century', ''The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism.'' Vol. 58, No. 3 (Summer, 2000), pp. 213–218.
* 'The Expression and Arousal of Emotion in Music', ''The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism.'' Vol. 52, No. 1, The Philosophy of Music (Winter, 1994), pp. 13–22.
* 'The Eliminability of Artistic Acts'. ''The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism.'' ''Vol. 36,'' No. 1, pp 81–89.
* 'The Individuation of Speech Acts', ''The Philosophical Quarterly.'' Vol. 24, No. 97 (Oct., 1974), pp. 316–3.
* 'On Being Moved by Architecture', ''The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism.'' Vol. 70, No. 4 (FALL 2012), pp. 337–353.
* 'Startle', ''The Journal of Philosophy.'' Vol. 92, No. 2 (Feb., 1995), pp. 53–74.
* 'Syntax, Meaning and Context: A Reply to Keenan', ''The Philosophical Quarterly.'' Vol. 27, No. 107 (Apr., 1977), pp. 162–164.
* 'Aesthetic Disgust?', ''Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplement'', Vol. 75, pp 51–84.