Aili Bresnahan

University of Roehampton Scholar Award, University of Roehampton - Dance

Aili is an Associate Professor of philosophy at the University of Dayton in Ohio. Her primary areas of research are the philosophy of dance, performance, aesthetics, culture, and law. Her background includes professional-level dance training and experience as a labour and employment lawyer after receiving a law degree from the Georgetown University Law Center, a PhD in philosophy from Temple University in Philadelphia, and work as University of Dayton’s Humanities Commons Coordinator. Aili’s research at the Centre for Dance Research at the University of Roehampton in London will explore the possibility that ethical agency in dance along aesthetic lines could serve as a model for how productive discourse could proceed in philosophy, particularly among those who hold diverse views. She plans to work with community and political dancers, scholars, and students to articulate this research as well as to participate in and watch some international dance practices and performances throughout the city, work that she feels is particularly vital now after a time of health-required but alienating social distance.