Brian Butler is once again UNCA’s distinguished professor of humanities

For a second term, philosophy professor Brian Butler has been selected as UNC Asheville’s Thomas Howerton Distinguished Professor of Humanities.

Butler has organized and sponsored lectures by a number of scholars, including leading public intellectual and political commentator Cornel West, architect Vladimir Belogolovsky and philosopher Sheralee Brindell. Butler also organized a symposium on democratic experimentalism, and sponsored the African Americans in Western North Carolina Conference at UNC Asheville.

The Thomas Howerton Distinguished Professor of Humanities works to improve the interdisciplinary study of the humanities across the university’s curriculum through pedagogy and scholarship. He or she is given a fund for organizing and supporting lectures, conferences and events that bring visiting scholars and experts to campus.

With the funds, Butler plans to organize a new annual “IDE+A Conference,” exploring the broad relationship between democracy, education and art.

Press Release from UNCA News Services:

Professor Brian Butler Again Selected as UNC Asheville’s Thomas Howerton Distinguished Professor of Humanities

Media Contact: Steve Plever, UNC Asheville News & PR, 828.251.6526 or news@unca.edu

Brian Butler, professor of philosophy at UNC Asheville, has been selected for a second term as the university’s Thomas Howerton Distinguished Professor of Humanities. The Howerton Distinguished Professor works to enhance the interdisciplinary study of the humanities across UNC Asheville’s curriculum through pedagogy and scholarship and has an endowed fund for organizing and supporting lectures, conferences and events that bring visiting scholars and experts to campus.

Butler, with advanced degrees in philosophy, the fine arts and law, exemplifies interdisciplinary thinking and scholarship. His recent writings include book chapters on cinema, philosophy and law as they play out in contemporary America: “Blaxploitation in the Age of Obama:  Black Dynamite, Django Unchained, Racial Reasoning, and Racial Capitalism,” and “Metaphysical Philosophers and the ‘Practical Statesmanship’ of Supreme Court Justices in NFIB v. Sibelius” (the landmark ruling on the Affordable Care Act).

With the continued endowment, Butler plans to organize a new annual “IDE+A Conference” that explores in an inclusive manner the relationship between democracy, education and art. He will be curating an upcoming show on Basil King at the Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center (BMCM+AC), where he will also present a lecture on Robert Motherwell during a show of his artworks. He also is scheduled to present at the second annual European Pragmatist Conference in Paris.

Butler has worked extensively with the BMCM+AC, where he serves on the board and as co-editor of The Journal of Black Mountain College Studies. He has recently curated two art shows at the center: “Dan Rice: Painter among the Poets” and “Susan Weil: Poemubles,” which he co-curated with UNC Asheville alumna Rachael Inch. He is the founder and chair of the annual ReVIEWING Black Mountain College conference held at UNC Asheville, which features an average of 40 presenters from around the world and approximately 400 local participants every year.

Butler has organized and sponsored lectures by a number of scholars, including leading public intellectual and political commentator Cornel West, architect Vladimir Belogolovsky and philosopher Sheralee Brindell. Butler also organized a symposium on democratic experimentalism, and sponsored the African Americans in Western North Carolina Conference at UNC Asheville. He has lectured around the world on a variety of topics, including abstract impressionist painting, pragmatism and democratic experimentalism.

This professorship is supported by a gift from Helen Howerton Lineberry and her husband Al Lineberry in memory of her father, Thomas Howerton, and by a grant from the C. D. Spangler Foundation.