Me and Elsie, one of my cats
Alice Harberd
Previously, I did my MPhil Stud in Philosophy at UCL, and my BA in Classics at Corpus Christi College, Oxford. Before starting my MPhil, I spent two years on the Civil Service Fast Stream. You can email me at alice.harberd.19[at]ucl.ac.uk
My full CV can be downloaded here.
My research is about art and aesthetic objects, and how they help and hinder us in coming to understand ourselves and the world. By 'art' I don't just mean visual art - I'm interested in music, TV, literature, theatre, dance, etc.
I love bringing philosophy to a wider audience. I co-organise the London Aesthetics Forum, a public talk series. I really enjoy writing for general audiences and talking about philosophy on podcasts and YouTube. I also run an interdisciplinary project with the English Department at UCL with Dr Scarlett Baron.
I teach courses in the UCL Philosophy Department on topics in Social Epistemology, Ethics, Aesthetics, and Ancient Philosophy.
I am also a singer - I sing soprano (high voice), mostly classical music, mostly in choirs.
Papers
Forthcoming:
Aesthetic Bias in Epistemic Evaluation and the Value of Art, The British Journal of Aethetics
Under review:
A paper on stereotypes and aesthetic perception (title redacted for review purposes)
Work in Progress:
The Aesthetics of Self-Inquiry
Closure and the Narrative Self
Rich Narrative and the Narrative Self
Teaching
I teach a range of courses in the UCL Philosophy Department:
2023-4: Epistemology and Contemporary Society (guest lecture on Democracy); Ethics
2022-3: Study Skills Tutorials: Aesthetics and Identity (my own syllabus)
2021-22: Morality and Literature (guest lecture on Sophocles' Oedipus Tyrannos and self-knowledge); Topics in Plato (guest lecture on how to write essays on ancient philosophy)
Singing
I have been lucky enough to perform and record with groups including the Taverner Consort, Instruments of Time and Truth, The Marian Consort, London Choral Sinfonia, St. Martin's Voices, Sansara and Eleutherios. I also sing with the choirs at the Royal Hospital Chelsea, the Tower of London Chapel, and St Brides Church.
Alongside classical singing, I enjoy Javanese Gamelan - an Indonesian percussion orchestra. I am a very rusty pesindhen (female vocal soloist) and sometimes play with Siswa Sukra at the Indonesian Embassy in London.
Some music I like: this by renaissance composer John Sheppard, this by Poulenc, this Scottish folk song, this by The Smiths, this by Ariel Pink, this by Taylor Swift, this by Tchaikovsky, this by contemporary Scottish composer James MacMillan, this Javanese Gamelan piece, this American Songbook classic... I could go on!