Research/Career Interests:
Background
Flo joined the OSU faculty in 1977. Her primary research field is aesthetics. Her scholarly writing has appeared in such journals as Philosophy and Literature, the Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, Persistence of Vision, and in anthologized collections. Flo teaches courses in introductory philosophy, aesthetics, and metaphysics and created the department's course in "Art and Morality." She was a winner of the 1987 American Society for Aesthetics essay competition and wrote a series of op-ed essays for the Portland Oregonian on art and morality during the public-funding controversies of the 1990's.
Her present project examines the aesthetics of the Hubble photographs and how they reflect, and help to shape, contemporary appreciations of nature. Flo is a past president of the American Society for Aesthetics, Pacific Division, a frequent member of its national meeting program committee, and she has served on the selection committee for the OSU Phi Kappa Phi Emerging Scholar Award.
In the community, Flo has served on the executive committee of Chamber Music Corvallis. She is a Cat 4 amateur bicycle racer for the Corvallis Cyclery team.
Sample Publications
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"The Hubble Photographs as Aesthetic Objects", in Lee Brown and David Goldblatt, eds. Aesthetics, 3rd Edition (Prentice-Hal 2011)
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"The Element of Desire: Beauty, Botany,and Philosophy," (with Loren Russell), Rock Garden Quarterly 64:1 (2006), 42-47.
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"Art and Morality in the 18th Century" CLA Alum Magazine, 1995, pp. 4-5. This article was researched together with Philosophy major Carol Hanson.
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"Pianists in the Movies", Philosophy and Literature (Fall 1997) 21:2:366 - 381
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"Apt Feelings, or Why Women's Films Aren't Trivial", in David Bordwell and Noel Carroll, eds., Post-Theory (Univ. of Wisconsin Press, 1996), 219-229.
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"Pornography and Persuasion", Philosophy and Literature (Spring 1994) 18:118-123
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"Colorization and the Expression of Mood", Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism (Fall 1991) 49:4:363-365.
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"A Note on Feminist Theories of Representation: Questions concerning the Autonomy of Art", The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism (Fall 1990) 48:4:361-364