19-1 Bates RoadChester, CT 06412 USA
(860) 526-9186
(617) 733-9270 cell
vood@cummings-good.com
solarclarity.blogspot.com
• AOS: Aesthetics, Epistemology, Environmental Philosophy
• AOC: Political Philosophy, Ethics, Philosophy of Mind
EDUCATION
• Ph.D. Philosophy, Boston University. Dissertation Topic: "Aspects of the Theory of Seeing." January 2003.
• B.A. Philosophy, State University of New York at Purchase. Thesis Topic: "Useful Art and Beautiful Tools: Dewey, Aristotle, the Utility of Beauty and vice versa." May 1994.
TEACHING
• Wesleyan University, Department of Philosophy, Middletown, CT.
Philosophy of Love (http://erosresearch.blogspot.com) Fall 2006
Ecology of Perception (http://ecologyofperception.blogspot.com) Fall 2006
Introduction to Ecological Philosophy (http://eco-philosophy.blogspot.com) Fall 2006
• University of Connecticut, Department of Art, Storrs, CT.
Introduction to Aesthetics (http://art113.blogspot.com) Spring 2005 – Fall 2007
• Emerson College, Institute for Liberal Arts, Boston, MA.
Forbidden Knowledge: The Politics of Truth Fall 2005.
Love and Eroticism Fall 2002 to Fall 2005.
Ethics in Social and Political Perspective Spring 2004.
Ways of Knowing Spring 2003 to Spring 2004.
Ways of Seeing Spring 2002 to Spring 2004.
• University of Hartford, Hartford Art School, West Hartford, CT.
Junior Seminar: Visual Culture Spring 2007
The Ecology of Perception Spring 2005-Fall 2007
Master Design Class: Theory and Practice of Seeing Fall 2004.
• College for Lifelong Learning, University System of New Hampshire, Concord, NH.
Online (WebCT) Introduction to Ethics Fall 2003 to Fall 2004.
Introduction to Ethics Spring 2001.
• Merrimack College, Department of Philosophy, North Andover, NH.
Perspectives on Human Nature Fall 1999 to Spring 2001.
FELLOWSHIPS, SCHOLARSHIPS AND AWARDS
• Jacobsen Research Award, International Society for Universal Dialogue July 2005.
• GRS Brightman Scholarship, Boston University Fall 1999 to Spring 2002.
• Earhart Fellowship, Boston University Spring 1996 to Spring 1999.
• Humanities Award for Best Thesis Project, SUNY at Purchase Spring 1994.
• New England Philosophy Conference Award, Tufts University Spring 1994.
PAPERS DELIVERED
• “The Community Energy Cooperative Trim-tab”: Earth Charter Annual Meeting, East Haddam, CT April 2007.
• “The Cosmology of Beauty”: Building Energy 2007, Northeast Sustainable Energy Association (NESEA)
• “The Political Ecology of Automobiles”: Graduate Transportation Seminar Series, Connecticut Transportation Institute, University of Connecticut. January 2007
• “Love as Revolution”: (ISUD) APA Eastern Division Conference, Washington, DC December 2006.
• “From Functionalism to Wholeness”: Building Energy 2006, Northeast Sustainable Energy Association (NESEA), Boston, MA March 2006
• “Ecology, Freedom and Automobility”: Humanity at the Turning Point, International Society for Universal Dialogue, Sixth World Congress, Helsinki, Finland July 2005
• “The Aesthetics of Green Energy”: Purchase College SUNY October 2004
• “Towards an Aesthetics of Energy”: Building Energy 2004, Northeast Sustainable
Energy Association (NESEA), Boston, MA March 2004
• “Aesthetics, Ineffability and Naturalism”: Hawaii International Conference on the Arts and Humanities, Honolulu, HI January 2004
DISCUSSION PANELS I'VE PLANNED AND MODERATED
• The Ethics of Energy, Barnum Museum, Bridgeport CT August 2007.
• Planning for Sustainable Transportation in New England, Chester Sustainability Forum no.5, Chester CT March 2007
• The Earth Belongs to the Living: Public Forum & Community Development Workshop, Chester Sustainability Forum no.4, Chester CT November 2006
• How the Money Works: A discussion about decentralized economics, local currencies and community investment as tools for sustainability and social justice, Chester Sustainability Forum no.3, Chester CT July 2006
• The Promise of Local Food: A discussion about the social and economic opportunities related to the development of local agricultural resources, Chester Sustainability Forum no.2, Chester, CT March 2006.
• Is Chester Sustainable? An evening of energy awareness, Chester Sustainability Forum no.1, Chester, CT December 2005.
• Love as Revolution: A conversation about the meanings and possibilities of Love, Chester Voices Series, Chester, CT March 2005.
• The Ecology of Freedom and Energy in the Twenty-first Century, Festival of Arts and Ideas, Yale School for Forestry and Environmental Studies, New Haven, CT June 2004.
PUBLICATIONS
Books
• Wittgenstein and the Theory of Perception, Thoemmes Continuum, August 2006.
Articles
• “What is Beauty, Or, On the Aesthetics of Wind Energy,” Design Observer: Writings about Design and Culture. May 2006. (http://www.designobserver.com/archives/014344.html)
• “The Aesthetics of Wind Energy,” Human Ecology Review, Winter 2006.
• “Ecology, Freedom and Automobility,” in Humanity at the Turning Point: Rethinking Nature, Culture and Freedom. Edited by Sonja Servomaa. Helsinki: Renvall Institute Publications, 2006.
• “Why photographs are not more realistic than paintings: aesthetic limitations of the information-processing concept of perception” Consciousness, Literature and the Arts, December 2004.
• “Is Functionalism Functional? The Relationship Between Function and Purity” Communication Arts, October 1995. Reprinted in Design Issues: How Graphic Design Informs Society. Edited by DK Holland. New York: Allworth Press, 2001.
Book Reviews
• “Modernity’s Confrontation with Water and Earth”: Review of Kate Shower’s Imperial Gullies and Sarah Walker’s Down to the Waterline. Capitalism, Nature, Socialism. Spring 2007.
AFFILIATIONS
• SolarClarity (http://solarclarity.blogspot.com) a sustainability and economic relocalization organization dedicated to educating the community and stimulating democratic, open, rational, informed discussion and debate on the question of sustainability, Founder and Director
• Team Gaia (http://www.teamgaia.com) Board of Directors
• American Philosophical Association, Member.
• International Society for Universal Dialogue, Member.
• Northeast Sustainable Energy Assocation, Member.
• E. F. Schumacher Society, Member.
• Society for Human Ecology, Member
• Conservation Commission, Chester CT, Member.
• Democratic Town Committee, Chester CT, Co-chair and candidate for First Selectman in the 2007 municipal elections.
