Reflections from the SSG: Interdisciplinary Collective Thinking on Smells
The Smell Studies Graduate Student Working Group (SSG) was created in August of 2022 to bring together Masters and PhD students from around the world working on smell. The group has since gathered over 50 members across disciplines who all share a passion for all things smell. From reading groups to keynote presentations, the SSG meets to discuss trends in the field and to share knowledge and research. This interdisciplinary working group strives to advance the field of Smell Studies through conversation and partnership. As our group continues to grow, we hope to share our research with the public, and to be transparent about what is discussed during our meetings. This blog post is a reflection by four SSG members- Marine Coeugnet, Jayanthan Sriram, Amrita Chattopadhyay, and Chanelle Dupuis- focused on the topic of interdisciplinary collective thinking on smell. In this post, each member will provide their perspective on being a part of this group and address the question of interdisciplinarity as it relates to their area of study and unique vantage point. By reading these reflections, you will see the role that the SSG has played in community-building for smell studies scholars and the benefits and challenges that arise in this type of collaborative space.
Marine Coeugnet :
As soon as I received the e-mail, I eagerly joined the Smell Studies Group (SSG). As a psychology student studying smells, I felt acknowledged and recognized. Indeed, this topic is rarely discussed or mentioned in France and in cognitive psychology. During my college years, I became fascinated with understanding how our sensory environments and ambient odors impact our emotions, behavior, and cognitive activity : how smells modulate our way of being as an individual and as a group and our way of feeling and expressing. This interest aligns with the main focus of the SSG. One of the unique aspects of the Smell Studies Group is its interdisciplinary nature. As mentioned, members come from various fields, including psychology, history, sociology, philosophy, and literature. This diversity of perspectives leads to rich discussions and insights into the topic of smells. However, it can also pose challenges. As each field has its own language and vocabulary, it can be difficult to fully understand each other at times. But, through open communication and a willingness to learn, members are able to bridge these gaps and gain a deeper understanding of the topic.
Being a part of the SSG has allowed me to expand my knowledge beyond what I would have learned in my own lab or field. For example, I've learned about the historical and cultural significance of smells, which is not something that I would have encountered otherwise. The blog and newsletter are also excellent resources for learning about new research, events, and discussions related to smells. They provide an accessible way to learn and stay up-to-date on developments in the field.
Despite the challenges of arranging meetings with members in different time zones and schedules, the effort is always worth it. Connecting with others who share a passion for studying smells is a unique and rewarding experience. It's inspiring to hear about the diverse range of research and projects that members are working on. I hope that the SSG will continue to grow and expand its reach to a global audience. This research is meant to be shared, not exclusive. The study of smells has the potential to impact many fields and industries, from perfumery and food science to mental health and environmental sustainability. By sharing knowledge and collaborating across disciplines, we can better understand the role that smells play in our lives and the world around us. I also look forward to the opportunity to meet in person after a year of virtual meetings and chats.
Jayanthan Sriram:
As a student member of the Center for Sensory Studies and working under David Howes, Sensory Studies revel in the fact that we train ourselves to continuously think about all the senses and the sensorium. This kind of maximalism lives within a cross-disciplinary approach to research, to find the sensible in theory and create practical knowledge through the senses. Working with the Smell Studies group allows for the microscopic focus on olfaction without neglecting the overarching multisensory resonances. As the group’s members cross different fields ranging from social sciences to humanities and natural sciences, the common language we try to develop is one of olfactory episto-onthology, as in understanding how we gain knowledge through smell and how this refracts back onto the idea of being. Engaging with the group helps me to take account of how chemists or art preservationists approach olfaction in their practice and how my fellow members process theoretically minded research on olfactory cultures and histories. Beyond this, the Smell Studies group weaves together the up-and-coming scent scholars with professionals of the field. The excitement by established academics working on smell when speaking with the group points towards the potential and fragrant (instead of bright!) future smell studies possess. In these motions and meetings alone, the Smell Studies group is contributing to a collective decentering of both the ocularcentric haunts of academia and theoretical hierarchies pitting fields and approaches to knowledge and action against each other. In this, I hope for the group and smell studies to become a staple in expanding oversights and rigidities of the global north and contribute to interdisciplinary engagements around the world. As smell and the act of smelling teach us, we must engage with the ephemeral and create theories that speak to inherent instabilities of our daily lives and world.
Amrita Chattopadhyay:
The peaking covid years were intense, painful and equally isolating. Locked up in our respective spaces, social interaction was reduced to a screen, a tab-window or a pop-up notification. Apprehension about bad news was hovering all over. National and international updates around political blunders, health-care collapses, increasing death-count, war declaration paralleled the equally distressful and disorienting loss of smell, appetite and mental cohesion for an individual. Situating the inception of Smell Studies Group amidst so many lows would be well-fitting. SSGroup was fresh, purposeful, motivational and allowed a forum, albeit virtual, for participatory collectiveness. When the virus had made border regimes even stricter between countries, this platform allowed sharing and in fact broadened the scope of inclusivity around the shared sensory index of smell. Bringing together many disciplines around smell studies, it gave voices to many and enlarged perspectives beyond a mono-dimensional prism of fanciness and luxury of the fragrant. The highlight of the forum was possibly the variegated discussions that were made possible around the foul. Various disciplinary inputs strengthened the discourse around it by highlighting class-anxieties, racial discrimination, behavioral patterns, punitive regimes and prison memoirs. Resistance, decay and rage thus, came to pivot many of the brainstorming sessions that started at the monolith of smell. Moreover, perceiving smell through various conduits like environment, philosophy, psychology, law, art-works and emotions was expansive in bringing social and nature sciences in conversation with each other. The group started condensing as the members finally found a community of researchers with similar interests but varying methods. The possibility of approaching a single theme through multiple methods came to the forefront and enriched every participant. Sometimes, one would take us through the challenges of literary metaphors around smell and in another instance one would highlight the limitations of positivist and archival approach towards the same. Many of our discussions were arranged around spaces, people, experiences and objects. It brought in so many geographies, so many distant people connected by a shared reading or a shared perspective. In the process, we could weave a few meaningful culturally entangled narratives. Hopefully, it is only the beginning towards the formulation of a consistent, participatory, accessible and inclusive space synonymous with the all-pervasiveness of smell, itself.
Chanelle Dupuis:
As one of the few graduate students working on smell in my institution, I always searched for community with other young smell studies scholars. The SSG offered me this. By being in contact with other early career researchers from around the world, my understanding of my work shifted and I was able to learn about scent from new perspectives. In this interdisciplinary space, we are able to share resources and events in a way that wasn’t possible before. Together, we compile call for papers, conferences, and talks happening on the topic of smell and share these events with each other. The SSG has made it easier to share news and to keep everyone in the loop on new and exciting events and publications. Since it is always difficult to keep up with a shifting and moving field, our monthly newsletter makes it easier for everyone to know what has happened in our field recently. Most importantly, I have enjoyed learning from people in science programs (chemistry, biology, neuroscience) who offer a different perspective from that of the humanities. The research on smell happening in laboratories is helping to shape our understanding of smell and smelling which in turn allows work in the humanities on scent to flourish. The two are always in conversation. Ultimately, our hope with the SSG is that the group remain open and accessible to all masters and PhD students working on smell. We want to continue growing this community with kindness and curiosity and to support members with their research. The goal of this website and the blog on this site is to keep our research accessible to a general audience and to remain transparent about what our group is learning and achieving. This is a space for young scholars to think creatively and share their thoughts with others.
Conclusion
The Smell Studies Group (SSG) has created an inclusive and supportive space for scholars to delve into the world of scent, as highlighted by Amrita, Chanelle, Marine and Jay. This group has been particularly beneficial for early-career researchers, offering resources and community, while also fostering interdisciplinary dialogue. Looking to the future, the SSG should continue to remain open and accessible, welcoming new members and diverse perspectives. Collaborative groups like the SSG will become increasingly important for fostering interdisciplinary dialogue as more scholars become interested in the study of smell. For those interested in starting similar groups, the experiences of the SSG offer valuable lessons, emphasizing the importance of a shared sense of purpose, inclusive participation, and supportive resources. In conclusion, the SSG has been a valuable model for interdisciplinary collaborative work, generating new insights and expanding our understanding of scent.
The challenges of a multinational group aiming for cross-disciplinary exchange beyond the hierarchical boundaries of our respective fields and centers of gravity are undeniable. Especially in the task of outgrowing sensory hierarchies held for centuries that simultaneously divide academic discourse in a ratio-centric “north” and a “south” stuck in perpetual epistemological childhood. Yet, we practice the benefits in our work on smell in defiance of this. The SSG aims to create a space to explore the odiferous qualities in the study of scent in every sense of the term. In exploring the fragrant and ephemeral, new horizons are explored and change enacted collectively.