As part of the Annual Conference on South Asia in Madison (30 October – 2 November) Shireen Hamza will be presenting within the panel “New Approaches to the Study of Smell Culture in South Asia”.
Her paper is titled “Therapeutic Tastes and Salubrious Scents in Waterside Spaces”. Shireen Hamza forms part of our international team for the ARC Discovery Project, “Pursuing Public Health in the Pre-industrial World, 1100-1800”. How timely that she is presenting on the history and the study of smell culture! Our research group recently held a seminar to discuss the role of smell in public health. We shared insights based on both Shireen’s and Rose Byfleet‘s work, and discussed the work of Katelynn Robinson and James McHugh, the conflation in scholarship of terms miasma and (bad) odour (to be untangled!), and the renewed importance of appreciating smell in history.
Shireen will be presenting alongside Aditya Harchand (“Perfumes for the People: Snuffs, Sharbats, and Home Remedies in Colonial Tamil Nadu”), and Giti Datt (“Attar: Materials, Processes and Future”). The panel will be chaired by non other than James McHugh, whose work we as a team read and discussed only a week ago.
More information about the Conference Programme and other papers can be found here.
Image: Frontcover of McHugh, J. Sandalwood and Carrion: Smell in Indian Religion and Culture. (Oxford University Press USA, 2012)
