University Forum- Scent: A Natural History of Fragrance
When
Campus Location
Office/Remote Location
Description
Drawing from her 2022 Yale University Press publication of the same name, Dr. Elise Pearlstine's lecture, "Scent: A Natural History of Fragrance," will engage what anthropologist David Howes calls the "sensory turn" in the social sciences and humanities, a decentering consideration of "how the senses are constructed and lived differently across cultures and periods," outside of the familiar discourses of psychology or aesthetics, which have long privileged sight and sound.
Pearlstine, a practicing and scholarly perfumer, is interested in what the fragrances drawn from woods, flowers, spices, and herbs have meant to humans throughout history and across the globe, from prehistory to today. But, as a scientist, she foregrounds the origins of fragrance in and for nature. Her lecture will describe the fascinating ways those stories come together.
Price
Free
Admission Information
Open to the public.