Smell and expanding historical research with Dr William Tullett

11/02/22 • 38 min

What's the Point?

Sensory historian Dr William Tullett joins Bryony Armstrong to discuss:

Using smell to engage with the present
The impact of smell research on political choices and environmental justice
Using smell to learn about historical experience
Changing up the hierarchies of senses and historical sources
Why we need to tackle myths about “bad smells”
Why connecting with heritage matters
The impact of the humanities on other disciplines
What you can really do when you study history
The point of humanities in Covid-19 research

Content warning: this episode contains some discussion about racism.
Credit notes:

Sophia Stamatopoulou-Robbins, 'Scratch-and-sniff Palestine: How olfaction shapes nonsovereign infrastructural spaces': https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/02637758221118572
Alex Rhys-Taylor, Food and Multiculture: A Sensory Ethnography of East London: https://www.routledge.com/Food-and-Multiculture-A-Sensory-Ethnography-of-East-London/Rhys-Taylor/p/book/9781472581150
Sentimental Garbage: Costume Dramas with Dr Emma Southon: https://podcasts.apple.com/pl/podcast/costume-dramas-with-dr-emma-southon/id1444729607?i=1000566596029
The artist mentioned is named Michael Pinsky: https://www.capefarewell.com/pollution-pods/

Find Bryony @BF_Armstrong
Find William @WillTullett

Artwork: Riduwan Molla https://www.canva.com/p/riduwanmolla/
Music: Madaan Mansij https://www.pond5.com/artist/mansij_tubescreamer
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Sensory historian Dr William Tullett joins Bryony Armstrong to discuss:

Using smell to engage with the present
The impact of smell research on political choices and environmental justice
Using smell to learn about historical experience
Changing up the hierarchies of senses and historical sources
Why we need to tackle myths about “bad smells”
Why connecting with heritage matters
The impact of the humanities on other disciplines
What you can really do when you study history
The point of humanities in Covid-19 research

Content warning: this episode contains some discussion about racism.
Credit notes:

Sophia Stamatopoulou-Robbins, 'Scratch-and-sniff Palestine: How olfaction shapes nonsovereign infrastructural spaces': https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/02637758221118572
Alex Rhys-Taylor, Food and Multiculture: A Sensory Ethnography of East London: https://www.routledge.com/Food-and-Multiculture-A-Sensory-Ethnography-of-East-London/Rhys-Taylor/p/book/9781472581150
Sentimental Garbage: Costume Dramas with Dr Emma Southon: https://podcasts.apple.com/pl/podcast/costume-dramas-with-dr-emma-southon/id1444729607?i=1000566596029
The artist mentioned is named Michael Pinsky: https://www.capefarewell.com/pollution-pods/

Find Bryony @BF_Armstrong
Find William @WillTullett

Previous Episode

Language learning, gender studies and contemporary culture with Ciara Gorman

PhD researcher Ciara Gorman joins Bryony Armstrong to discuss:

Where the humanities can take you
The study of languages and how people communicate
The importance of languages in political, personal and medical settings
The skills we learn in the humanities classroom
Why the world fears gender studies
Paying attention to contemporary culture

Content warning: this episode contains some discussion about violence against women and mental illness.
Credit note: the linguist referenced is Paula Teixeira Moláns who can be found here: https://www.gla.ac.uk/pgrs/paulateixeiramol%C3%A1ns/. As a clarification, in her talk she was discussing Galician, and said that: 'English has a limited vocabulary and relies on a spatial metaphor such as high and low pitch whilst other languages have other strategies. For instance Galician uses son agudo and grave (as in ‘acute’ or ‘pointy’, and ‘heavy’ or ‘serious’ respectively)'.
Artwork: Riduwan Molla https://www.canva.com/p/riduwanmolla/
Music: Madaan Mansij https://www.pond5.com/artist/mansij_tubescreamer
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Next Episode

Literary studies, feelings and social justice with Dr Xine Yao

Lecturer in American literature Dr Xine Yao joins Bryony Armstrong to discuss:

Why defunding the humanities limits who has cultural capital
Feeling or unfeeling among minoritised groups
How researching literature from the past can teach us about the present
The relationship between humanities and social justice
Why we can’t turn to the humanities unproblematically
Bringing humanities research to the public
The different types of teaching and learning that happen in STEM/A&H classrooms
Why do people in pubs demand that we explain our research, and then criticise it when we do?!
The need for solidarity across STEM/A&H

Content note: this episode contains some discussion about racism and homophobia.
Find Bryony @BF_Armstrong
Find Xine @XineYaoPhD
Artwork: Riduwan Molla https://www.canva.com/p/riduwanmolla/
Music: Madaan Mansij https://www.pond5.com/artist/mansij_tubescreamer
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

What's the Point? - Smell and expanding historical research with Dr William Tullett

Transcript

Bryony Armstrong00:00:04.950

Hello, and welcome to 'What's the Point?' the podcast where we discuss the need for Arts and Humanities today. I'm your host, Bryony Armstrong. We're living in a time when the Arts and Humanities are under threat, and I know this firsthand, having studied both English and maths at university, and now doing a PhD in English. Each week, I'll be joined by a guest talk about what Arts and Humanities do for the world. If you've ever wondered, w