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SESSION 1.2.1 Keynote. Sensory Studies 2026: A State-of-the-Art Review

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What:
Keynote
When:
4:00 PM, Wednesday 7 May 2025 (1 hour 30 minutes)
Where:
Concordia University EV Building - EV 1.605   Virtual session
This session is in the past.
The virtual space is closed.
Theme:
Hybrid
2026 will mark the 20th anniversary of the launch of The Senses and Society and coining of the term ‘sensory studies.’ Senses and Society was founded by Michael Bull and David Howes (who have alternated in the role of Managing Editor every 3-4 years) and Doug Kahn and Paul Gilroy. The term sensory studies was selected (over e.g. ‘sensography’) and used in the title of the inaugural article, ‘Introducing Sensory Studies,’ in order to serve as an umbrella term for the multiple subdisciplines that contributed to the genesis of this emergent field of study (e.g. history of the senses, anthropology of the senses, media studies, etc.) and the multiple extant interdisciplinary fields of inquiry that divide up the sensorium (visual culture, auditory culture (or sound studies), taste cultures, etc.). The inaugural article advanced a series of tenets, such as ‘the perceptual is cultural and political’ and ‘The senses mediate the relationship between self and society, mind and body, idea and object. The senses are everywhere.’ We also envisioned the journal as offering an antidote to the ‘logocentrism and ocularcentrism’ of conventional social scientific accounts of meaning and problematize the increasingly homogenized notion of ‘the body.’ The article concluded with the promise: ‘Readers may expect to find something for or about each of their senses in virtually every issue.’ In this presentation, we reflect on our stewardship of the journal and ever-evolving meaning and scope of ‘sensory studies’ as a term of art.

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