Knowing by Sensing

URL study guide

https://studiegids.vu.nl/en/courses/2025-2026/L_GAMAGES034

Course Objective

This course teaches students about the history of the senses and invites them to not just study the senses as a theme or topic, but to use the senses as analytical tools in academic study, including historical and text analyses, and even in daily life. At the end of the course:Students will be able to discern between more than the 5 classic senses through small experimentsStudents will be familiar with the most important (medical, scientific and cultural) concepts and elements in the history of the senses in modern and early modern Europe (1500-now) and are able to relate those developments to their own research through their final presentation and assignment).Students learn to enlarge their sensory vocabulary (especially for senses other than sight, intersensory phenomena and beyond the exteroceptive senses), to reflect on sensory perception and to actively reproduce that language throughout the course and to apply this in their final presentation and assignment)Students will learn to use their senses as analytical and to communicative tools in academic study by adopting different kinds of knowing through sensing and sensory skills and by creating their own sound
- and scentscapes and/or embodiment exercises which they will apply in the final presentation. They will be guided step by step throughout the entire course to work towards that.

Course Content

Throughout history the senses have been important means and objects of communication, art and knowledge. The senses offer scholars and scientists intriguing topics that transcend disciplinary, chronologic and geographic boundaries. But beyond this the senses are valuab le methodological tools, that provide us with different types of knowledge than text and image alone can convey. In our digital and visually oriented age of social media and the internet, the senses and the body are undervalued and underestimated – especially in academia. Even when scholars study the senses, they are sometimes hesitant to engage with them: they remain the object of study, but aren’t considered informative in themselves. This course teaches students to include different senses in the production of knowledge, to train their sensory gaze, and to be able to describe sensory phenomena. The course addresses disciplines such as medicine, medical history, museology, heritage, (art-)history and topics such as well-being, art and inclusion. An inter-disciplinary team of experts will address the sense of touch, smell, sight, taste, hearing, synaesthesia and even our interoceptive senses (balance, weight, etc.). It challenges the classical hierarchy of the senses in which only sight and hearing are considered aesthetic and informative tools. Senses, body and mind will work together to fundamentally transform the way in which we know, study, understand and present. Students will participate in a wide variety of lectures, workshops and experiments offered by specialists, including visits to the Rijksmuseum, the 'orgelpark' with organ studies professor Hans Fidom, and a wine tasting session with a neuroscientist specialized in olfactory language. They will (learn to) present their own research through a multi-sensory presentation and become more aware of the relation between the senses, and between the senses and language. Please note that people subscribing to this course, will also need to send an affirmation with a short motivation to [email protected] once they are enrolled (so not before that as sending an email does not guarantee a place!) because there is a max. of 25 students that can be part of this course (so be quick if you want to join it and only enroll if you are sure you will take this course!).

Teaching Methods

The course consists of lectures, experiments, excursions and workshops, including visits to relevant institutions and laboratories. Students will only need to pay for the admission for the museum (the tour itself will be offered to us). During the perfume session students will need to acquire a couple of fruits and herbs. All the other excursions and materials will be offered and free of charge.

Method of Assessment

Each week students hand in remarks about one or two articles as homework. The course will be concluded with a multi-sensory presentation and a paper (with sensory illustrations) or design of a (mock) sensory exhibition. The final grade will be determined on the basis of active engagement/ homework (20%), presentation (40%) and paper/ exhibition design (40%).

Literature

David Howes, Empire of the Senses (Oxford, 2005). Additional literature (aimed at all the senses) will be provided during the course. Last year we used:Hammer, G. (2018), “You Can Learn Merely by Listening to the Way a Patient Walks through the Door”: The Transmission of Sensory Medical Knowledge”, in Medical Anthropology Quarterly, (32: 1), pp. 138–154.https://anthrosource.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/maq.12366Ashbrook Harvey, S. (2006), Scenting Salvation
- Ancient Christianity and the Olfactory Imagination, University of California Press, Berkeley, Los Angeles, Londen, 2006Bacci, Francesca and David Melcher edss, Art and the Senses (Oxford, 2011).Bello, P. de, Koureas, G. (eds), Art, History and the Senses
- 1830 to the Present, AshgateClassen, C. et al (1994), Aroma: A cultural history of smell, London.Classen, C. (ed). (2012), The Deepest Sense: A Cultural History of Touch, University of Illinois Press.Classen, C. Other Ways to Wisdom: Learning through the Senses across CulturesIn: International Review of Education / Internationale Zeitschrift fürErziehungswissenschaft / Revue Internationale de l'Education, Vol. 45, No. 3/4, Learning,Knowledge and Cultural Context (1999), pp. 269-280. Springer.Corbin, A., The Foul and the Fragrant, Parijs, 1986Hunt, John Dixon, David Lomas and Michael Corris eds., Art, Word and image – Two Thousand Years of Visual/Textual Interaction, London, 2010.Levant, N., The Multisensory Museum, Rowman & Littlefield: Plymouth, 2014.Smith, M. (2007), “Producing Sense, Consuming Sense, Making Sense: Perils and Prospects for Sensory History”, in Journal of Social History (40: 4), pp. 841-58.Verbeek, C. (2017), “Presenting volatile heritage: Two case studies on olfactory reconstructions in the museum”, In : Future Anterior (13: 2), pp. 33-42.Verbeek, C. Campen, C. van (2013), “Inhaling Memories: Smell and Taste Memories in Art, Science and Practice”, in The Senses & Society (8:2), pp. 133-148.

Target Audience

The course is open to students MA History: Global Perspectives. Other MA or MSc students are also welcome to join, including, students of art-history, medicine, heritage, multimodal communication, literature, anthropology, neurology or psychology. These diverse backgrounds will be of additional value in the discussions and assignments.

Custom Course Registration

Please note that people subscribing to this course, will also need to send an affirmation with a short motivation to [email protected] due to popularity, and that there is a max. of 25 students that can take part of this course (so be quick if you want to join it!).

Additional Information

Please note that this course takes place on campus. Students' spending will add up to ca. 50 euros.

Recommended background knowledge

No pre-existing knowledge required.

Explanation Canvas

The wine tasting will be with non-alcoholic wine. All the food will be vegan.