Sensory studies arises at the conjuncture (and within) the fields of anthropology • sociology • history • archeology • geography • communications • religion • philosophy • literature • art history • museology • film • mixed media • performance • phenomenology • disability • aesthetics • architecture • urbanism • design

Sensory Studies can also be divided along sensory lines into, for example, visual culture, auditory culture (or sound studies), smell culture, taste culture and the culture of touch, not to mention the sixth sense (however it might be defined)

Research profile >> Olivier Wathelet

Institut Paul Bocuse Research Center, Lyon, France.

Anthropology/Cognitive Ethnography – Smell – The Five Senses – Sensory Skills – Culinary Practices – Cultural Transmission – Technology and the Senses

Olivier Wathelet holds a Ph.D in anthropology of the senses from Nice-Sophia Antipolis University (France). His thesis (on-line at tel.archives-ouvertes.fr/tel-00431113/fr/), is entitled “Anthropology of sensory knowledge and know-how transmission: A case study of the transmission of an olfactory patrimony within the family.” It concerns the contribution of culture to perceptual skills, and is specifically focussed on the intra-familial modes of transmission of olfactory knowledge and know-how (in France and French speaking Belgium). , by using a research agenda we call « cognitive ethnography of perceptions ». The ethnographic work shows the existence of forms of olfactive skills that are related to the performance of activities in several domains, notably culinary skills, body care techniques (beauty treatments, cosmetics) and domestic hygiene maintenance. 

Currently, as a post-doctoral fellow, he develops a multi-sensory ethnography of professional and everyday cooking in France, working on video-interview methods to elicit tacit knowledge and judgment implied in decision making and technology interaction. His broad research program aims to foster an anthropology of materials that connects study of the senses and focus on cognitive dimension of judgment of tangibility within specific practices.