Anosmia in Culture and History: Smell Losses/Smell Lessons
Anosmia in Culture and History is a King’s Together-funded multidisciplinary project bringing together researchers from within King’s and beyond to create a unique dialogue around smell loss, including historical, literary, clinical and scientific perspectives.
The aim of the project is to elucidate anosmia’s history, representation and its meaning. The word ‘anosmia’ — the loss of the sense of smell — was coined around 1810, appearing thereafter in early nineteenth-century medical encyclopaedias. The Covid-19 pandemic, with its associated smell loss conditions, has subsequently brought anosmia to widespread scientific and public attention.
The project will frame the significant questions around the cultural meaning of anosmia through interdisciplinary workshops over the autumn of 2022 and beyond.
Principal Investigator
Reader in Eighteenth-Century and Romantic Literature