90 – Multisensory Insights into Histories of Anticolonialism
This panel calls for papers that explore how histories of anticolonialism might be informed by integrated multisensory perspectives and methodologies. Since the ‘visual turn,’ the discipline of history has undergone seismic shifts in terms of moving away from its earlier reliance on texts as archives. There is now a surge in interest in sound as a method, evidenced by several definitive monographs in South Asian Studies in the last five years. Taking such texts as inspiration and provocation, we submit that historical understandings are substantially enriched by an awareness of how sensory inputs such as smell and touch shape, preclude or enable anticolonial politics. This panel invites scholars to reflect on how multisensory approaches to historical phenomena are enriched by sensitivities to the interplay of visual, textual, aromatic, and haptic experiences in anticolonial contexts. In doing so, we hope to expand the horizons of knowledge, reflecting upon historical challenges, opportunities and importance of embracing the sensory turn.