Olfactory Worldmaking

Olfactory Worldmaking Volume 1 is a scholarly examination of scent as a powerful medium for imagining and inhabiting the world. Written by Hsuan L. Hsu and published by the University of Minnesota Press, this work of politics and social sciences explores how olfactory experiences communicate through material and affective registers. The text analyzes how smell challenges the extractive logics associated with colonial capitalism and racial structures.

By blending sensory studies, critical ethnic studies, and environmental humanities, Olfactory Worldmaking Volume 1 presents olfaction as a reparative and speculative practice. The author examines conceptual art, experimental perfumes, memoirs, and speculative fiction to show how scent animates marginalized memories and suppressed histories. This analysis reveals how sensory experiences can foster alternative ways of relating to others and create more equitably livable worlds.