CFP: Smell Studies Journal

General Editors: Will Tullett, University of York and Manon Raffard, University of Manchester.

Editorial board: Andrew Kettler, Chanelle Dupuis, Jayanthan Sriram, Ally Louks, Hsuan Hsu, Sandra Barré.

Despite a proliferation of interdisciplinary grant-funded projects on smell, several international conferences dedicated to olfaction, extensive interest from within and outside academia, and a growing literature - the field of Smell Studies is not currently served by its own English-language journal. Smell Studies Journal will be the first international peer-reviewed journal devoted to the field of interdisciplinary Smell Studies. The journal’s goal is to promote new research and foster intellectual exchange in the growing field ofSmell Studies, which encompasses work across disciplines such as history, geography, anthropology, art history, literature, architecture, sociology, philosophy, environmental humanities, and practice-based arts and performance research.

The journal, which will initially have one issue per year, will publish research articles, book reviews, as well as shorter opinion pieces and creative work. Research articles will be evaluated through an open peer review process by members of scientific boards and the editorial board. We would also seek to welcome special issues should such proposals be forthcoming. Pairing academic analysis and theoretical reading with the increased interest in smell and scent in public, the Smell Studies Journal aims to sustain the evolving community of scholars working in the field.

Smell Studies Journal will focus specifically on olfaction as a critical object of inquiry, welcoming all approaches from across the humanities and humanistic social sciences. Unlike vision or sound, smell resists representation and archiving, raising methodological challenges that demand a dedicated space for scholarly debate. Olfaction is also irreducibly political: scholarship on smell has illuminated inequalities and injustice in ways that other sensory approaches have not.

The journal welcomes contributions from across the humanities and humanistic social sciences, including but not limited to history, cultural history, literary studies, art history, aesthetics, cultural studies, environmental humanities, heritage studies, and curatorial and museum studies. While the journal does not exclude work from the natural or cognitive sciences, submissions from those fields are expected to engage substantively with humanistic frameworks and critical theory. The journal publishes peer-reviewed research articles, opinion essays and interviews, creative works, and reviews of books and exhibitions.

We are currently planning the first few issues of the journal. These will appear in a prospectus to a leading academic press who have solicited a proposal for consideration. If we are successful in getting the journal a home then it is likely the first issue will appear in early 2028. As such, this is an initial call for articles, opinion essays, creative work, and reviews of books and exhibitions. We are accepting abstracts for research articles, and ideas for reviews, opinion pieces, creative work, and interviews. Specifically, for research articles please submit a title, 250-word abstract, and either a short biography or a link to where such a biography can be found online. For all other work, or to gauge interest in a research article prior to sending an abstract please e-mail smellstudiesjournal@gmail.com.

Initial submissions of abstracts and initial inquiries for the first few issues are requested by the deadline of 1st of August 2026. Continued submissions beyond that date are also open for future issues and for general interest in Smell Studies Journal. Completed submissions for the first issue would be requested for January 1 of 2027, with reviews and editing in Spring and Summer of 2027.