Sensory Studies for a More-than-human World

‘Sensory Studies for a More-than-human World’ establishes a major new international network of scholars who, together, will explore how we understand and communicate the ways in which living beings perceive the world and each other. Context: Recently, researchers across the humanities and social sciences have begun to explore past and present cultures of experience through ‘Sensory Studies’. In their concern with embodied experiences, these scholars have developed groundbreaking approaches for analysing and dissecting the cultures, spaces, and times of sensation. Meanwhile, scientists working in the field of ‘Sensory Ecology’ have generated exciting discoveries about the realities of animal sensing, such as fish that ‘see’ through touch. Significantly, however, there is virtually no dialogue between these fields. By bringing them together, we can understand the astonishing diversity of living worlds in new ways and develop innovative means of communicating those realities. The Challenge: Understanding and communicating the wonders of diverse sensory worlds to a nonspecialist audience is of the utmost urgency. The natural environment is bursting with variation and is rapidly changing. Some of these changes are anthropogenic, including the proliferation of light pollution, which directly impacts on the sensory lives of living beings. The empathy of the nonspecialist is an essential foundation for the development of effective conservation strategies for environments both near and far. This project will discover new ways of understanding and communicating sensory experiences in order to elicit and sustain this empathy. Aims and Objectives We address this challenge by building a network of researchers across ‘Sensory Ecology’ and ‘Sensory Studies’. Embedded in institutions across the Global South and North, they will enter sustained dialogue focussed on the problems and possibilities of understanding and communicating sensory diversity across species. In online and in-person gatherings with agenda-setting open-ended discussion, frameworks involving established and more recent concepts will be developed to help the network understand and communicate sensory diversity. One key objective is to identify a pipeline of emerging ECR scholars whom we can mentor and build into the network’s activity. Another key objective is to ensure that the network is informed and enriched by non-HEI stakeholders. We will do this by partnering with two cutting-edge science communication organisations: the Bristol Natural History Consortium, and Day’s Edge Productions. Both are already invested in exploring how the realities of diverse sensory worlds can be better communicated to a public audience. A final objective is that, by building a robust and innovative network, we have existing academic and non-HEI expertise in place to apply for ambitious international research funding. Applications and Benefits: Sensory Studies and Sensory Ecology will be enriched - and become interwoven - through sustained engagement. ECRs will benefit from a research infrastructure that can support current research and prepare them for future research opportunities. All participants will benefit from co-production of an innovative framework for continued study and priming for future funding applications. The public and the wider research community will benefit from the emergence of new modes of immersive sensory science communication.