Welcome to our Smells and Bells Spring 2026 Blog!

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or 6?


5 senses...

For each of your blog posts, the prompt is to respond to the senses by drawing from your own experiences or/and or what's going on in the world around you, in a way that illuminates something about the senses under discussion. 
Sensory Interpretation Web Blog Posts (8 posts: 1 on Ackerman's book; 6 posts on each of the senses, and 1 final summarizing summarizing blog post the last week of class.  5% each  for a total of 40%).  These are short reflection writing assignments to be posted on a blog set up specifically for this class here. Students will "log" what they are learning about the relationship between the senses and "religious" experience throughout the term, and be able to comment on one another's questions and insights.  Make sure you have one post each tagged with "taste", "smell", "hearing", "sight", "touch" or "6th sense."  To assure you will get credit for covering each of the six senses in your blog posts, edit them to make sure they have these tags.  
Ideally, in your 6 blog posts on the senses, you should not only respond to each of the six senses, but also refer to at least on of the required  readings that deal with specifically to each of the required books (even if it's as a starting point to make your own point), namely,
  1. Diane Ackerman, Natural History of the Senses, Vintage, 1990)
  2. Constance Classen, The Deepest Sense: A Cultural History of Touch (U. Illinois, 2012) TOUCH
  3. Deborah Green, The Aroma of Righteousness: Scent and Seduction in Rabbinic Life and Literature (Penn State, 2011) SMELL
  4. Elizabeth Pérez Religion in the Kitchen : Cooking, Talking, and the Making of Black Atlantic Traditions (2016) TASTE
  5. Diana Eck, Darsan: Seeing the Divine Image in India VISION
  6. Anne Rasmussen, Women, The Recited Qur’an, and Islamic Music in Indonesia (U. California, 2010) HEARING
  7. David Abram, The Spell of the Sensuous: Perception and Language in a More Than Human World (Vintage, 1997) and/or Jeffrey Kripal, Authors of the Impossible: The Paranormal as Sacred
Likewise, tag the post that mention these authors with their last name, e.g., "Perez", "Eck", "Abram".
***In your posts, use images or sounds as well as words to convey your points! Finally, you must contribute at least ten comments to any of your fellow students' blog posts during the course of the term. These are both for your own benefit - to get you to begin to think analytically, to focus your thoughts on what you're learning, and for the class as a whole - to stimulate class discussions. (Preparation of the readings and class participation will be evaluated primarily on the basis of your contributions to our blog, and count for 40% [!] of the course grade.)

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