Nostalgia for Armpit Goats? Body Odor and Biopower

Wednesday, Nov. 17, 11:30a to 12:30p at Coalesce (308 Hochstetter)

Bodies smell.  But what does that mean?  Since the Roman Empire took on “armpit goats,” governing body odor has been used as a signal of progress and civilization.  Yet the odiferous sweat from an honest day’s work can evoke nostalgia in today’s world of hi-tech mechanized labor.

Join us for a lively interdisciplinary demonstration and conversation between two very different scholars of the senses:  Cari Casteel, a historian of commercial deodorants in the U.S., and Paul Vanouse, a new media artist who has cultivated vats of sweat bacteria for his recent work “Labor.” Together they explore the intimacy of the armpit showing how olfactive identities are created, reinforced, and consumed.

For more information, contact Dr. David Herzberg at herzberg@buffalo.edu