Our series on “The Senses in the Renaissance” continues in January with a lecture by James McHugh, Professor of South Asian religions at the University of Southern California. More details coming soon.
James McHugh is a scholar of pre-modern South Asian texts, history, and religions, working with sources in Sanskrit (also Pali and Prakrit), with a focus on cultural history and material culture. McHugh’s first book, Sandalwood and Carrion (Oxford University Press, 2012) studies the sense of smell and the use of aromatics and perfumes in pre-modern Indian culture and religion. His second book, An Unholy Brew: Alcohol in Indian History and Religion (Oxford University Press, 2021) is the first comprehensive monograph on the history of alcohol (and some drugs) in pre-modern India. Based on the study of texts in Sanskrit and related languages, along with fieldwork in India and China to study traditional fermentation methods.