Viktoria von Hoffmann, a permanent researcher from the F.R.S.-FNRS at the University of Liège, has just been awarded a prestigious ERC Consolidator Grant for her project PROXISENSES. With a budget of almost €2 million, this project proposes a bold rethink of the history of science by placing the so-called proximal senses - taste, touch and smell - at the heart of pre-modern scientific and cultural practices.
H
istorically, the senses of taste and touch have been associated with the body, subjectivity, and femininity, leading to the development of devaluing social, gendered, and cultural stereotypes, determining in very concrete terms who had the right to produce knowledge. This marginalisation has been accompanied by an overemphasis on sight and observational practices, which are readily associated with the idea of modernity in the construction of scientific knowledge, often attributed to 17th-century male European scholars. In her project PROXISENSES, Viktoria von Hoffmann challenges this dominant narrative by exploring sensory practices in the Mediterranean between 1350 and 1650, a period rich in intercultural exchanges and craft innovations.
"This project shows that experimental sciences did not originate solely in European laboratories. They were also rooted in the everyday practices of women, craftsmen, and manual workers who, through their sensory interactions with materials such as salt, grapes or fish, have made a significant contribution to the development of knowledge about the natural world", explains Viktoria von Hoffmann, FNRS researcher in the Traverses research unit at ULiège.
Three lines of research for an interdisciplinary approach
Viktoria von Hoffmann's project aims to redefine the history of science by highlighting the proximal senses - taste, touch and smell - which are often marginalised in traditional accounts. Centred on food knowledge, it is organised around three main research strands.
The first strand, practices, will explore the epistemic value of these senses in pre-modern times, showing how concrete gestures such as tasting minerals, handling plants or cutting up fish enabled new knowledge to be uncovered in the fields of mineralogy, botany, and zoology, before the subsequent development of specialised disciplines. The second, people, aims to highlight the contributions of manual workers - craftsmen, farmers, miners, fishermen, wine and fruit merchants, confectioners and pharmacists - who have long been invisible in mainstream scientific accounts. Finally, the third theme, knowledge, will analyse the impact of intercultural Mediterranean exchanges on the construction of knowledge and sensory expertise.
To explore these themes, Viktoria von Hoffmann has chosen three emblematic foods - salt, grapes and fish - that have played a major role in the social, political, and cultural history of the Mediterranean. Each product serves as a starting point for transversal investigations and micro-histories linking local practices to global networks of knowledge.
By combining a variety of sources - natural history treatises, agronomic studies, trial archives, trade manuals, recipe and travel books, correspondence, iconographic documents and material objects - and digital tools, PROXISENSES promises an innovative approach to studying the relationship between the senses, material culture, and scientific knowledge. The project also adopts a decolonial perspective, challenging established hierarchies in the history of science by including marginalised contributions.
An impact beyond history
By reassessing the place of the senses in the history of sciences, PROXISENSES could transform not only our understanding of pre-modern scientific practices, but also disciplines such as cultural and social history. "By placing subjectivity and sensory interactions at the centre of history, we are opening up new perspectives for understanding the links between knowledge, the body, and society," concludes Viktoria von Hoffmann.
ERC Grants are major instruments deployed by the European Research Council to fund research projects in Europe. The extremely selective procedure selects only the best researchers and very high-level research projects, combining boldness and competence to tackle new avenues of research that, if successful, could substantially enrich knowledge.
ERC Consolidator grants are designed to help researchers with between 7 and 12 years' experience since obtaining their doctorate, a highly promising scientific track record and an excellent research proposal.
Every year, the University of Liège's Heritage Foundations award more than 80 prizes and grants to ULiège students and alumni. Several calls have just been launched, so don't hesitate to consult them! (only in French)
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