Friday, April 30, 2027 at 4:00 pm
UB Humanities Institute and Hallwalls Contemporary Art Center present
Join us for the inaugural Scholars@Hallwalls talk of the 2026-27 season! Complimentary beverages and light fare are served for a brief, pre-talk mingling session.
4:00pm | Mingling
4:15pm | Introductions and featured talk followed by Q + A
We hope you'll join us in-person for the good camraderie and conversation, but you can also join the livestream via the Hallwalls website.
Among the rich variety of substances that flowed into premodern China via the Silk Roads, aromatics figured prominently, including saffron from Kashmir, camphor from Sumatra, and frankincense from Arabia. Introduced by envoys, monks, and traders via both overland and maritime routes, these fragrant materials acquired diverse virtues in Chinese medical, religious, and culinary culture. By focusing on the medicinal uses of these aromatics in Tang and Song China with attention to the role of smell in healing, this talk reveals the dynamic process of producing new olfactory knowledge and sensorial experience upon cross-cultural interplay.
Yan Liu specializes in the history of medicine and pharmacy in premodern China, with a focus on material practices of healing, the history of the body and the senses, and the global circulation of knowledge. His first book, Healing with Poisons: Potent Medicines in Medieval China, was published by the University of Washington Press in 2021 (open access available). He is currently examining a transcultural history of aromatics across Asia and the production of olfactory knowledge in China from the 7th to the 13th century.