Professor Clare Mac Cumhaill works at Durham University in the UK. She is interested in many areas of philosophy, but has recently worked on the history of British Moral Philosophy in the 20th century, with a focus on what is sometimes known as the 'Wartime Quartet' and related figures. In philosophy of perception, she is particularly interested in our experience of spatial regions, our experience of aesthetic and formal objects, and more recently perceptual forms of orientation with respect to value.

Abstract:

Staring Dangerously: Perceptual Placement and Practices of Looking

Abstract: In this talk, I introduce the idea of perceptual placement and I explain how practices of looking are normatively constrained by such placement – here I draw on Elizabeth Anscombe’s conception of stopping and forcing modals (you mustn’t, you have to etc.). I then show how such modals may lose their grip in the presence of certain kinds of aesthetic objects or in contexts where our mode of engagement is chiefly aesthetic. I finally consider how philosophy can help foster new ways of finding oneself perceptually placed and so give new reasons for looking, taking bell hooks’ conception of ‘the oppositional gaze’ as a case study.

Dr Will Tullett is Senior Lecturer in Early Modern History at the University of York and his main research interest is the history of smell. He helped lead the major Horizon 2020 Odeuropa project and he is currently the lead investigator on the British-Academy-funded 'Sniffer in Residence' project collaborating with Industrial Museums Scotland. His first two books were Smell in Eighteenth Century England (Oxford University Press, 2019) and Smell and the Past (Bloomsbury Academic, 2023). His latest book, Sniff: A History of Smells, will be published by Yale University Press on 8th September 2026.

Abstract:

Smelling Nostalgically: A History of Smelling the Past

Abstract: The link between smell, memory, and nostalgia is so taken for granted that it has rarely been explored by sensory historians. In this paper I use examples from across twentieth-century to consider the relationship between smell and the perception of the past in modern Britain. From steam locomotives and paraffin lamps to baked bread and the smell of village shops, this paper considers what it meant to smell nostalgically in modern Britain and what this might tell us about the history and psychology of smelling. 

Dr Ludmila Lupinacci (she/her) is Lecturer in Digital Media and Deputy Director of Research and Innovation in the School of Media and Communication, University of Leeds.  Her research brings together media phenomenology and critical platform studies, focusing on social media in everyday life. She has written about the experience of mindlessly scrolling through endless feeds, the perceived temporalities of algorithmic platforms, and the construction of a sense of ‘liveness’ despite technical mediation. Her work has been featured in New Media & Society, Information, Communication & Society, and Media, Culture & Society. She is currently interested in the platformisation of atmospheres, moods, and vibes.

Abstract:

No thoughts, just vibes: digital platforms and the mediation of atmospheres

‘Vibe’ has become the vernacular of choice for describing algorithmically facilitated affective atmospheres, and the term is now widely used to emphasise the increasing mediation and commodification of both human feelings and ambient energies. Although vibes could be easily dismissed as another meaningless example of internet buzzword in a context of generalised ‘brain rot’, I take them seriously as an object of study, arguing that in order to understand contemporary sociotechnical formations we must account for and comprehend the cultural shift in which vibes became a central resource for subjectivity, sociality, and politics. In this talk, I approach the study of ‘vibes’ from a critical-phenomenological perspective, discussing potential pathways for theorising and empirically capturing a tonality of feeling that is inherently transitory, fleeting, and often impossible to describe. I discuss why and how ‘vibes’ acquired such a central role in contemporary digital culture, focusing on recent case studies in which ‘vibing’ is repackaged not as a backdrop to mediated experience but rather as a product in and of itself. In doing so, I shed light on the tentative orchestration of individual and collective sensual/affective experience.

Dr Pablo Velasco works on philosophy of mind and cognitive science, and a big aspect of his research lies in interdisciplinary collaboration. He sees philosophy both as a way of advancing interdisciplinary work through the development of solid theoretical foundations, and as a way of connecting scientific advances to pressing social issues. He is particularly interested in navigation and in environmental experience, and my current research explores ecological grief. He has published academic articles in top journals across a variety of disciplines, and his work has received media attention in venues including the New York Times, the BBC, The Guardian, Irish Times, and Le Monde.

Abstract:

Navigation and the senses

Navigation is a fundamental cognitive capacity, and yet, it is incredibly diverse. The traditional understanding of navigation in cognitive science has focused narrowly on visual perception and on internal mental models of the environment. In this talk, I will consider how different cultures of navigation adapt to different environments. I will build on my work with taxi drivers in London, with indigenous sailors in the Marshall Islands and with Evenki hunters in Siberia. I will consider the active engagement of the sense of smell, sound and proprioception in navigation, as well as how finding our way sometimes involves lean embodied approaches rather than heftier internal representations. This cross-cultural overview of navigation will show how different styles of perception in navigation lead to different ways of experiencing the world and of experiencing ourselves in that world.