Hsuan L. Hsu is a Professor in the Department of English at UC Davis, specializing in American literature, race studies, literary geography, and the environmental humanities. His research focuses on olfaction as a mode of aesthetic practice that is both spatially extensive and capable of biochemically transforming bodies, minds, and moods. His forthcoming book, The Smell of Risk: Olfactory Aesthetics and Atmospheric Disparities (NYU Press), explores how writers, artists, and activists have experimented with smell as a medium for staging modernity’s unevenly distributed atmospheres. Other recent publications include articles on the olfactory artworks of Boris Raux, Sean Raspet, Anicka Yi, and Peter De Cupere; an edited article cluster on “Literary Atmospherics” (Literary Geographies); a Broadview edition of Edith Maude Eaton’s Mrs. Spring Fragrance; and an article on “Naturalist Smellscapes and Environmental Justice” (American Literature). Broadly, Hsu is interested in how sensory aesthetics inflects perceptions and experiences of race, disability, place, and atmosphere.

In 2020, Hsuan left Concordia to take up a position in the Department of English at the University of California, Davis. He remains an Affiliate Member.