Expertise:

Law and society; Culture and the constitution; Body and society; Senses and society; Sensory perception; Art and society; Medicine and society; Alternative medicine and society; Museums; Culture and consumption , economic medical psychological legal aesthetic

Language(s) spoken:

English, French (able to conduct interviews in French)

David Howes is a Canadian anthropologist and legal scholar. He is a Full Professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology and Co-Director of the Centre for Sensory Studies at Concordia University, and (since 2012) an Adjunct Professor in the Faculty of Law at McGill University.

Howes is best known as a pioneer of the anthropology of the senses and theorist of the interdisciplinary field of sensory studies. He has authored, co-athored or edited 14 books, ranging from The Varieties of Sensory Experience (1991) to Sensorial Investigations (2023). He has published numerous journal articles in such fields as medical anthropology, psychology of perception, sensory museology, material culture, and cross-cultural aesthetics as well as Canadian and US constitutional law, legal pluralism and cross-cultural jurisprudence.

Howes co-founded the journal The Senses and Society (with Michael Bull, Paul Gilroy and Doug Kahn) in 2006, and has served as the general editor of the Sensory Formations book series (2003–2009) and the new Sensory Studies book series from Routledge (2015– ).

Howes has conducted field research on the social and cultural life of the senses in Papua New Guinea, Northwestern Argentina, and the Southwestern United States. He recently wrapped up a project on “Law and the Regulation of the Senses” and is currently directing a project called “Explorations in Sensory Design.”

Howes is a past holder of the Chaire Jacques Leclercq at the Université Catholique Louvain (2018) and was awarded the title of Distinguished Research Professor by Concordia University in 2021.

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