A social media user recently took to X (formerly Twitter) to share they had completed their doctorate by presenting the dissertation and acing the “viva with no corrections”. While the news of acquiring a PhD would have been fairly innocuous and not invited much traction, the post instead went viral due to the choice of thesis topic by the OP. Dr Ally Louks, the X user, who claims to be teaching at the University of Cambridge, revealed that her thesis topic was “Olfactory Ethics: The Politics of Smell in Modern and Contemporary Prose”, which instantly grabbed the internet’s attention.

“Thrilled to say I passed my viva with no corrections and am officially PhDone,” Dr Louks captioned the post whilst posing with her dissertation. She also shared the abstract of her research to provide “more context for anyone interested in learning” about her work.

“This thesis studies how literature registers the importance of olfactory discourse-the language of smell and the olfactory imagination it creates in structuring our social world,” read the brief.

“The broad aim of this thesis is to offer an intersectional and wide-ranging study of olfactory oppression by establishing the underlying logics that facilitate smell’s application in creating and subverting gender, class, sexual, racial and species power structures,” it added.

Thrilled to say I passed my viva with no corrections and am officially PhDone. pic.twitter.com/4qwCyFYocX

— Dr Ally Louks (@DrAllyLouks) November 27, 2024

Chapter one of the thesis explored how “smell can be used to indicate class antipathies, partly as they relate to homelessness”, by examining George Orwell’s work as well as other popular media creations.

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Internet reacts

As the post went viral, thousands of users descended on Dr Louks’ profile and questioned her for spending time and money, researching a topic that may not have any real-life implications.

“For those of you who can’t translate this academic gobbledygook, let me be your guide: sis literally wrote a PhD thesis on why it’s racist and/or classist to not like it when people stink,” wrote one user, while another added: “How did this dissertation get accepted? It provides nothing of value, and really only sets this woman up to exploit students for their loans…or an email job somewhere.

A third commented: “Tax money well spent. Good luck with the debt.”

While the majority of users criticised the OP for her post, some came to her defence, with one stating: “People are being so mean to this woman for no reason. Some people just want to study books, that’s not a crime.”

“That looks like a super interesting piece of research. I can see people being straight up cruel in replies and quotes and most of them are the usual suspects- racists, misogynists and people who would rather have all education be like trade school,” another added.

As of the last update, the post had garnered 3.2 million views and over 2,000 comments.