Woman Says She Couldn't Sleep for Days After Facing 'Intense' Backlash Over Her PhD in ‘the Politics of Smell’ (Exclusive)

Meredith WilshereSun, April 19, 2026 at 2:00 PM UTC

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Credit: Dr. Ally Louks -

Dr. Ally Louks earned a PhD in olfactory ethics, studying the politics of smell in modern literature

A celebratory post about her achievement went viral, sparking both praise and backlash, including accusations that she was "the face of tyranny"

Despite the controversy, Louks tells PEOPLE that she gained opportunities to share her expertise

Dr. Ally Louks, known as the “doctor of smell,” earned her PhD in olfactory ethics, the "politics of smell in modern and contemporary prose."

However, when she posted a photo of herself to celebrate the achievement in November 2024, it went viral — and seemingly everyone had something to say.

Dr.Louks tells PEOPLE that the online attention “happened by accident.”

“I was generally, up until the end of 2024, a pretty offline person. I really didn't spend much time on social media," the 28-year-old shares. "I had this Twitter account because I started my PhD during the pandemic, when nobody could socialize or make connections. That was my way of talking to people in my discipline and in my subject area."

Credit: Dr. Ally Louks

"I didn't use it very often, but I decided to post about completing my PhD because I knew that a lot of my colleagues were still there and they might be interested in learning that I'd finish my PhD in case they had any postdoctoral opportunities,” she continues.

The photo, showing her holding a hardbound copy of her PhD thesis, “inexplicably went viral," garnering over 130 million views on X.

Dr. Louks says that “it became a locust for the culture wars.”

“A lot of people were really positive and just said, 'Congratulations on your achievement.' But, then there were not quite as many people, but certainly a strong contingent of very loud people, specifically American men who were not pleased for me,” she says, noting that "one of them called me the ‘face of tyranny.' "

For over a week, she says people "channeled their qualms with women and academia and women in academia all into this post."

“It really is not something that I ever could have expected or anticipated, but I'm really proud of the way that I dealt with the situation," she says. "It was a very intense week of my life. I didn't get very much sleep. I was still teaching, and I had this part-time job in the evenings teaching at a gym doing exercise classes, and it was very hectic trying to deal with everything."

Still, she was “quite sympathetic towards” some of the comments that she received, as she admittedly doesn't “expect people to automatically understand where I'm coming from when I say that I work on the politics of smell.”

“It's not something that we tend to think about very often, and it's not clear to the average person who has never thought about how this might happen. I understand that," she shares. "But then there was also a contingent of people who were just angry about everything in a way that was not productive at all."

Credit: Dr. Ally Louks

Despite people's mixed perceptions of her degree, she explains that she studies "the social significance of smell and how smell shapes our identities and how it's represented in literature."

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Thanks to her studies, she has discovered broader implications as to how it affects interpersonal relationships and our cultural consciousness, noting that we are all "taught how to relate to smell" rather than it being an "innate" thing.

Now, whenever there is a conversation on X that pertains to smell, people are quick to tag Dr. Louks to get her opinion on it.

“Because I didn't really use Twitter very much, the algorithm picked up quickly that I was interested in smell," she says. "My entire algorithm was posts about smell. All I had to do was open up Twitter, and I could look at my notifications where people were tagging me in things and just point at things, basically saying, ‘This is an example of this particular phenomenon that I was trying to describe in my thesis.' "

“I really relished being able to connect with so many different people who are all bringing their own individual and cultural experiences with smell to the table," she adds. "It's been a really positive part of my life, despite the way that it started."

Looking back on everything that's happened since the post went viral, Dr. Louks shares that “in many ways, I'm extremely grateful for it.”

“It led to many wonderful opportunities and it gave me a platform to talk about the things that I'm really passionate about, and in some ways, be a voice of reason on a platform that is descending into chaos day by day.”

Dr. Louks aims to get people to think differently about smell than they have before.

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“There are some people who are really difficult to reason with and you can work out who those people are depending on how they speak to you," she says. "There have definitely been situations where naive Ally has gone into it thinking that we could have a productive conversation and realize that there's no way that this is going to be possible."

Credit: Dr. Ally Louks

More often, she shares that “people have been convinced about the subject matter of my work, even if they don't find it that interesting or they might not choose to work on it themselves.”

“I do think that I've gained a sort of basic level of respect on the platform by continuing to engage in good faith. Even if people aren't really interested in my work, most people are now relatively respectful towards me because they know that I'm not going to attack anyone," Dr. Louks shares. "I'm really just here to educate people and to have conversations with people. I'm really not interested in arguing online. I have much better things to do with my life than argue with strangers on the internet."

One of the many things she's working on is a book called Under Your Nose, which is anticipated to be published in spring 2027.

“I've got lots of other tricks up my sleeve, so then I'll just work on other projects,” Dr. Louks shares.

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Original Article on Source

Source: “AOL Entertainment”