In her book Sensational Knowledge (Wesleyan University Press, 2007) ethnomusicologist and dancer Tomie Hahn PhD '97 uncovers the process and nuances of learning nihon buyo, a traditional Japanese danceform.  She examines how music and dance may reveal the ways in which a community interacts with the world and how the senses play a part in communicating cultural knowledge.

Hahn cites case studies of dancers at all levels, as well as her own firsthand experiences, to investigate the complex language of bodies, especially across cultural divides.  Paying particular attention to the effect of body-to-body transmission, and how culturally constructed processes of transmission influence our sense of self, Hahn argues that the senses facilitate the construction of "boundaries of existence" that define our physical and social worlds.  In this lucid and personal text, Hahn reveals the ways in which culture shapes our attendance to various sensoria, and how our interpretation of sensory information shapes our individual realities.  The book includes a DVD providing visual examples.

Hahn is currently an associate professor in the department of the arts at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.