She posted about her PhD, and went viral in the worst possible way

When Ally Louks posted last week that she was “PhDone” with her English literature thesis, she didn’t expect to find herself at the centre of a culture war.

Louks posted a picture of herself on X, formerly known as Twitter, smiling proudly and holding a bound copy of her University of Cambridge thesis on the “politics of smell” in literature. 

One week later, the seemingly innocuous post has been viewed 117.1 million times, made headlines around the world, and put Louks on the receiving end of plenty of praise but also heaps of hate, including a rape threat that’s now under investigation by police.

“I couldn’t possibly have anticipated that this post would even go beyond my little academic community on Twitter of about 200 people,” Louks told As It Happens host Nil Köksal. 

Nevertheless, the newly minted doctor of literature says she’s taking it all in stride. 

“I’m honestly doing just fine,” she said. “I really haven’t taken the vitriol to heart because it’s ultimately not really about me or my work.”

What’s the backlash?

At the heart of the backlash is the title of Louks’s thesis, visible in the photo: “Olfactory Ethics: The Politics of Smell in Modern and Contemporary Prose.”

CBC reviewed dozens of comments on the post, many from men saying the topic was too “woke,” or a waste of time and money. Others suggested women don’t belong in academia.

“What a stupid f–king thing to ‘study,'” wrote one person. 

“You have made no valuable contributions in your thesis, and perhaps in your entire life,” wrote another. 

“You would have spent your years better by getting married and having children,” someone else posted.

Louks says she doesn’t take it personally. 

“I do think that it’s clear that misogyny is at play, especially since I’m a young and high achieving woman,” she said.

“But I also think there’s a kind of broader arc here going on about people questioning the value of literary study and of the humanities and, indeed, of academia.”

She says she let most of the comments slide, even the ones that appeared threatening.

“However, I did receive one rape threat in my personal inbox, which I felt really significantly crossed the line because my email was not readily available on the internet, so that person had to go to some trouble to find it,” she said. 

CBC was unable to reach the University of Cambridge or Cambridgeshire Police in England for comment before deadline. A police spokesperson confirmed to BBC News that it has received a complaint, and opened an investigation. 

How did Louks respond?

Louks says she decided not to lock her account or take the post down. She also isn’t squabbling with commenters.

“I didn’t want them to think that they’d chased me off or that they’d affected me in any way because they truly haven’t,” she said. “I do feel safe.”

The barrage of hate, she says, was quickly followed by a surge of support. 

“This has been a bit of a case study in how we present ourselves online,” she said.

“Being polite and respectful has actually done something kind of magical here in that so many people have rallied around me and supported me just because I didn’t stoop to the level of the online trolls.”

So what about those ‘olfactory ethics’?

As for her thesis, she admits it’s a pretty niche topic. But she says the whole point of a PhD is to “contribute to knowledge in a unique new fashion.”

Still, she says her work has something to offer to the broader public.

By examining descriptions of smell in literature, she highlighted how those descriptions can be weaponized to reinforce sexism, racism and other social stigmas —  for example, “the attribution of a foul smell to the Black body during the transatlantic slave trade as a tool of dehumanization.”

“I really hope that people are more aware of smell when they’re reading. I think that would be a fantastic upshot of all of this,” she said.

“I mean, obviously it’s not going to cure cancer, but I think it has wide-ranging applications.”

But even the study of more specific topics have value, she says. 

“I would really hate for anyone to be discouraged from studying something that they think is worthwhile and actually that they’re interested in,” she said. “The pursuit of knowledge in and of its own right is worthwhile.”