SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS Enter the weird world of academic celebrity, where leading scholars double as perfume ambassadors. BY ROSE HOROWITCH
The fashion house had selected the Yale psychology professor for its ad campaign celebrating the 100th anniversary of the creation of Chanel Nº5, the scent that Coco Chanel said smelled “like a woman, not like a rose.” Chanel was recognizing a new sort of celebrity—a nontraditional, more egalitarian one exemplified by writers and journalists. In the video, Santos, who both studies celebrity and has become famous herself, suggests that a fascination with celebrity is intertwined with human DNA—it has always been present, albeit in different forms. However, the rise of social media, she notes, has altered the way people relate to celebrities: famous people are more accessible to their fans, and ordinary people can become famous overnight. “The famous people are becoming not so different from us and the everyday regular people are becoming famous,” Santos said at the end of the commercial. “So I think this is a real revolution in the way celebrity is playing out in our culture right now.” Santos’ research centers on animal psychology. 4
But she is well-known beyond academic circles for her class titled “Psychology and the Good Life,” the most popular course ever offered at Yale. In 2018, Santos began teaching the course online under the title “The Science of Well Being.” In the three years since, more than three million people have taken the class. In 2019, Santos expanded her audience and launched The Happiness Lab Podcast, which has more than thirty-five million downloads. In recognition of her status, she was named TIME’s “Leading Campus Celebrity.” Since launching the podcast, she’s been recognized in the airport and while completing curbside pickup at Target. “That feels really weird, but it’s [only] a few people,” Santos said. “It’s not like I’m Beyoncé.” Santos told me that she does not consider herself “fashion commercial material.” She remained adamant that she does not fit into the category of academic celebrity and said she doesn’t know of many academics who have become famous for their work. She seemed to suggest that fame is outside of the realm of academia and scholarship—an idea that might once have been true but which researchers now call into question. Though Santos said she does not see herself as a celebrity, she is part of an emerging trend that Oxford University researcher Peter William Walsh has dubbed “celebrity academics.” He provided the examples of Judith Butler and Anthony Giddens. Academic celebrities, he explained, differ from scholT HE NEW JOUR NAL
ILLUSTRATION & DESIGN BY ALLY SOONG
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rofessor Laurie Santos stands before a dark background, wearing a simple blue shirt and black jacket. She speaks deliberately and warmly—almost like a grade school teacher—as she traces celebrity’s etymology from the ancient Greeks’ devotion to their constellary gods on Mount Olympus to cosmopolitan stars in the modern era. Then a giant bottle of Chanel Nº5 fills the screen.
