Instructor, Researcher, Author, Historian
Dr. Marlen Elliot Harrison is a professor and academic researcher whose main interests currently are sensory history and historical fiction. His autoethnographic and scholarly writing has appeared in such prestigious peer-reviewed publications as Writing on the Edge, The Qualitative Report, and Qualitative Research in Psychology. As a journalist, Marlen was the managing editor of the international beauty website, Fragrantica, and contributor to numerous popular publications. As an academic and cultural researcher, Marlen was the founder/editor of The AutoEthnographer Literary & Arts Magazine (2021-2025), and has worked with Smithsonian, the Japan Association for Language Teaching, and universities around the globe. Marlen is currently pursuing an MFA in Creative Writing and MA in Public History from SNHU in support of his debut work of historical fiction and immersive historical exhibit, The Perfumer of Ashur, while teaching online graduate English and education courses at SNHU and Tiffin University. A passionate group fitness instructor and 200 HR certified Yoga instructor, Marlen also loves teaching dance fitness and Pilates. After calling Japan, UK, Malta, and Finland home, he now lives in Florida with his husband and dog.
Upcoming Novels
The Perfumer of Ashur
The Perfumer of Ashur is Marlen’s debut work of historical fiction. In the ancient Mesopotamian kingdom of Ashur, a headstrong perfumer’s vision for a new kind of perfume is challenged when the actions of a ruthless colleague and mad king threaten to deter her progress and destroy those she loves.
VISIT →
The Queen’s Apothecary
The Queen’s Apothecary enters the private world of Elizabeth I through Hugh Morgan, the apothecary who served the queen at the end of her reign. Through scented waters, medicines, and aromatic remedies, the novel explores their evolving relationship and the ways fragrance becomes entwined with memory, power, danger, and time.
COMING SOON
Ōsaka
Ōsaka follows two young women who inherit their family’s rival Incense houses. As Japan opens to the world, the traditions of kōdō offer them a language for memory, identity, and one another. Ōsaka is a sensory historical novel about friendship, change, and what survives when one world gives way to another.
COMING SOON
Recognition
Tiffin University
2024 Excellence in Online Teaching Award
Indiana University of Pennsylvania
2010 President’s Award for Service to the University
Southern New Hampshire University
2024 Outstanding Online Instructor
Japan Association of Language Teaching
2006 Best of JALT Award
Recent Projects
The AutoEthnographer
The AutoEthnographer is Marlen’s award-winning, non-profit, open-access, peer-reviewed literary & arts magazine dedicated to autoethnography, a qualitative research method uniting ethnography & autobiography that utilizes lived experience as evidence for exploring cultural phenomena.
VISIT →
The Tappūtī Project
“The Tappūtī Project” is a proposal for an immersive, multimodal exhibit about Tappūtī-bēlat-ekalle and her perfumery, as introduced in the novel The Perfumer of Ashur. Fans of the novel will enjoy being able to spend a day in the life of Tappūtī, exploring her laboratory and experiencing her fragrances.
VISIT →
In Tappūtī’s Workshop
In Tappūtī’s Workshop: Scent, Evidence, and Everyday Life in Ancient Assyria is a proposal for a portable public-history outreach program for students (ages12+) and teachers about ancient Assyria and Tappūtī-bēlat-ekalle, a woman associated with the preparation of aromatic substances more than three thousand years ago.
VISIT →
Quick Stats
30+
Academic publications
7
Countries taught in
25+
Years as an educator
15+
Universities taught at globally
100+
Presentations delivered
40+
Courses designed and taught
Testimonials
What My Students Say
” I gained so much self-confidence by developing my own academic research project in English. I appreciated all of our conferences and your constant encouragement.
Ulla Hakinen
University of Jyväskylä
” I never thought I would create my own digital magazine in a college English class, but thanks to that magazine I am now starting our undergraduate law review.”
James Mitchell
Indiana University of Pennsylvania
” Professor Harrison truly bridged my personal passions with my professional interests to help me identify a meaningful thesis topic that I would be proud to present and publish.
Amanda Foster
Southern New Hampshire University
Photography: Embracing a World Without Limitation
The world comes alive with possibility when viewed through the lens of a camera. Once the image is captured, the joy of editing begins. Just like writing, the initial image is merely a first draft ready for revision. Check out some of the places I’ve been by visiting my photo gallery. COMING SOON!
Fragrance Journalism -Writing About What I Love
I’ve been writing about fragrance for websites and magazines since 2005, combining two of my biggest passions – storytelling and aroma. Check out an some of my favorite articles from Fragrantica, Basenotes, and Now Smell This as well as some of my contributions to major publications like Men’s Fitness and Playboy.
PUBLIC HISTORY PROJECTS
Indians at the Post Office, Smithsonian and the National Postal Service
Project Coordinator and Researcher
“The long-range goal of Indians at the Post Office: Native Themes in New Deal-Era Murals, is to address both the virtues and the inaccuracies in these historic depictions, and to launch and continue to populate a web-based virtual exhibition on the Smithsonian National Postal Museum website. Our focus is to eventually have all of the mural research essays written by American Indians through collaborations with tribal and state college faculties and students, particularly from the areas and cultures depicted within the murals. In an on-going effort to challenge stereotyping, and correct the current nature of education concerning American Indians, the NMAI will devote the required scholarship to inform and assess these permanent visual statements.”
Fitness Certifications
YOGA INSTRUCTOR
ZUMBA INSTRUCTOR
GROUP FITNESS INSTRUCTOR
Latest Blog Posts
-
Writing on the Edge: The Power of No – Buddhist Mindfulness and the Teaching of Composition
“Aware of the suffering created by fanaticism and intolerance, we are determined not to be idolatrous about or bound to any doctrine, theory, or ideology. (Hanh 23)”
-
The Caribbean Immigrant Student: Immigration, Education, and Representation
Poster presented at South Atlantic Modern Language Association (SMLA) conference in Jacksonville, FL, 2016 See the full-sized poster here: poster-for-conference-2-1
-
“China, why not?”: serious leisure and transmigrant runners’ stories from Beijing
“Through interviews with five female and two male expatriates, we studied the ways in which Western runners brought meaning to the transition experience and negotiated meanings and bodily practices associated with running. Through narrative analysis, we identified three core narratives of migration (possibility, necessity and growing up) and two emergent…
-
Esxence 2016 – Roundtable – Judging & Criticism in Artistic Perfumery
“The panel defined artistic perfumery as a type of creative design where the perfumer is not necessarily limited by someone else’s concept, brief, or vision. Art itself lies at the core of artistic perfumery and as such, the panel addressed how such art can be judged and critiqued.”
-
Columnist & Editor
Marlen has been working in the fragrance industry since 1990. Having started in sales and line representation, he later began a career in fragrance journalism as a writer for such notable sites as NowSmellThis and Basenotes. Marlen’s contributions have been included in The Washington Blade, MensJournal.com, MensFitness.com, Playboy.com, Forbes.com, NYTimes.com and…
-
Call-EJ: Keypal friendships and their influences on ESL learner development
“The purpose of the studies was to examine aspects of keypal email exchange projects currently in development in English language classes at two Japanese universities: One purpose of these studies was to look at pedagogical aspects of the project, including implementation, and perceived and long-term benefits of such projects.”
-
MensJournal.com: 10 Best New Colognes for Men
10 Best New Colognes for Men “It goes without saying that a man’s smell is a deeply personal thing. It’s also, by default, a natural form of self-expression. So to get a feel for the best scents being offered this year, we consulted with Marlen Harrison, creator and editor of theperfumecritic.com and…
-
Playboy.com: 11 GREAT-SMELLING AND LONG-LASTING COLOGNE ALTERNATIVES
“Some deodorants offer the perfect amount of subtle, lasting fragrance without coating your neck or chest with chemicals that will burn your lover’s lips, says Marlen Harrison, a scent critic and founder of King’s Palace Perfumery. He recommends this option from New York-based apothecary Malin + Goetz, but says you can…
-
Book Chapter: Taking the teacher out of the test – Exploring student automomy in EFL classroom testing
Harrison, M. (2006). Taking the teacher out of the test: Exploring student automomy in EFL classroom testing. In M. Koyama & E. Skier (Eds.) More autonomy you ask (MAYA) . (pp. 137-146). Tokyo: JALT LD. Harrison (chapter seven) used the creation of tests as both a learning and assessment tool to great effect, but…