This post marks the first in the series of our ‘mountain research spotlights’ series, sharing the work and insights of colleagues working on mountains across the humanities (and beyond). Name and institution: Lachlan Fleetwood, LMU Munich Research summary: My first book is a history of science and empire in the Himalaya, and shows how altitude … Read more
In December 2022 we had the pleasure of hosting a much-anticipated workshop on ‘The mountain humanities: past, present, and future pathways’. This workshop brought together a dozen scholars working on mountains across a range of disciplines including archaeology, English literature, art history, and performance studies. One of the realisations we’ve come to over the course … Read more
I am currently redrafting the manuscript of my book, Mountains Before Mountaineering: The Call of the Peaks Before the Modern Age, which I’m delighted to say will be coming out with the History Press in spring 2024. I am finding, inevitably, that I am having to cut a lot of material: I have a word count … Read more
I have wondered for a long time now how it would be to write a book on the role of Classics in the history of mountaineering and mountain writing. There are plenty of examples of mountain writers who have combined their climbing with an interest in Greek and Latin literature, from early modern authors like … Read more
We are delighted to announce that our edited volume, Mountain Dialogues from Antiquity to Modernity, is now available in paperback! We are really honoured by this, as well as by the reviews the book has received thus far (see for example Terry Gifford’s generous take in The Classical Review). The volume contains contributions from scholars across … Read more
When I went on maternity leave in 2021 pandemic restrictions were still in moderate swing, so when I went into the University Library a few weeks ago it was the first time in quite a while that I’d gone to the shelves to pick up a physical book with my own two hands. The pandemic … Read more
Here’s a link to a recording of a paper from earlier this month on ‘Geography and identity in the mountains of the Mediterranean’ Details below! IHR Seminar Series: London Group of Historical Geographers Speaker: Jason König (University of St. Andrews), 11 January 2022 This paper opens with some reflections on the challenges and opportunities involved in bringing … Read more
We’re excited to see Mountain Dialogues from Antiquity to Modernity now in press with Bloomsbury. Publication due in April 2021!
Jason discusses some examples of early Christian representations of mountain peoples, and their relationship with their ancient and modern equivalents. I have spent quite a lot of time recently looking at the early Christian saints’ lives of the fourth century CE and after, and thinking about how they fit in with the history of mountains … Read more
In this podcast, Dawn talks to Chloe Bray (University of Heidelberg) about the relationship between scholarship and personal experiences of the mountain landscape. Is it possible to move beyond our own preconceptions of mountain experiences to understand those of the past? Or is a personal experience of the physical experience of mountain landscapes in fact … Read more