Danger and endangerment have long been central to the experiences, knowledges, and governance of mountain environments. One of the most influential framing accounts of mountain history tells how in the eighteenth century, under the influence of the Romantic movement, the Alps ceased to be perceived as sites of gloom and danger and became places of sublime glory. More recently, narratives of terminal endangerment have shaped representations of mountain environs in the face of changes wrought by climate change, increased tourism, and amplified resource extraction. Both of these framings—mountains as dangerous and mountains as endangered—have been challenged by researchers, mountain dwellers, and mountaineers.
Dangers, new and old, are not uniformly experienced across populations who dwell in and visit the mountains. What may be catastrophe, requiring urgent state intervention, for one, may be deemed better addressed through ritual for another. Mountain communities have diverse yet specific ways of interpreting and responding to what scientists, lawmakers, or political actors may deem dangerous. Likewise, ideas of endangerment entangle communities in uneven ways. Indigenous scholars have pointed to the unintended consequences of labeling changing homelands as endangered—it can implicate inhabitants of these lands in declensionist narratives of extinction and justify interventions which may not be welcome by the community. The very categories of danger and endangerment fluctuate and respond to context. They thus demand an approach that asks “What, exactly, is dangerous for whom?” “What, precisely, is deemed endangered, by whom, and to what effect?”
This two-day multidisciplinary workshop invites participants from history, geography, anthropology, and allied social sciences to rethink understandings of mountain danger and endangerment around the globe. We invite contributions addressing questions such as: How do ideas about danger and endangerment inflect and shape perceptions, experiences, and engagements with mountain places? How do relations of danger vary with place, among and across communities, and over time? How have state institutions and economic practices been shaped by danger and endangerment — and vice versa? How have ideas about dangerous and endangered mountains implicated those who live there along the lines of class, gender, race, and even species? How do mountain communities grapple with evolving dangers of place and perceptions of endangerment?
We hope that such questions will reorient the focus of conversations about lives, nature, economies, and policies in changing mountain regions. Such conversations are often based on natural scientific risk analyses, which have also shaped hazard management and economic development policies in mountain regions. Yet, such approaches have struggled to resolve deep social, economic, and environmental conflicts faced by mountain populations and peoples. This workshop seeks to advance an alternative approach that starts from contributions from social scientists, humanists, and mountain dwellers to develop new understandings of mountains and what it means to live among changing uplands.
The workshop will take place in Geneva (Switzerland) on 12 and 13 November 2026. It is an in-person event. If in-person attendance is not feasible, hybrid participation may be possible.
The discussion will be based on pre-circulated papers (to be submitted by mid-October). We expect to publish a special issue in a top-tier peer-reviewed journal (to be discussed at the conference) based on the contributions.
Some funding for accommodation and travel is available thanks to the support of the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) for the project “Avalanches” (https://avalanche.hypotheses.org).
Please send your abstract of up to 300 words, a short biography, and an indication of travel/accommodation funding needs to lucas.mueller@unige.ch and dkinkpen@mta.ca by 30 April 2026.