Cold altitudes: knowledge, imagination, and experiences of mountain ice

Key Information

Date: 11 – 12 May 2026

Location: University of Fribourg, Switzerland

This conference information was originally published on the University of Fribourg website. Please visit the University of Fribourg website for full and most recent information.

Overview

From glaciological expeditions to snow myths, from avalanche laws to mountain poetics, ice has shaped how humans engage with high-altitude environments. This conference explores how societies have known, represented, and inhabited mountain ice—broadly understood to include glaciers, snowfields and avalanches —through empirical and conceptual lenses across the humanities and social sciences.

Recent advances in the ice humanities and related fields explored the manifold relationships between humans and ice. However, existing research mainly focuses on examining polar and circumpolar contexts. While a few excellent case studies exist, so far a systematic account on mountain ice is missing in the social sciences and humanities. This conference seeks to examine human-ice relations as part of the cultural, political, ecological, spiritual and scientific dimensions of mountains.

We invite contributions that investigate mountain ice not just as a climatic or geophysical phenomenon, but as a medium of knowledge, cultural meaning, and social life. How have glaciers and snow been imagined in literature and art? How have they been measured, inhabited, feared, celebrated, or transformed into resources? What epistemologies, cosmologies, infrastructures, or legal regimes have crystallized around frozen heights?

We particularly welcome papers that address:

• Histories of mountain glaciology, avalanche science, and snow observation
• Scientific, local, and indigenous knowledge practices related to mountain ice
• The cultural imagination of glaciers, snow, and avalanches in literature, film, or visual arts
• Ice as a legal, political, or territorial entity in mountain regions
• Aesthetic, emotional, or sensorial engagements with mountain ice
• Ice as archive: materiality, memory, and temporality in frozen mountainous environments

While grounded in mountain regions, we also welcome conceptual reflections that connect mountain ice to broader discussions in environmental humanities, environmental history, historical geography, or science and technology studies.
We welcome submissions from junior and senior scholars. The format of the conference will be interactive. Conference papers will be pre-circulated, and participants’ commentaries will guide the discussions.

We expect participants to submit their full draft conference papers by 01.05.2026. We aim to produce an edited volume from this conference. For full information about the conference and how to participate please visit the University of Fribourg website