From the perspective of art and cultural history, mountains havenot only been an important subject of visual practices, fromlandscape painting to (travel) photography, they have also beenunderstood as sites that can be highly charged with national,cultural and religious symbolism. Inspired by these neighbouringfi elds, global history is currently discovering mountains as siteswhere global entanglements manifest themselves and emphasisehow deeply embedded local and regional processes are in globalwebs of connections and (potentially confl icting) interests.
For long, high altitudes have not played a particularly prominentrole in the study of global history. The fi eld’s focus rested fi rmlyon sites and structures whose role in global connectivity wasinstantly recognisable. Mountains and mountainous regions wereoften considered obstacles that had to be negotiated, crossedor circumvented, as natural borders, as impassable territory, ashide-outs and retreats, as watersheds and rain shadows. In short,mountains and high altitudes were long regarded as disruptiveelements in an otherwise globalising world.
This workshop seeks to integrate the connective and the disruptiveperspectives on the role of mountains in globalisation. With itsinnovative focus on dis:connection, it identifies mountains assites where connecting and disconnecting processes intersect,and where they create a powerful tension with regards to regionalchanges.