With generous support from The Ludwig Fund of New College, The Oxford Centre for Byzantine Research, and The Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies

The purpose of this workshop is to convene a diverse group of scholars working on mountains in different areas and periods. The goal is to present past or ongoing research as well as to learn from one another by comparing and contrasting different mountainous regions and peoples across time. The workshop is open to many different approaches, but some of the questions we hope to investigate include:

• To what extent are mountain societies structured differently or similarly to those commonly found in lowlands?
• What kinds of polities often formed in mountainous environments?
• To what extent did empires face difficulty in imposing their authority on mountains?
• Why do mountains often have distinctive ethnic, linguistic, and religious profiles?
• What sources—written, archaeological, or otherwise—exist for studying mountains and their human populations?
• How are mountains represented in literature, art, and other forms of culture?
• What characterized the economy of mountains and what natural resources were available for human exploitation?
• What was the relationship between sedentary and nomadic populations in mountains?
• What different forms of mobility connected mountains with lowlands?
• How does the history of mountains compare to the history of other ecologically ‘marginal’ regions, including deserts, river deltas, and polar areas?
• How have modern historians typically researched mountains, and is there room for the development of a subfield of historical ‘mountain studies’?