Call for Papers: The Geological Turn in Himalayan Environmental History Workshop

The South Asia Institute (SAI), Heidelberg University, and the Center for the Study of Knowledge, Materials, and Materiality (KaMM Center), Kathmandu, in cooperation with the Max Weber Forum for South Asian Studies (MWF), Delhi invite submissions from early-career researchers for a three-day interdisciplinary workshop on the 'geological turn' in Himalayan environmental history.

The workshop responds to a growing reorientation within the environmental humanities that foregrounds geological materials, forces, and processes, such as earthquakes, landslides, glacial retreat, erosion, toxic soils, contaminated waters, as active dimensions of historical and humanistic analysis. Rather than treating geology as a neutral scientific backdrop, this intellectual shift interrogates how geological formations and expertise have long shaped sociocultural realities, political imaginaries, and economic projects. Moving beyond the Anthropocene debate, the workshop asks how geological formations and expertise have shaped colonialism, state formation, religious practice, urbanisation, and environmental justice in one of the world's most geologically dynamic regions.

The Himalayas remain conceptually and empirically underdeveloped within the 'geological turn' literature. This workshop aims to change that, bringing together early-career scholars across the environmental humanities and the geosciences to elaborate a 'political geology' of the  Himalayas and establish a durable research network in the field.

The workshop is organised around five thematic panels. We particularly welcome papers that cut across disciplinary boundaries and speak to more than one axis.

Panel I: Colonial Geological Surveys and Knowledge Production in the Himalayas
How did colonial and postcolonial states, survey organisations, and corporate actors produce geological knowledge of the Himalayan region? Papers may address how coalfields, oil prospects, and hydroelectric sites were rendered legible through mapping and drilling; how survey practices differed across British India, the princely states, Nepal, and Tibet; and how local labour and expertise were acknowledged or effaced in official publications.

Panel II: Seismic Histories: Earthquakes, Sacred Geographies, and Disaster
How have Himalayan communities and states interpreted and remembered seismic events, from nineteenth-century shocks recorded in colonial reports and court chronicles to the 2015 Gorkha earthquake? Papers may engage historical, ethnographic, and geological perspectives, examining earthquakes as divine signs, expressions of subterranean animal agency, technical problems in building and infrastructure, or tests of state legitimacy.

Panel III: Cryospheric Change and Glacial Materialities in Environmental History
Papers in this panel historicise Himalayan glaciers, snowfields, and permafrost as historical and political actors, not only indicators of climate change but also objects of labour, mobility, and imagination. Contributions may draw on archival sources, oral histories, and scientific data to examine glacial retreat and advance, glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs), snowline shifts, and changing river regimes.

Panel IV: Toxic Geologies: Extractivism, Mining, and Environmental Damage
How do extractive activities in the Himalayas, from artisanal quarrying and gemstone mining to hydropower schemes and road construction, produce enduring geochemical and geomorphological transformations? Papers may address tailings, spoil heaps, blasted slopes, sediment-clogged reservoirs, and chemically altered soils as both geological records and lived experiences.

Panel V: Vernacular and Indigenous Geological Knowledge in the Himalayas
Papers in this panel centre situated ways of knowing earth materials, landforms, and subsurface flows arising from long-term engagement with mountain environments. Topics include ritual engagements with landslides and springs; geomantic practices guiding house siting and terracing; artisanal knowledge of stone, ore veins, or healing clays; and everyday habits for reading enviromental change.

Please submit a paper proposal of no more than 400 words, together with a short biographical note (max. 150 words), indicating:

• The thematic panel(s) your paper addresses.
• The disciplinary approach and key sources or methods used.
• Your institutional affiliation and career stage.

Queries and submissions should be sent to: Stefan.lueder@sai.uni-heidelberg.de

Deadline: 01 August 2026

Participants will be notified of decisions by 30 August 2026.

More information in the PDF below.