Peter H. Hansen



Contents: This page contains information on the following:

Education

 

Academic Experience

 

Fellowships and Grants

 

Honors and Awards

 

Publications

Other Everests: One Mountain, Many Worlds, co-editors Paul Gilchrist, Peter H. Hansen, Jonathan Westaway, (Manchester University Press, 2024).

The Summits of Modern Man: Mountaineering after the Enlightenment (Harvard University Press, 2013).

"Q&A, Other Everests" in Alpinist 89, pp. 20-21. Extract from Alpinist podcast, "Other Everests: Hidden Histories & Contemporary Challenges," Dec 2024.

"Mountaineering in the Himalayas," in The Oxford Handbook of the Himalayas, edited by Amy Holmes-Tagchungdarpa, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, forthcoming 2025).

"Chomolungma/Everest/Sagarmatha," in Atlas of Mountaineering, edited by Katie Ives and Conrad Anker (London: Phaidon Press, forthcoming 2025)

Peter H. Hansen, Paul Gilchrist, and Jonathan Westaway, "Introduction: One Mountain, Many Worlds," in Other Everests: One Mountain, Many Worlds, edited by Gilchrist, Hansen, Westaway, (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2024), pp. 1-24. DOI:10.7765/9781526179173.00006, Open Access at Manchesterhive and DigitalWPI

"The Many Faces of a Mountain," in Everest 24: New Views on the 1924 Mount Everest Expedition, (Washington DC: Smithsonian Books, 2024), pp. 144-147. PDF

"Scott, Douglas Keith (Doug) (1941-2020)," in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, edited by David Cannadine, (Oxford University Press, online edition, 8 April 2024). PDF. DOI:10.1093/odnb/9780198614128.013.90000381698

"Wildest Dreams of Everest and Modern Mountaineering," Les Sports Modernes: Société, Culture, Temporalité, Territoire 1 (2023): 59-67. PDF, DOI: 10.33055/SPORTSMODERNES.2023.001.01.61, Open Access at Libreo

"Commercialisation and Mount Everest in the Twentieth Century," in Rethinking Geographical Explorations in Extreme Environments: From the Arctic to the Mountain Tops, edited by Marco Armiero, Roberta Biasillo, Stefano Morosini, (New York: Routledge, July 2022), pp. 144-156. PDF. DOI:10.4324/9781003095965-10

"Upland on Mont Ventoux," in Mountain Dialogues from Antiquity to Modernity, edited by Dawn Hollis and Jason König, (London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2021), pp. 215-227. PDF. DOI:10.5040/9781350162853.ch-012

"Tool User: Hobnailed Boots," Alpinist 74 (Summer 2021): 24. PDF

"Unsworth, Walt (1928-2017)," in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, online edn, edited by David Cannadine, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, January 2021). PDF. DOI:10.1093/odnb/9780198614128.013.90000380378

"Y is for Yak," in Animalia: An Anti-Imperial Bestiary for Our Times, edited by Antoinette Burton and Renisa Mawani, (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2020), pp. 213-218. PDF. DOI:10.1215/9781478012818-026

"Tragedy on the Matterhorn," BBC History (July 2015): 58-61. PDF, Online at History Extra magazine

"Founders of the Alpine Club (act. 1857-1863)," in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, online ed., edited by Lawrence Goldman. Oxford: Oxford University Press, October 2007. PDF, DOI:10.1093/ref:odnb/96327

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, ed., H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004):

"Why is there no subaltern studies for Tibet?" Tibet Journal 28:4 (Winter 2003): 7-22. PDF, Stable URL at JSTOR

"Georges Mallory et la masculinité," in Deux siècles d'alpinismes européens, origines et mutations des activités de grimpe, ed. Olivier Hoibian and Jacques Defrance, (Paris: L'Harmattan, 2002), pp. 135-46. PDF

"Mallory et la masculinité," Cimes, L'Everest dans tous ses états, Groupe de Haute Montagne Annales 2002 (2002): 173-76.

"Ornamentalism and Orientalism: Virtual Empires and the Politics of Knowledge," Journal of Colonialism and Colonial History 3:1 (Spring 2002). PDF, doi:10.1353/cch.2002.0012 and Project Muse

"Interdisciplinary Student Projects in Thailand," Tai Culture: International Review on Tai Cultural Studies 7 (June 2002): 176-177. PDF

"Unofficial Notes on the Gates Cambridge Scholarship," National Association of Fellowship Advisors: the NAFA Newsletter 4 (March 2002).

"Coronation Everest: Empire and Commonwealth in the 'Second Elizabethan Age'," in British Culture and the End of Empire, ed. Stuart Ward, (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2001), pp. 57-72. PDF, DOI:10.7765/9781526119629.00009

"Tibetan Horizon: Tibet and the Cinema in the Early Twentieth Century," in Imagining Tibet: Perceptions, Projections, and Fantasies, ed. Thierry Dodin and Heinz Räther, (Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2001), pp. 91-110. PDF

"Modern Mountains: the Performative Consciousness of Modernity in Britain, 1870-1940," in Meanings of Modernity: Britain in the Age of Imperialism and World Wars, ed. Martin J. Daunton and Bernhard Rieger, (Oxford: Berg, and New York: NYU Press, 2001), pp. 185-202. PDF

"Confetti of Empire: the Conquest of Everest in Nepal, India, Britain and New Zealand," Comparative Studies in Society and History, 42 (April 2000): 307-332. PDF, doi:10.1017/S0010417500002486 and Stable URL at JSTOR.

"Albert Smith, l'Alpine Club, et l'invention de l'alpinisme au milieu de l'ère victorienne," STAPS: Revue internationale des sciences du sport et de l'éducation physique vol. 21, n. 51 (Hiver 2000): 7-28. PDF Persee.fr

"Partners: Guides and Sherpas in the Alps and Himalayas, 1850s-1950s," in Voyages and Visions: Towards a Cultural History of Travel, ed. Jas Elsner and Joan-Pau Rubies, (London: Reaktion, 1999), pp. 210-231. PDF

"Debate: Tenzing's Two Wrist-Watches: the Conquest of Everest and Late Imperial Culture in Britain, 1921-1953, Comment," Past and Present 157 (Nov. 1997): 159-177. PDF doi:10.1093/past/157.1.159 and JSTOR Stable URL 

"Der tibetische Horizont. Tibet im Kino des frühen 20. Jahrhunderts," in Mythos Tibet: Wahrnehmungen, Projektionen, Phantasien, Kunst- und Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Bonn, with Thierry Dodin and Heinz Räther eds., (Cologne: DuMont Verlag, 1997), pp. 87-103. PDF

"The Dancing Lamas of Everest: Cinema, Orientalism, and Anglo-Tibetan Relations in the 1920s," American Historical Review 101 (June 1996): 712-744. PDF, doi:10.2307/2169420 or JSTOR Stable URL. Reprinted in Alex McKay, ed., The History of Tibet, 3 vols. (London: RoutledgeCurzon, 2003). 

"Vertical Boundaries, National Identities: Victorian Mountaineering on the Frontiers of Europe and the Empire, 1868-1914," Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History 24:1 (1996): 48-71. PDF, doi: 10.1080/03086539608582968 Reprinted in John Marriott, ed., Routledge Historical Resources: Empire (Routledge, 2022)

"International Education and Sustainable Development: An American Experience in Bangkok, Venice, and Guayaquil,"" The Environmentalist 15, 4 (1995): 252-256. PDF doi:10.1007/BF01902246

"Mountaineering," in Twentieth-Century Britain: an Encyclopedia, ed., F.M. Leventhal, (New York: Garland, 1995), pp. 536-537.

"Albert Smith, the Alpine Club, and the Invention of Mountaineering in Mid-Victorian Britain," Journal of British Studies 34 (July 1995): 300-324. PDF, PDF, doi:10.1086/386080, JSTOR Stable URL. Translated and reprinted, above.

 

Recent book reviews:

Review of Julie Rak, False Summit: Gender in Mountaineering Nonfiction (Montreal: McGill-Queens University Press, 2021), for Journal of the Austrian Association for American Studies 2:2 (2021) doi:10.47060/jaaas.v2i2.144

Review of Susan Barton, Internment in Switzerland during the First World War (London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2019), for American Historical Review, 126:2 (2021): 869-870. doi:10.1093/ahr/rhab315

Review of Martyn Lyons, The Pyrenees in the Modern Era: Reinventions of a Landscape, 1775-2012 (Bloomsbury Academic, 2018), for European History Quarterly 49:4 (2019): 699-701. doi:10.1177/0265691419877354i

Review of Daniel C. Taylor, Yeti: The Ecology of a Mystery (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2017), for Pacific Affairs 91:4 (December 2018): 832-834, Pacific Affairs online.

Review of Tait Keller, Apostles of the Alps: Mountaineering and Nation Building Germany and Austria, 1860-1939 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2016), for Journal of Modern History (June 2017), 476-478. doi:10.1086/691514, JSTOR

Review of Bernard Debarbieux and Gilles Rudaz, The Mountain: A Political History from the Enlightenment to the Present (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2015), The AAG Review of Books 4:3 (July 2016): 121-123. doi: 10.1080/2325548X.2016.1187488

Book Reviews also in American Historical Review, Environmental History, Himalaya, Journal of British Studies, Journal of Colonialism and Colonial History, Journal of Historical Geography, Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, H-Albion Discussion List in British and Irish History, International Labor and Working-Class History, New Mexico Historical Review, Victorian Studies, World History Bulletin


Work in Progress

Work in progress is devoted to several areas: the whiteness of Mount Everest, sports and the modern world, and environmental history.

 


Recent Presentations/Podcasts/Videos

Other Everests book launch, Kendal Mountain Festival, Kendal, UK, November 2024.

"Other Everests, Other Alps," Keynote address to the congress on "The Alps and Asia/Asia and the Alps: interconnected mountain regions," Bern and Fribourg, Switzerland, June 2024.

"Climbing-Science-Tourism and the Commercialization of Mount Everest," European Society for Environmental History, Bern, August 2023

"The Whiteness of Mount Everest," Himalayan Studies Conference, Toronto, October 2022

"The Whiteness of Mount Everest," Keynote address to AHRC Network Other Everests: Commemoration, Memory and Meaning and the British Everest Expedition Centenaries, 2021-2024, London, July 2022.

Podcasts/Videos

Other Everests: Hidden Histories & Contemporary Challenges, with Abbey Collins, Jonathan Westaway, and Sarah Pickman, episode on Alpinist Podcast, December 2, 2024. Podcast episode also on Apple and Spotify, and Q&A extract published in Alpinist 89

"Climbing the Mountains of Modernity," Guest appearance in episode of Genealogies of Modernity, Season 2, episode 1, released November 9, 2023, Podcast link.

"Yaks," Friends of High Park Zoo, Toronto, FHPZ Zooviews Interviews with Animal Experts. July 17, 2021. Watch: YouTube

Global School Virtual Event Series: EUROPE, Event co-host, and moderator for the panel "Outlook for European Business and the Global Economy Post-Pandemic," April 21, 2021. Program, and Watch: YouTube


Teaching

Current Courses Taught: see also courses and projects at WPI.
INTL 1100. Introduction to International and Global Studies
INTL 2100. Approaches to Global Studies
INTL 2510. Contemporary Europe: Union and Disunion
INTL 2910. Topics in Global Studies: Global Sports
INTL 3050. Global Re-entry Seminar
INTL 4100. Senior Seminar in International and Global Studies
HI 2329. European Empires: British Empire
HU 3900. Inquiry Seminar on the History of Sports
HU 3900. Inquiry Seminar on Global Studies

Recent student projects. Visit Digital WPI to view student projects at WPI advised by Peter Hansen.


Television, Radio, and Consulting

The Only Way is Up: A History of Mountaineering, The Forum, BBC World Service, July 27, 2024, Recording on BBC Sounds.

Battle for the Himalayas: The Fight to Film Everest, BBC Four, Timeshift Series, director Steve O'Hagan, 2015. Broadcast BBC1 January 29, 2015. IMdB. See Preview clips.

The Misfit and the Matterhorn, a BBC "Mountain Men" series, director Mick Conefrey, 2001. Broadcast BBC2, May 31, 2001. Vimeo

Reputations Hillary and Tenzing: Everest and After, in BBC "Reputations" series, director David Upshal, 1997. Broadcast BBC2, June 18, 1997, later on History Channel. Youtube

Associate Editor, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, ed., H.C.G. Matthew, (Oxford University Press, 2004).

Historical consultant to Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities, for a discussion series at public libraries on "Desperate Journeys: True Stories of Endurance and Survival," 2000-2001.

Manuscript referee, proposal or promotion reviewer for a wide variety of journals, publishers, granting agencies and universities.


Academic Administration and Service

Professional Service

Academic Administration and Service to Global Programs and Global Studies

Service for Inclusion and Belonging

Service for Revision of Faculty Promotion Policies

Other WPI Service

Other public service in Worcester includes Wesley United Methodist Church, Boy Scouts of America, and Elm Park Center for Early Childhood Education.


Professional Memberships


See Also


WPI Homepage

Peter Hansen's Homepage

phansen@wpi.edu