Fedchenko: Eco-Biography of a Glacier

FAIN: RZ-292735-23

University of Rochester (Rochester, NY 14627-0001)
Tatyana Vladimirovna Bakhmetyeva (Project Director: November 2022 to present)

Planning and conducting a series of workshops that examine the history of the Fedchenko Glacier, one of the world’s longest nonpolar glaciers located near Pamir, Tajikistan. (12 months)

The purpose of this application is to pilot an interdisciplinary project on the natural and cultural history of the Fedchenko Glacier (Pamir, Tajikistan), one of the world’s longest glaciers outside the polar regions. Conceived as a contribution to both the environmental humanities and the emerging field of the “ice humanities,” it consists of two goals: 1) to produce a transdisciplinary eco-biography of a uniquely significant glacier that will advance our knowledge of how glaciers came to be understood and offer a cultural perspective on the role of glaciology in climate change studies--subjects hitherto neglected by humanists and humanistic social scientists, and 2) to develop an innovative transdisciplinary approach to studying glaciers. At a time when glaciers are fast disappearing, we return by way of the Fedchenko to the moment of their appearance in both the scientific and cultural imagination.