Mountaineering heroes and heroines
This research project examines the social, cultural and political meanings of heroism within the evolution of the British mountaineer. It charts the development of the mountaineer as hero, from the age of empire to the age of the individual. Given the widespread interest in the achievements and masculinities displayed by the British hero, seen in studies into military heroes and polar adventurers, the mountaineer is curiously absent. There is little reflection about their own specific contribution to British culture and the public imagination. The aim of the study is to add the mountaineer into the burgeoning historiography of the national hero. My research takes into account the construction and varied understandings of heroism, heroics, renown and celebrity of the mountaineer. It is a story of the evolution of a modern male identities that cannot be told without recourse to particular social and political lenses - in particular, ideas of nationality and local or regional identity; conceptions of race and empire; and questions of social background such as gender, class and status. Several essays have already been published, including an article in Media, Culture and Society (2007) on the media reception of mountaineer and mother Alison Hargreaves; a chapter exploring the heroic leadership and Englishness of John Hunt and Chris Bonington in a book on Heroines and Heroes (2008), and an article entitled 'Reality TV on the rockface - climbing the Old Man of Hoy', Sport in History (2007), which detailed the early evolution of climbing on British TV and, more broadly, the celebrification of post-war British climbers.
I have edited a special issue of Sport in History on 'Gender and climbing histories', which was published in September 2013. This features new research on climbing cultures from doctoral researchers and recent UK-based post-doctoral researchers following two successful panels convened at the British Society of Sport History annual conference. This has been followed by a paper in a special issue on 'Women in Mountaineering' in the International Journal of the History of Sport, on women's involvement in the emergence and evolution of high-altitude charity climbs.
I have edited a special issue of Sport in History on 'Gender and climbing histories', which was published in September 2013. This features new research on climbing cultures from doctoral researchers and recent UK-based post-doctoral researchers following two successful panels convened at the British Society of Sport History annual conference. This has been followed by a paper in a special issue on 'Women in Mountaineering' in the International Journal of the History of Sport, on women's involvement in the emergence and evolution of high-altitude charity climbs.
Publications
'Embodied causes: climbing, charity, and celanthropy', International Journal of the History of Sport (special issue on Women in Mountaineering), 2020, forthcoming.
‘Davis, Ian Gordon McNaught -’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 2018, https://doi.org/10.1093/odnb/9780198614128.013.107689
Review of Peter Hansen's, The Summits of Modern Man: Mountaineering After the Enlightenment. Cambridge, MA and London: Harvard University Press, 2014. Journal of Colonialism and Colonial History, 15(3), doi: 10.1353/cch.2014.0049
Review of Making Meaning out of Mountains by Mark C.J. Stoddart. Vancouver: UBC Press, 2012. International Review for the Sociology of Sport, forthcoming.
'Gender and British climbing histories' (ed.) special issue of Sport in History, 33(3), 2013.
'Mountains, manliness and post-war recovery: CE Montague's 'Action'', Sport in History, 33(3), 2013, pp.282-302.
'Beyond the brink: Beachy Head as a climbing landscape', International Journal of the History of Sport, 29(10), 2012, pp.1,383-1,404.
Review of Unjustifiable Risk? The Story of British Climbing by Simon Thompson. Milnthorpe: Cicerone Press, 2010. Sport in History, 31(3), 2011, pp.343-346.
Review of The Apprenticeship of a Mountaineer: Edward Whymper's London Diary 1855-1859. Edited by I. Smith. London: London Record Society Publications Volume 43, 2008. The London Journal, 35(3), 2010, pp.311-312.
'Heroic leadership, mountain adventure and Englishness: John Hunt and Chris Bonington compared', in C. Hart (ed.) Heroines and Heroes: Symbolism, Embodiment, Narratives & Identity. Kingswinford: Midrash Publishing, 2008, pp.247-260.
'"Motherhood, ambition and risk" mediating the sporting hero/ine in Conservative Britain', Media, Culture and Society, 29(3), 2007, pp.387-406.
'Reality TV on the rockface - climbing the Old Man of Hoy', Sport in History, 27(1), 2007, pp.44-63.
'The politics of totemic sporting heroes and the conquest of Everest', Anthropological Notebooks, 12(2), 2006, pp.35-52.
Presentations
'The world of outdoor sports: preliminary thoughts on the need for relational and interdisciplinary approaches to outdoor sport histories', Plenary talk, 'The world of the outdoors' conference, University of Cumbria, Lancaster, 24 June 2016.
'Embodied causes: the climber as 'celanthropist'', paper given to 'Heroes' conference, RGS-IBG, London, 3-4 October 2015.
'Mountains, manliness and post-war recovery: CE Montague's 'Action'', British Society of Sport History annual conference, Glasgow University, September 2012.
'The Victorian climbing pioneer', Bexhill Museum, 3 December 2011.
'Beyond the brink: Beachy Head as a climbing landscape', British Society of Sport History annual conference, London, 2-3 September 2011.
'A palingenetic paladin? George Mallory and the resurrection of English heroic masculinity', Paper presented to the Sport and Leisure History Seminar, Institute of Historical Research, London, 15 February 2010.
‘Re-membering the English hero: George Mallory, 1924 and 1999’, graduate research student seminar, Chelsea School Research Centre, May 2007.
'Heroic leadership, mountain adventure and Englishness: John Hunt and Chris Bonington compared', Paper for 'Heroines and heroes: symbolism, embodiment, narratives and identities', International Institute for the Study of Englishness conference, University of the Balaeric Islands, Palma, Majorca, Spain, September 2006.
‘Subcultural media responses to British mountaineering heroics (1966-1977)’: North American Society for the Sociology of Sport annual conference, Vancouver, Canada, November 2006.
‘Still a heroic golden age? The ascent of Everest remembered’, Paper for the British Society of Sport History Annual Conference, University of Glamorgan, September 2005.
‘Heroic white leadership, (post)colonial identity and corporeal representation: the case of Tenzing Norgay’, Paper for Lost in transl-Asian: British Asians, sport, leisure and popular culture, University of Brighton, in conjunction with the British Sociological Association ‘race and ethnicity’ and ‘sport’ study groups, November 2005.
‘Heroism: the challenge of meaning’, Paper for the graduate research student seminar. Chelsea School Research Centre, University of Brighton, June 2004.
‘‘Motherhood, ambition and risk’: the social construction of a heroine in Conservative Britain’, Paper for the Political Studies Association Post-Graduate Network Central and Northern England Conference, School of Social Sciences, University of Manchester, November 2004.
‘The contexts of sporting heroism’, Paper for the graduate research student seminar. Chelsea School Research Centre, University of Brighton, June 2003.
'Embodied causes: the climber as 'celanthropist'', paper given to 'Heroes' conference, RGS-IBG, London, 3-4 October 2015.
'Mountains, manliness and post-war recovery: CE Montague's 'Action'', British Society of Sport History annual conference, Glasgow University, September 2012.
'The Victorian climbing pioneer', Bexhill Museum, 3 December 2011.
'Beyond the brink: Beachy Head as a climbing landscape', British Society of Sport History annual conference, London, 2-3 September 2011.
'A palingenetic paladin? George Mallory and the resurrection of English heroic masculinity', Paper presented to the Sport and Leisure History Seminar, Institute of Historical Research, London, 15 February 2010.
‘Re-membering the English hero: George Mallory, 1924 and 1999’, graduate research student seminar, Chelsea School Research Centre, May 2007.
'Heroic leadership, mountain adventure and Englishness: John Hunt and Chris Bonington compared', Paper for 'Heroines and heroes: symbolism, embodiment, narratives and identities', International Institute for the Study of Englishness conference, University of the Balaeric Islands, Palma, Majorca, Spain, September 2006.
‘Subcultural media responses to British mountaineering heroics (1966-1977)’: North American Society for the Sociology of Sport annual conference, Vancouver, Canada, November 2006.
‘Still a heroic golden age? The ascent of Everest remembered’, Paper for the British Society of Sport History Annual Conference, University of Glamorgan, September 2005.
‘Heroic white leadership, (post)colonial identity and corporeal representation: the case of Tenzing Norgay’, Paper for Lost in transl-Asian: British Asians, sport, leisure and popular culture, University of Brighton, in conjunction with the British Sociological Association ‘race and ethnicity’ and ‘sport’ study groups, November 2005.
‘Heroism: the challenge of meaning’, Paper for the graduate research student seminar. Chelsea School Research Centre, University of Brighton, June 2004.
‘‘Motherhood, ambition and risk’: the social construction of a heroine in Conservative Britain’, Paper for the Political Studies Association Post-Graduate Network Central and Northern England Conference, School of Social Sciences, University of Manchester, November 2004.
‘The contexts of sporting heroism’, Paper for the graduate research student seminar. Chelsea School Research Centre, University of Brighton, June 2003.
