Moving Mountains: Memory, Identity, and the Geological Imaginary after Landslide Disasters

山脉通常被认为是休眠的地标，但它们存在于持续而充满活力的运动中。有时，他们的行动扰乱了历史的进程。山体滑坡和地震造成了自发性破坏。我的项目探索了会移动的山脉的遗产。它考察了他们在人、社区和地方留下的持久印记。我开始探索在被山体滑坡摧毁的社会中，如何在文化想象中驾驭恢复的挑战。在两个社区中，我比较了集体记忆、视觉叙述、纪念和讲故事在重建被山灾摧毁的生活中的作用。我试图确定，在造成大范围破坏之后，山脉如何塑造记忆、恐惧和渴望。通过突出山脉的活生生的品质，我的项目有助于关于人类世的激烈辩论。我们进入了一个以人类活动为标志的地质时代。我们在地壳上的足迹可能会被我们的后代发现。一些理论家认为，环境是一个有影响力的参与者，它促进了留下这些印记的行为。通过提供推动工业增长的自然资源，环境--正如人们所说的那样--促成了一种采掘型发展模式。其他人则坚持认为，只有人类才应对这种生产轨迹负责。是资本主义改变了我们星球的结构组成，而不是行星的运动。对于这一学派来说，我们的采掘实践可能会终结我们所知的生命。它们损害了这样一个概念，即我们的现在将为子孙后代所辨认。我的研究通过调查出于不同原因移动的山脉进入了这场辩论。一方面，我审视了1966年阿伯凡灾难的遗留问题，这场灾难是由疏忽的小费做法造成的，并导致了采矿业的收缩，就像当时英国存在的那样。另一方面，我研究了1970年由地震引发的掩埋秘鲁云盖镇的山体滑坡的遗留问题，在地震中，灾难的恢复依赖于地区采矿的扩大。总而言之，这些回应表明，地质灾害如何加速了以廉价矿产开采为基础的世界经济的转变。人类的进化塑造了我们的星球。我们星球的形状决定了我们的行动。这种融合将原本看似脱节的遥远而不同的社会联系在一起。这些社区有重要的故事要讲述，关于移动的山脉，关于消失的地方，以及与环境破坏有关的身份。为了发现这些故事，我在地区档案馆进行搜索，听取幸存者及其家人的意见。我参观记忆地点并观察纪念活动，以了解身份是如何围绕这些事件和地标融合在一起的。我阅读推荐性的作品和虚构的文本，以理解沟通和创造力如何能够减轻灾难带来的创伤。在一系列的学校工作坊中，我绘制了这些地方今天存在的地图，它们过去被山体滑坡塑造，以及它们朝着未来重建。有了这些研究成果，我将创作一本引人入胜的作品，其中包括一本书、一本编辑过的卷、一本书的章节、一系列播客和一套教育资源。我的成果将激发灾难研究、记忆研究和地质人文等相关但截然不同的领域之间的对话。他们将强调，灾害是行星过程，对灾害的反应由行星结构构成。最重要的是，我的研究对那些最熟悉山脉运动的人的经历进行了评估，这些人可能会告诉我们他们的影响。

Mountains are often thought to be dormant landmarks, but they exist in constant and vibrant motion. Sometimes, their movements upset the course of history. Landslides and earthquakes unleash spontaneous destruction. My project explores the legacies of mountains that move. It examines the lasting imprints that they leave on people, communities, and places. I set out to discover how the challenges of recovery are navigated in the cultural imaginary among societies destroyed by landslides. Across two communities, I compare the roles of collective memory, visual narratives, commemoration, and storytelling in rebuilding lives that have been shattered by mountain disasters. I seek to determine how mountains shape memories, fears, and aspirations after causing widespread devastation. In highlighting the animate qualities of mountains, my project contributes to lively debates on the anthropocene. We have entered a geological age that is marked by human activity. Our tracks on the crust of the earth may be uncovered by our descendants. Some theorists conceive of the environment as an influential actor that has facilitated the behaviour which leaves these markings. By providing the natural resources that have fueled industrial growth, the environment -- so the argument goes -- has contributed to an extractive model of development. Others maintain that humans alone are responsible for this trajectory of production. It is capitalism that has altered the structural composition of our planet, and not planetary motion. For this school of thought, our extractive practices may put an end to life as we know it. They compromise the very notion that our present will be legible to future generations.My research enters into this debate by investigating mountains that move for different reasons. On the one hand, I look at the legacy of the 1966 disaster in Aberfan, which was caused by negligent tipping practices, and which contributed to the contraction of the mining industry as it then existed in Britain. On the other hand, I study the legacy of a landslide that buried the Peruvian town of Yungay in 1970, triggered by an earthquake, where recovery from the disaster was predicated on the expansion of regional mining. Taken together, these responses show how geological disasters can accelerate shifts in a world economy that is predicated on the cheap extraction of minerals. The evolution of humanity has shaped our planet. The shape of our planet has conditioned our movements. This convergence serves to implicate distant and different societies that otherwise seem disconnected. These communities have important stories to tell about mountains that move, about places that disappear, and about identities that are tied to environmental devastation. To uncover these stories, I search in regional archives and listen to survivors and their families. I visit memory sites and observe commemorative activities to understand how identities coalesce around these events and landmarks. I read testimonial works and fictional texts to appreciate how communication and creativity can mitigate the trauma imparted by disaster. In a series of school workshops, I map these places as they exist today, as they have been shaped by landslides in the past and as they rebuild towards the future. With these research findings, I will create an engaging body of work that includes a book, an edited volume, a book chapter, a series of podcasts, and a set of educational resources. My outputs will stimulate a conversation between the related but disparate fields of disaster studies, memory studies, and geological humanities. They will emphasize that disasters are planetary processes and that responses to disasters are configured by planetary structures. Most importantly, my research valorizes the experiences of those who are most familiar with the movements of mountains, and who might teach us about their impacts.