In 2019 at the University of Oregon we launched a collaborative, interdisciplinary, and intersectional project focused on the exploration of the Dolomites. This was originally a field seminar offered under the auspices of Global Education Oregon, cross-listed in Romance Languages and Comparative literature, and open to a variety of students from different departments including History, Earth Sciences, Geography, International and Environmental Studies.

From the beginning, we wanted to approach the Dolomites according to the Eco-critical perspective that understands the environment in terms of a “text” in which so many stories are inscribed that have to be deciphered according to different disciplinary viewpoints. These stories are told by traces that resist the erosion of time, such as the fossils of millions of years ago or the cartridges of weapons used in the First World War fought in these mountains.

Our collaboration produces a unique vision of the Dolomites that combines the deep time of paleontology and geology with the “surface” time of history: the agency of the earth and natural agents with that of humans. For these reasons, we have sought a profound intersection between human sciences and natural sciences and given ample space to the languages ​​and cultures of the Dolomites, to myths and legends, together with memoirs that recount the transformations of the landscape following the fierce and extreme war fought in these mountains in 1915-1918.

Our goal is to pursue a broader and more inclusive reflection on identity, history, and ecology. The journey we have undertaken is transformative as we learn to relate the individual self to the deep, pervasive, and embracing dimensions of time and space written in the landscape. We focus on a particular place or aspect of what we see and take photographs to illustrate the distinctive elements of the landscape, the stories they tell, and the transformation induced by human intervention.

We also focus on the mysteries and questions the landscape raises in us. We try to get intimate with the natural subjects we have chosen as if we could enter their world. In doing so we learn to turn our point of view upside down and consider that not only do we see the landscape for the first time, but also the landscape itself sees us for the first time.

The project Exploring the Dolomites could not take place in 2020 due to Covid-19, it resumed in the summer of 2021, and now continues in summer 2024.