Outdoor Recreation and Climate Challenges: Human-Environment Relations in Trail Sports

Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellow Dr Eilis Lanclus delivers a seminar on their research -

Trail sports – hiking, running, off-road cycling – are gaining increasingly in popularity in Western contemporary societies. These sports are often celebrated as ways to immerse oneself in “wild(er)” landscapes and to measure personal endurance against nature. But the climate crisis has begun to unsettle this relationship. On trails, climate change is felt not as data but as sensory disruptions: the crackle of dead undergrowth, flood-strewn trails, or snowless winters where snow once marked the season. How can these sensory and lived experiences on trails invite a shift from trail sports as acts of personal conquest or consumption of landscapes to practices grounded in care, attention, and ecological responsibility? This seminar presents my postdoctoral research project which examines the duality between the growing desire of trail sport participants to engage with “wild(er)” landscapes and the ecological pressures these activities put on those landscapes.

Arrivals from 11:45 am for a 12:00 noon start. For those joining in-person, lunch will be served after the seminar from 1:00pm.

This event is hybrid format, please use the required booking button at the bottom of the page to choose either in-person or online attendance.
(Please note that in-person spaces are limited and booking is required, so we can manage numbers for catering and also the space in the seminar room)

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IAS seminars are typically recorded, minus any Q&A sessions at the end, again to encourage contributions. The recordings are then uploaded to our website on a Fellows bio page and/or Programme page, along with our IAS YouTube Channel. If you are not able to attend a seminar live, please do still register as we will email everyone who registered to let them know once the recordings are made available.