
SDG 3: Good Health & Well-Being - Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages

Peter H. Hansen is Professor of History and Director of International and Global Studies at WPI. International and Global Studies brings together faculty from arts and sciences, business, engineering, and the global school to enrich students' global learning on campus and around the world. He enjoys teaching courses in history or international and global studies, seminars on sports or global studies, and working with students in WPI's project programs. He is director of the Copenhagen Project Center and has advised student projects in Bangkok, Copenhagen, London, Lyon, Morocco, Namibia, Venice, Washington DC, and Worcester. Hansen was a Fulbright Scholar in France for the Fulbright International Education Administrators Program.
Hansen's research investigates the intertwined histories of mountaineering and modernity. The Summits of Modern Man: Mountaineering after the Enlightenment (Harvard University Press, 2013) examined the transformation of the summit position into a symbol of individual sovereignty and enlightenment since the eighteenth century. Debates over “who was first” on Mont Blanc, Mt Everest, Mont Ventoux, and other peaks articulated changing definitions of modernity. Hansen has also published on colonialism, cross-cultural encounters, documentary films, mountains, and WPI's project program.
For many years he has written about Mount Everest and is co-editor of Other Everests: One Mountain, Many Worlds (Manchester University Press, 2024). Other Everests brings together interdisciplinary perspectives on the many worlds of this mountain, including Sherpas and Buddhist monks, women and gender, gear and material culture, films and social media, as well as multiple stories and theatrical performances. Currently, Hansen is writing a book on the whiteness of Mount Everest.
Hansen has been a visiting fellow at Durham, Harvard, Cambridge, and the Australian National University. He is current President of the Worcester World Affairs Council and a former president of the Northeast Conference on British Studies. At WPI, Hansen has led multi-year efforts to revise the general education requirements in the humanities and arts, broaden the criteria for promotion in academic rank, and enhance inclusion and belonging across the university. His research has reached wider audiences as a lecturer at public libraries and museums and as a commentator for television programs on the BBC, History Channel, and Discovery Channel.
He recently joined discussions of Other Everests on the Alpinist Podcast and the BBC World Service, Forum, The only way is up: A history of mountaineering.
Visit Digital WPI to view student projects advised by Professor Hansen.
Peter H. Hansen is Professor of History and Director of International and Global Studies at WPI. International and Global Studies brings together faculty from arts and sciences, business, engineering, and the global school to enrich students' global learning on campus and around the world. He enjoys teaching courses in history or international and global studies, seminars on sports or global studies, and working with students in WPI's project programs. He is director of the Copenhagen Project Center and has advised student projects in Bangkok, Copenhagen, London, Lyon, Morocco, Namibia, Venice, Washington DC, and Worcester. Hansen was a Fulbright Scholar in France for the Fulbright International Education Administrators Program.
Hansen's research investigates the intertwined histories of mountaineering and modernity. The Summits of Modern Man: Mountaineering after the Enlightenment (Harvard University Press, 2013) examined the transformation of the summit position into a symbol of individual sovereignty and enlightenment since the eighteenth century. Debates over “who was first” on Mont Blanc, Mt Everest, Mont Ventoux, and other peaks articulated changing definitions of modernity. Hansen has also published on colonialism, cross-cultural encounters, documentary films, mountains, and WPI's project program.
For many years he has written about Mount Everest and is co-editor of Other Everests: One Mountain, Many Worlds (Manchester University Press, 2024). Other Everests brings together interdisciplinary perspectives on the many worlds of this mountain, including Sherpas and Buddhist monks, women and gender, gear and material culture, films and social media, as well as multiple stories and theatrical performances. Currently, Hansen is writing a book on the whiteness of Mount Everest.
Hansen has been a visiting fellow at Durham, Harvard, Cambridge, and the Australian National University. He is current President of the Worcester World Affairs Council and a former president of the Northeast Conference on British Studies. At WPI, Hansen has led multi-year efforts to revise the general education requirements in the humanities and arts, broaden the criteria for promotion in academic rank, and enhance inclusion and belonging across the university. His research has reached wider audiences as a lecturer at public libraries and museums and as a commentator for television programs on the BBC, History Channel, and Discovery Channel.
He recently joined discussions of Other Everests on the Alpinist Podcast and the BBC World Service, Forum, The only way is up: A history of mountaineering.
Visit Digital WPI to view student projects advised by Professor Hansen.
SDG 3: Good Health & Well-Being - Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages
SDG 5: Gender Equality - Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls
SDG 9: Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure - Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation
SDG 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities - Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable
SDG 16: Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions - Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels
SDG 17: Partnerships for the Goals - Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development
Other Everests: One Mountain, Many Worlds, co-editors Paul Gilchrist, Peter H. Hansen, Jonathan Westaway. Manchester University Press, 2024. Open Access at Manchesterhive and DigitalWPI. DOI: 10.7765/9781526179173
"Scott, Douglas Keith (Doug) (1941-2020)," in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, edited by David Cannadine, Oxford University Press, online edition, 2024. PDF. DOI: 10.1093/odnb/9780198614128.013.90000381698
"The Many Faces of a Mountain," in Everest 24: New Views on the 1924 Mount Everest Expedition (Washington, DC: Smithsonian Books, 2024), pp. 144-147.
"Commercialization and Mount Everest in the Twentieth Century," in Rethinking Geographical Explorations in Extreme Environments: From the Arctic to the Mountain Tops, edited by Marco Armiero, Roberta Biasillo, Stefano Morosini (Routledge, 2023). PDF. DOI: 10.4324/9781003095965-10
"Upland on Mont Ventoux," in Mountain Dialogues from Antiquity to Modernity, ed. Dawn Hollis and Jason König (Bloomsbury Academic, 2021), pp. 215-227. PDF. DOI: 10.5040/9781350162853.ch-012