Thibault Fontanari

Thibault Fontanari is a Lecturer in Anthropology at UCLouvain University, Belgium, and an Affiliate at the Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society (LMU Munich). His work bridges environmental anthropology, infrastructure studies, and oral literature through ethnographic fieldwork in high-altitude regions.

He earned his PhD from UCLouvain (2013-2017) through a Belgian National Fund for Scientific Research fellowship, followed by Harvard University research appointments as a Fulbright and BAEF fellow (2019-2020).

Fontanari's research centers on human-pathway relationships in the Karakoram Mountains, examining how herders and farmers construct meaning through walking, singing, and road-building. His ethnographic approach reveals sensory and symbolic dimensions of infrastructure in extreme environments, emphasizing oral traditions as embodied knowledge systems.

His publications analyze ritualized movement practices in Pakistan's Shimshal Valley, demonstrating how pathways function as social actors that mediate ecological relationships, gift economies, and cultural identity through walking and poetic expression.

Scientific recognition includes:

• Belgian National Fund for Scientific Research doctoral fellowship (2013-2017)
• Fulbright visiting scholar appointment
• BAEF research fellowship (2019-2020)

Current work at the Rachel Carson Center focuses on completing a manuscript about herders' pathway relationships in the Karakoram, funded through RCC's environmental humanities framework. This project involves longitudinal fieldwork with Shimshal Valley communities and interdisciplinary collaboration on landscape anthropology.