Walk With Me: Thruhiking in a More-than-Human World. An Autoethnography along the Pacific Crest Trail. – Marius Lorenz (ongoing)
“Walk With Me: Thruhiking in a More-than-Human World. An Autoethnography along the Pacific Crest Trail.” – Marius Lorenz
Von: Marius Lorenz, GCSC
Betreuung: Prof. Dr. Bojana Kunst (Erstgutachterin)
The dissertation project examines Thruhiking as a specific hiking practice in a more-than-human world, using the example of the researchers own long-distance hike on the Pacific Crest Trail. In this study, Thruhiking is not only the subject but also the method of cultural analysis. To investigate the practice of Thruhiking, an autoethnographic approach is employed. The research is guided by the central hypothesis that Thruhiking can be understood as a practice that is performatively enacted through a multitude of different, interwoven actions, intra-actively generated by human, more-than-human, and non-human participants. These practices are analyzed from the perspective of theatre and dance studies, conceptualized as performances. Drawing on subjective, in-situ experiences, the project not only aims to explore the practice of long-distance hiking itself, but also to examine the aesthetical, ethical and political dimensions of hiking long distances. The following questions will be addressed: Of what kinds of practices are Thruhikers on the Pacific Crest Trail a part? Which participants are brought forth through the enactment of specific practices, and what are their activities? How are particular participants produced, manifested, and transformed within these practices? What are the meanings and functions of these practices? What ethical and political consequences arise from them? This research project thus aims to investigate Thruhiking as a specific hiking practice, to provide a case study for the method of autoethnography and to explore ways of describing and analyzing practices. Furthermore, it seeks to contribute to praxeological debates within cultural studies through its posthumanist and new materialist orientation.
Kurzbiografie:
Marius Lorenz holds a Bachelor’s degree in Media Studies, as well as Performance Art and Theatre Education from the Braunschweig University of Art. He completed his Master’s degree in Cultural Studies, with a focus on Media Studies and Popular Culture, at the University of Hildesheim. Research stays have taken him to the University of Southern California in Los Angeles and to the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim, where he studied film and video production as part of an Erasmus program. Since 2020 he’s a member of the International Graduate Centre for the Study of Culture at the University of Giessen. His research interests include performance studies, sport and culture studies, and the environmental humanities. In addition to his academic pursuits, he works as a filmmaker, editor for outdoor sports, and as an adventure and experiential educator.