August 17, 2017

Professors Bernstein and Safran Lead Second Mt. Fuji Program

Professors Andrew Bernstein and Elizabeth Safran Lead Second Mt. Fuji Program

This summer, Associate Professor of History Andrew Bernstein and Associate Professor of Geological Science Elizabeth Safran co-led a seven-week overseas program focused on the multidisciplinary study of Mt. Fuji.

Students on the Fuji program engaged in a wide range of activities as they examined how the volcano has been an actor in, and a product of, both the physical world and the human imagination. These included attending Shinto rituals, visiting a toilet-paper factory that uses Fuji’s spring water, and conducting field research on the land-use history of fields and forests surrounding the mountain.

Professor Bernstein and Professor Safran led the first Fuji summer program in 2014, which was written up in the January 2015 issue of The Chronicle. Research produced by participants in the 2017 program can be found at Lewis & Clark Around the World.