Dr. Christine Eriksen

Dr. Christine Eriksen is the Principal Investigator of FiRES – a five-year project funded by a Consolidator Grant from the Swiss National Science Foundation, hosted by the Department of Humanities, Social and Political Sciences at ETH Zürich.

Christine aims to do conscious science, with people, for people. Her work focuses on social dimensions of disasters, particularly people’s ability to coexist with wildfire. She considers broader contexts, such as cultural norms, political agendas, climate change, and environmental history.

Christine is the author of two books and over 100 other publications. Her work builds on two decades of fire research, with case studies spanning Australia, North America, Europe, and Africa.

Photo by NilsFisch.com

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NEWSFLASHES

New publication by FiRES PhD student Filippo Zeffiri on wildfires, pastoralism and landscape ideologies in the Aurunci Mountains, Italy

FiRES PhD student Filippo Zeffiri’s research compares official wildfire risk management strategies and local fire practices through interviews with firefighters and extensive animal herders in mountainous regions of Europe. Filippo’s interest in this topic grew from his Masters research, which has just been published in the journal Fire Ecology. Titled, “The macchia is a garden”: wildfires, pastoralism and landscape ideologies in the Aurunci Mountains, Italy”, the article…

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Job opening: Postdoctoral Researcher in Wildfire Social Science

** Update: Position filled. ** The FiRES project is seeking a highly motivated Postdoctoral Researcher in Wildfire Social Science to join the team at ETH Zürich. The position is fixed-term for one year, with the possibility of a one-year extension. Highly qualified candidates with care responsibilities may be able to negotiate a part-time position. Deadline for applications: 29 January 2026. Project background Since 2023, the FiRES project…

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Masters project completed, adding a case study of the 2023 Riederhorn wildfire to the FiRES portfolio

(Photos are from the photo-book “Brand am Riederhorn” (2023), reproduced with the kind permission of the Bitsch and Riederhorn Municipalities.) For the past year, Lena Widmer has focused her Masters project on the 2023 Riederhorn wildfire in Canton Valais, Switzerland. Commonly referred to in the press as the Bitsch wildfire, the Riederhorn more accurately refers to the mountain on which the wildfire burnt, causing evacuations and distress…

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It’s full steam ahead with a new institutional home for the FiRES project!

As of October 1, 2025, the FiRES project has a new institutional home at ETH Zürich. I am excited to be back in the Department of Humanities, Social and Political Sciences, which is hosting the FiRES project after its initial two years at the University of Bern. FiRES’ fieldwork and collaborations continue unabated. The team is currently conducting interviews in Catalonia and the UK, more interviews will…

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