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- Convenors:
-
Lars Kaijser
(Stockholm University)
Mattias Frihammar (Stockholm University)
Maja Lagerqvist (Department of Human Geography, Uppsala University)
Sanna Händén-Svensson (Human Ecology Division, Lund University)
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Short Abstract
This panel explores narratives about boundary-crossing animals and plants, like monsters or invasive species, and how they shape and are shaped by landscapes. We welcome stories in any form or media, and encourage creative methods that explore stories of nature, place, and the more-than-human.
Long Abstract
This panel investigates stories of boundary transcending animals and plants, such as cryptids and monsters, and their interplay and entanglement with landscape and nature(s). Humans are part of these topics, but not necessarily in focus. We welcome contributions that emphasizes attention to stories in form, as well as in content. Welcomed are also methodological presentations, highlighting new, and perhaps creative, ways of researching non-human and/or more-than human boundary transcending beings and their connection to, and/or making of, landscape(s).
Stories can be oral, or as they are used and presented in fiction and film, but interesting perspectives are also how they are played out in media content and commercial settings. Central is the interest in how stories about creatures and plants contribute to creating landscape identities, heritage, and sense(s) of place, but also the reverse how stories about landscapes contribute to creating and providing space and identities for plants and creatures. Important is the crossing of boundaries, for example crossing geographical boundaries; as well as topographical ones such as between land and water; or between the natural and the supernatural, or more metaphorical crossings of boundaries.
Please note: Presenters should make careful definitions and use of the terms’ “monster” and “monstrous” in sensitive ways.
Accepted papers
Session 1 Monday 15 June, 2026, -Paper short abstract
The paper explores the relationship between mountaineers and mountain landscapes in the Cairngorms (Scotland). In this regard, the paper covers stories and current reinterpretations of the Big Grey Man, a supernatural entity that mountaineers have claimed to hear or see on the mountain summits.
Paper long abstract
The Cairngorms are a mountainous area in the Northeast of Scotland, with some of the highest peaks of Great Britain. The summits of these mountains are inhospitable for humans, due to low temperature, intense winds, and weather conditions, but nevertheless a common destination for local mountaineers for more than a century. While being on the summits of the Cairngorms, especially on its highest peak, Ben MacDhui, some mountaineers have experienced the uncanny and frightening sightings and hearings of a ghostlike and humanlike entity, named the Big Grey Man.
Personal experience narratives about sightings and hearings of the Big Grey Man have hence been told and shared, mostly during the 20th century. Some of the disclosed witnessing experiences of the entity (e.g., Norman Collie's uncanny hearing on the Ben MacDhui, shared in 1925) are still recalled by mountaineers in Scotland, although today received with scepticism. Moreover, the reference to previous witnessing experience narratives and the overall figure of the Big Grey Man have increased the attachment of locals and mountaineers to the landscape and environment of the Cairngorms.
The paper hence explores the relationship between mountaineers and the landscape of Scottish mountains, enchanted or simply embellished through the alleged presence of the Big Grey Man. How has the local environment affected the perception of the entity? How has the Big Grey Man hence been interpreted and narrated? And how does the Big Grey Man articulate the boundaries between human and nonhuman, natural and supernatural, anthropic and mountain landscapes?
Paper short abstract
This paper explores how narratives of invasive species construct cultural boundaries of nature. By analyzing contradictions in classifications, it shows how human interventions are normalized while non-human agencies are rendered alien, threatening, and monstrous.
Paper long abstract
Invasive alien species are often narrated as monsters, unnatural intrusions threatening landscapes imagined as “natural.” Yet, in regulations and public opinion, contradictory stories emerge about what belongs and what does not.
In Sweden, established species such as the Beach rose (Rosa rugosa) and the Asian hornet (Vespa velutina) are designated as invasive and alien. By contrast, newly created hybrids of the Beach rose (such as the Örträsk rose, a cross between Rosa rugosa and Rosa majalis), as well as selectively bred species like the “Buckfast bee” (without an established Latin name) or the Italian honeybee (Apis mellifera ligustica), which is alien to Swedish fauna, are neither perceived nor treated as intrusions.
Drawing on media material, informational texts, and interviews, this paper traces how such distinctions rely on narrative work: species shaped by human intervention are told as familiar and acceptable, while those untouched by humans are storied as unruly, dangerous, and alien. Which interventions become naturalized, and which forms of non-human agency are narrated as monstrous?
The analysis suggests that these stories are themselves hybrids, stitched together from conflicting logics that never fully align yet still guide cultural understandings of nature and intrusion. Hybridity thus operates on two levels: roses and bees can be crossbred, and cultural narratives too are cross-assembled from incongruent but coexisting ideas.
Paper short abstract
So-called alien species—organisms introduced beyond their ‘natural range’ through human activity—transcend both natural and cultural boundaries. Focusing on Finnish environmental discourse, this paper examines the significance of these boundaries and boundary-crossings.
Paper long abstract
The concept of alien species refers to plants, animals, and other organisms that have been introduced beyond their ‘natural range’ as a result of human activity. While most introduced species do not thrive in their new environments—often disappearing quickly or remaining inconspicuous—some flourish to such an extent that they may suppress other species. These so-called invasive alien species are now considered among the greatest threats to global biodiversity. At times, they are portrayed as monstrous organisms that endanger both the natural order and human control over nature.
Alien species transcend natural and cultural boundaries. As only species that spread with human assistance are classified as ‘alien’, they are defined by a human–nature boundary; and while their official definition refers to the biogeographical boundaries they have crossed, in practice, alien species are often discussed and managed in relation to national borders and framed as a threat to a nation’s natural heritage. Focusing on Finnish environmental discourse, this paper examines the significance of the various boundaries and boundary-crossings related to the concept and narratives of alien species.
Paper short abstract
Scary Monster and Super Creeps. On Storytelling in Campaigns Designated to Reduce Alien Invasive Species.
Paper long abstract
This paper aims to investigate storytelling within the management of alien invasive species in a Swedish context. As starting point, I will use a campaign supported by Swedish Authorities called Our unwelcome guests (Våra ovälkomna gäster). The campaign was characterized by a playfulness and designed as an exhibition with images, texts and activities, highlighting various species, both plants and animals, perceived as alien and invasive. The depicted species worked as assemblages containing facts as well as metaphorical images and popular stories visualizing alien invasive species as characters with certain uncanny features.
The invasive species carries monstrous characteristics, being described as threatening, boundless and elusive while at the same time articulating contemporary fears of environmental changes. Individual species may arouse discomfort through their appearance., though it often seems to be more a question of how they act as they spread, take over and change landscapes. At the same time, some species, like Garden Lupines, can be described as beautiful, while others are acknowledged for their fantastic survival ability, in short Super Creeps.
The storytelling of invasive species and invasiveness raises questions. How are environmental reconfigurations portrayed? Where lies the danger of invasive species? What is perceived as threatening? Is it the natural environment, the invasive species themselves or the changes in nature that are frightening? How is this expressed in the stories of the information campaign? How are these threats and dangers portrayed? How do words, images and objects interact? Where, when, and how is the monstrous?
Paper short abstract
This paper explores shifting media narratives of Japanese knotweed in Sweden, from admired ornamental to invasive “monster plant”. By analyzing press coverage since 1890s, it shows how cultural narratives mobilize fear, legitimize management, and reflect societal anxieties about nature and control.
Paper long abstract
This paper explores the cultural production of biological threats and the processes through which nature is dealt with to gain insights into society's fraught attempts to control an ever-changing world. Japanese knotweed (Fallopia japonica) has emerged as a pressing issue in gardens, urban spaces, and infrastructure projects across Europe. Often depicted as an invasive species capable of violently taking over and damaging landscapes, this plant has sparked widespread concern and managing efforts. The stories surrounding so-called invasive species are part of the broader efforts to curate and control nature, which involves managing the desirable but also the undesirable and encompasses the symbolic and the practical.
Focusing on the Swedish context, this study examines the media narratives in Swedish daily press from the late 19th century up to today to explore shifting perceptions and responses to Japanese knotweed in Sweden over time. Initially introduced as an admired ornamental, Japanese knotweed was widely embraced for its aesthetics and landscape creating utility. Over time, however, it was recast as an aggressive and unwanted presence in gardens and beyond – first as a weed, and more recently as a “monster plant” and part of the ominous “invasive alien species” problem formulation. These narrative shifts reflect broader changes in environmental thinking, ecological governance, and public anxieties. The analysis focuses in particular on the “monster” metaphor and narrative, exploring how it mobilizes fear, legitimizes specific management practices, and embodies deeper societal concerns about nature, control, property, and the threat of the ‘other’.
Paper short abstract
Threatening the health of both humans and pets, algal blooms can be seen as recurrent ecological monsters. Their slimy expanses on the sea surface also evoke the threat of the ‘shadow fleet’ of aging oil tankers, yet another form of monstrous presence haunting the Baltic Sea.
Paper long abstract
Every summer, the Baltic Sea is visited by a recurring natural phenomenon: massive algal blooms. The biological drivers are well known – calm weather and intense sunlight accelerate the growth of phytoplankton. Several species produce toxins harmful to both humans and animals, requiring continuous surveillance by institutions such as the Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute (SMHI).
For coastal populations, algal blooms represent a paradoxical threat. They are simultaneously obvious – covering large areas with visible, drifting mats – and elusive, since a single mouthful of contaminated water may or may not lead to illness. For pets and small children, however, the danger can be immediate and severe.
From satellites and weather charts, the blooms resemble vast, nebulous clouds. Media depictions often amplify their dramatic qualities, portraying boats and ships forcing their way through dense, viscous masses. This imagery lends the blooms a monstrous aspect: despite the familiar presence of the algal bloom in the maritime landscape, they appear as invasive, gelatinous creatures haunting the coastlines.
Algal blooms can thus be read as ecological monsters that resemble another maritime threat: oil spills. Their slimy expanses evoke the catastrophic presence of petroleum on the sea surface. Moreover, they are symbolically linked to the “shadow fleet” of aging oil tankers, yet another form of monsters trafficking the Baltic Sea, which pose a constant risk of rupture and contamination in the same vulnerable waters. Geological history deepens this connection, since the fossil fuels carried by these vessels originated in ancient plankton, transformed over millennia.
Paper short abstract
Submarine mines are often referred to as monstrosities of the sea. They form a latent threat in the seas, and many have also found their way onto shore. However, the monster metaphor cannot capture the complexity of things. This paper rethinks naval mines as one of many sea monsters of our time.
Paper long abstract
To refer to submarine mines as monstrous beings of the sea, in terms of ugly, threatening sea beasts, was a recurrent trope in the first half of the twentieth century. Still today, the sea mines from the two world wars have mainly been addressed as monstrous things that pose a threat to civilians, limit future uses of the sea, and have a negative impact on environmental sustainability. This is not surprising, as they bear almost all typical characteristics of a monster: they are frightening yet fascinating, they protect borders but are also known to transgress limits, they have agency but are largely uncontrollable, and they belong to the past but keep existing. They are also “real world monsters” in that they are created to hurt and kill, and have a deadly potential materialized in them. But are they all monstrous?
This paper argues that thinking with things instead of using the monster metaphor as a tool for thinking can contribute to broadening the picture of the sea monster of our time. Consequently, sea mines surface as more than monstrous matter with the potential to surprise us, disrupt our frames, and provide corrective feedback on narrow understandings.
Paper short abstract
Cryptozoological beings, cryptids, are liminal and ambiguous creatures, and this affect the narratives about them. Using The Great Lake Monster in Sweden, as a case study, I explore the epistemological ambiguity of cryptids and discuss further what this means for the narratives about them.
Paper long abstract
Interpretations and understandings of the Great Lake Monster in Lake Storsjön - once considered a rå, a guarding spirit of the lake - were reconceptualized during the 1800´s as a “hidden animal,” sought by zoologists. Never scientifically described, it became stuck in limbo: neither spirit nor animal, but a cryptid. In this presentation, I explore what this liminal status - this ambiguity in existence - means for cryptozoologists (here referring to pseudo-scientific explorations of larger “hidden” animals outside academic research; cf. Loxton & Prothero, 2013), zoologists, folklorists, the Great Lake Monster itself, and the narratives surrounding it.
Memorates of witnessing liminal creatures need to be reinforced in various ways to become believable. The epistemological ambiguity of the cryptid - observed by many, yet found, in scientific terms, by no one; at once a wish for zoological discovery, yet still just a cultural phenomenon - implies it dwells in a borderland. Depending on which side you listen from - as a cryptozoologist, a folklorist, a sceptical neighbour, or a trained zoologist - you will hear the observation narrative differently. In this presentation, I outline a few of the ways in which such reinforcement occurs, identified in the case study, while suggesting the development of a framework for further inquiry - one that accounts for the specific cultural embedment of each cryptid, while still allowing for a more generalisable approach to structured analysis.
Paper short abstract
An experimental project that connects werewolf folklore narratives in northern Portugal with the landscape through creative documentary, VR, and AR aims to foster a more profound discussion of the relationship between artistic representation and the cultural identity of nature.
Paper long abstract
In Dona Joaquina (94)’s narration, the werewolf appears in the shape of a horse. It accompanies smugglers travelling through the border mountains of northern Portugal, sucks the blood of a cat, runs up and down the hill, and returns to Rome in one night. The remote, snow-covered mountains, with their eerie boulders and the winter forest, are the silent witnesses to the restless activities of the werewolf. The northern Portuguese folklore, such as this one, is not only born from locals’ creativity in response to the unknown wild while coexisting with it, but it also brings a strong cultural identity to the landscape. Especially in Portuguese cinema, this region is usually romanticised and portrayed as magical. But why and how? This presentation is about an experimental artistic research that integrates interdisciplinary study to connect folklore narration with the landscape through immersive digital media. By using multimedia representations in an ethnographic context, including creative documentary filmmaking, virtual reality, and augmented reality (a projected media art installation), the folklore narrative is visualised and materialised through creative representations of the landscape. It brings intangible materials (folklore narration) to a broader audience and may also foster a deeper understanding of the natural environment in which the narration was inspired. Furthermore, it also makes a deep mapping of the landscape through human legacy and perspective, forming a more profound discussion and critique of the relation between artistic representation and the cultural and natural landscape.
Paper short abstract
The purpose of this paper is to investigate literary and cinematic elasticity of definitions of vague terrain as spatial metaphor of the uncanny behaviour of fragile humans, the ones suppressed on the margins of the known world.
Paper long abstract
Asylums, monasteries and mysterious places in literary and cinematic narratives, are territories where limits of sanity of the “dangerous” or “monstrous” individual is being measured beyond mere medical diagnosis. The zone in Tarkovsky’s Stalker (1979), or the asylum in Bulgakov’s Master and Margarita (1967), or Elena Doriak’s monastery in Losev’s Meteor (1930s), are structures between urban life and untamed nature. The characters and their unusually site-sensitive relationship with these places, transform the “illness” into an intensified form of awareness, radically questioning the socially accepted order of behaviour. The purpose of this paper is to investigate literary and cinematic elasticity of definitions of vague terrain as spatial metaphor of the uncanny behaviour of fragile humans, the ones suppressed on the margins of the known world.
The article offers a review of case studies that explore peripheral territories as metaphorical devices of exclusion and petrification of the other, the different, the uncanny, the monstrous.
Alongside the relationship between the fragile (strange) humans and places, the review will offer a comparative analysis of the relationship between mythological creatures (Nabokov’s dragon, Tolstoy’s storyteller horse, Bulgakov’s Margarita) with the environment, opening the concepts of “health” and “illness”, “angelic” and “monstrous” to a more complex discussion.
Our paper is offering transdisciplinary examples on narrated stories by marginalised, vulnerable creatures in a “no man’s land”. Within the works under analysis, the vague terrain is often perceived as the margin of the known world, where society imprisons someone that is difficult to be placed in a clear category.