The Support Association AlpKultUR is committed to the long-term support of the Uri Institute Cultures of the Alps and Uri as a center for research. The association’s goal is to forge even closer ties between research, culture, and society, to provide the institute with conceptual support, and to anchor it within the local community and the political sphere.
The board of directors consists of: Beat Jörg (President), Noel Baumann, Claudia Brunner, Petra Muheim Quick, Christine Widmer Baumann, and Sebastian Züst. Ruth Wipfli Steinegger, President of the Uri Science Foundation, and Boris Previšić, Director of the Uri Institute Cultures of the Alps, serve on the board ex officio.
Director / Management and Supervision of the Research School
Boris Previšić has been the founding director of the institute he developed since February 2020. As editor of Gotthardfantasien (2016), he has continued his earlier work on the Alps as a professor of cultural studies and literature, having already established the concept of «Alpine fallow land» in a participatory project in the Safiental valley in 2007. Among other things, he led the SNF project on «Reduit und Gebirgskrieg» (2020-2024). He is head of the Research College Cultures of the Alps and is also responsible for the content of the online magazine Syntopia Alpina. He is also a sought-after expert and discussion partner on issues relating to clichés and cultural history, innovation and tourism, agriculture and forestry in the Alps. As a science and non-fiction author, he focuses on Alpine sustainability scenarios for the future. These include monographs on CO2 (2020) and Zeitkollaps (2023). In cooperation with national and international institutions, he has written further books such as «Bergstürze» (2022), «Gletscherbersten» (2023), «Die Alpen im Anthropozän» (2023), «Grenzgänge» (2024) and «Sonnenstrom» (2025).
Mountain Warfare and Reduits in Literature
From the Threatening to the Threatened
The Alps in Swiss Songs
Renewable energie sources and the Alpine region
Die Alpen für eine klimapositive Schweiz
The Alpes for a climate-positive Switzerland
The Alpes and Ukraine
Future Alpine Electricity
The annual membership fee is CHF 30 for individuals, CHF 100 for companies and institutions, and CHF 10 for people under the age of 25.
The bylaws of the Support Association AlpKultUR are available at the following link.