A historical Approach of Vulnerability: An Interview with Gregory Bankoff

Greg Bankoff is a historical geographer whose work examines how societies and their environments shape one another over time, with particular attention to how communities adapt to recurrent hazards. For more than three decades, his research has focused on Southeast Asia, Central Asia, the Pacific, and the North Sea, exploring how societies — past and present — have learned to normalise risk and respond to crisis. His approach is distinctly interdisciplinary, combining archival research with fieldwork, community mapping, interviews, and focus groups to illuminate the lived experience of vulnerability and resilience. He is Research Fellow at Ateneo de Manila University and Professor Emeritus of Environmental History at the University of Hull. Bankoff has published widely, with more than 120 refereed journal articles and book chapters. His recent works include the co-edited volume Why Vulnerability Still Matters: The Politics of Disaster Risk Creation (2022).