Proposed Seminar: Tourism in Text, Theory, and Practice
Eighth Annual Meeting of the Cultural Studies Association
March 18-20, 2010, Berkeley, California
Sponsored by the Division of Cultural Studies and Literature
Seminar Description:
Risk tourism. Dark tourism. War tourism. Ecotourism. Heritage
tourism. Sex tourism. Medical tourism. Space tourism. Sports
tourism. As one of the world's fastest-growing industries, tourism
shapes economies, politics, societies, and cultures. Until now, the
study of tourism has largely been the purview of the social sciences
but this seminar intervenes in the discussion by bringing together
literary and cultural studies to work towards an interdisciplinary
model that lends equal authority to different kinds of knowledge.
This seminar invites readings of both literary representations of
tourism and real tourist experiences from any discipline, genre, era, or area.
Potential topics include the intersections of tourism with work and
leisure; nationalism and globalization; gender, sexuality, race, and
class; violence; visuality; commerce and commodities; mobility and
access; discourse and narrative; and power and resistance, among
many others. The subject might be approached from the perspective of
a specific field of inquiry such as anthropology, museum studies, or
travel writing; from a theoretical angle such as postcolonialism or
feminism; or anchored in a specific text or example.
Seminar Requirements:
To apply for this seminar, the prospective participant should submit
via email a proposal (in the format of his/her choice) describing
the research project that brings them to issues of tourism. Include
contact information with email address, a brief bio, and any
requests for audio-visual equipment. Proposals due no later than
November 14, 2009.
Once accepted for the seminar, participants will be asked to read
Dean MacCannell's _The Tourist: A New Theory of the Leisure Class_,
John Urry's _The Tourist Gaze_, or another theory of tourism
(details to follow). They should also be prepared to circulate
abstracts of their projects to the other participants. We will aim
to move back and forth between our theoretical readings and the
research projects in order to generate a deeper understanding of the
theory and practice of tourism for our respective objects of critical inquiry.
Seminar moderator:
Professor Helen Kapstein
John Jay College, CUNY
English Department
619 W54th St, Rm 752A
New York, NY 10019
<mailto:(hkapstein /at/ jjay.cuny.edu)>(hkapstein /at/ jjay.cuny.edu)
212.237.8591
Helen Kapstein is tenured in the English Department at John Jay
College, The City University of New York. She earned her PhD in
English and Comparative Literature from Columbia University. Her
areas of interest include postcolonial and contemporary British
literatures, cultural and media studies, and southern African
literature and culture. Her current book project looks at tourism in
postcolonial literature and culture.
--
Mathias Nilges, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Department of English
St. Francis Xavier University
PO Box 5000
Antigonish, Nova Scotia
Canada, B2G 2W5
