Travel and Tourism
Course Description
What are the reasons for travel historically and in the modern world? What factors draw individuals singly and as members of collectivities to travel? How do different forms of travel relate to necessity and leisure? Who travels and why? Is travel an individual or collective phenomena – and how are these two interconnected? What is the relationship between the site(s) traveled to, and the sight of the visitor? How is meaning produced regarding particular sites? How do these meanings differ, depending on the positionality of the traveler? What is the relationship between the visitor and the local inhabitant? Can one be a traveler in one’s own home (site)? What is the relationship between travel and tourism? How do people who travel experience; and how are race, gender and class articulated in the multiple practices of travel? These and other questions will be addressed in this course through an examination of different forms of travel including exile and migration, pilgrimage(s), exploration and commerce, and leisure travel.
We will use a variety of historical and scholarly materials to explore the forms of travel that constitute the subject matter of this course. These include social science texts, literature, films and theoretical writings. We will begin theoretically and historically by examining various forms of movement and thinking/writing about these. In the fall semester we will examine pilgrimages – sacred and secular; colonial travel and writing; voluntary and involuntary travel, displacement and exile. We will then turn our attention to other forms of modern day travel, such as immigration, diasporas, and tourism. In particular, we will focus on the commodification of travel, as an acquisition of social (and economic) currency, and as a source/site of power. Throughout, the relation between material and physical bodies will remain a central focus of the course. Another central concern of the course will be the social relations in and through which travel is made possible and lived out. Conference possibilities include analyses of your own travel experiences; examination of travel writings pertaining to specific places; theoretical perspectives on various aspects of travel – immigration experiences, exile, refugee-ness, diasporas, borders and boundaries and/or various forms/types of tourism. Fieldwork locally is yet another possibility for conference work.