Worldmaking in the Anthropocene: Critical Tourism Studies and Decolonization |Workshop series

For many years, people in different parts of the world have been calling for decolonizing education. Scholars from diverse backgrounds, including Black, Asian, Indigenous, and people of color, have joined this conversation, both in the global south and within Western countries.

In places that were once colonized, there is a growing movement to change how we teach and learn. This movement aims to move away from focusing solely on European perspectives and to give Indigenous knowledge its proper recognition.

Historically, universities in the Western world were primarily designed to benefit wealthy white men. While there have been strides towards inclusivity by including the voices of women, people of color, and Indigenous individuals in academia, these efforts sometimes fall short of fully embracing diverse perspectives.

Series of lectures

Through this series of lecture presentations and panel discussions, invited esteemed academic experts will engage with students, staff, and members of the public on their research into deconstructing the ongoing legacies of colonialism that continue to shape global North South relationships, representations of Others, educational institutions, violent cross-border aggressions,and wicked global problems, including climate change and sustainability. These conversations will challenge and engage students and staff alike and add to Campus Fryslân’s growing reputation as a leader in tackling today’s pressing and turbulent questions and interdisciplinary challenges.

Rudolf Agricola School

The sessions will be partially provided to students within the minor 'Global Studies and Colonial Critiques' which is under the umbrella of the Agricola School, and will be partly open to the wider student and academic community.

Speakers

Dr. Dominic Lapointe, Université de Québec á Montréal (UQÁM)

Areas of research expertise: critical approaches in social sciences, Climate change and tourism, Non-metropolitan destinations, Development of local communities, Development of tourism destinations, Tourism development, Local & regional development, Urban studies, Human geography, Tourism innovations, Social Justice, The touristification of daily life, Tourism and Indigeneity

Dr. Amira Benali, Aalborg University

Amira is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Culture and Learning at Aalborg University in Denmark. She holds a PhD in socioeconomics from the University of Geneva in Switzerland. Her workfocus on gender, social justice, poverty and alternative economies in the context of Tourism and management. Her current project focuses on the experiences of subaltern women with social entrepreneurship in Tunisia.

Dr. Bryan S.R. Grimwood, University of Waterloo

Bryan’s research analyzes human-nature relationships and advocates social justice and sustainability in contexts of tourism, leisure, and livelihoods. Trained as a human geographer and engaged scholar, he specializes in tourism and Indigenous Peoples, tourism ethics and responsibility, northern

landscapes, and outdoor experiential education. His research is informed theoretically by relational perspectives of nature and morality, and draws on diverse qualitative methodologies and principles of community-based and participatory research. Since joining UWaterloo as a faculty member in 2011, Bryan have grounded his research in settings ranging from Arctic communities and protected areas to urban outdoor programs and green spaces.

Michela (MK) Stinson, PhD Candidate, University of Waterloo

Michela (MK) Stinson is a critical tourism researcher interested in disruptive and unsettling relations of tourism. She is a PhD Candidate at the University of Waterloo in the Department of Recreation and Leisure Studies, where she also completed her Master of Arts in Recreation and Leisure Studies. Michela is interested in how stories, sounds, objects, and affects are ordered to maintain political and structural formations like nationalism and settler colonialism in tourism places. Her PhD research thinks with and through these orderings in the city of Niagara Falls, Ontario, with a concerted focus on relations of land, infrastructure, atmospherics, and ruination.

Victor Mawutor Agbo, PhD Candidate, University of Waterloo

As a critical tourism researcher, Mawutor's present research work focuses on tourism education and colonization relationships, interrogating how academic institutions operate either as sites of colonial reinforcement and/or resistance. He has also contributed to projects fostering tourism justice, ethics, and sustainability in community-based tourism contexts. Mawutor holds a Master of Environmental Studies in Geography from the Department of Geography and Environmental Management, University of Waterloo, and a Bachelor of Science (Hons) in Tourism Management from the University of Cape Coast, Ghana.