The Tourism-Migration Nexus: Memory, Mobility and the Limits of Academic Disciplines.

The increasing intersection between tourism, migration and other forms of travel interrogate precise definitions and disciplinary boundaries. John Urry’s influential ‘mobility paradigm’ opened up new avenues of research, but did ultimately not effect substantial change in the academic field (if not discipline) of tourism studies. This lecture presents thoughts and insights from my empirical and conceptual research around the tourism-migration nexus, referencing cases of diasporic tourism, transnationalism, migrant return travel, ‘homesick tourism’ and even the clandestine cross-border home visits of refugees. It contributes two elements to the international scholarship in the field, an empirical focus on Africa and an analytical focus on memory. Advocating the utility of the emergent interdisciplinary field of memory studies, the lecture illustrates how collective memories of home and ancestral roots, as well as personal autobiographic and episodic memories inspire various forms of diasporic mobility, which may or may not be called ‘tourism’.

INVITATION

CURRICULUM VITAE

SABINE MARSCHALL

MA (Eberhardt-Karls-Universität Tübingen)

PhD (Eberhardt-Karls-Universität Tübingen)

Sabine Marschall is Professor in Cultural and Heritage Tourism.  She received her academic training in art and architectural history in Germany and obtained a PhD from the Eberhardt-Karls-Universität Tübingen in 1993. For the past 20 years, her research has been exploring different facets of tangible and intangible cultural heritage, commemoration, memorialization, and heritage tourism, mostly with respect to South Africa. Major publications in this field include Landscape of Memory: Commemorative Monuments, Memorials and Public Statuary in Post-apartheid South Africa (Brill 2010). Her current research focuses on memory and the intersection of memory with travel and tourism in the context of migration and displacement. Most recent publications are Tourism and Memories of Home (Channel View, 2017) and Memory, Migration and Travel (Routledge, 2018).