TBC

Dr Elizabeth Chant Module Leader

Option - Final year only

Term 2

15 CATS

10 x 2 hour seminars

Available to students from outside GSD by application

Module description

What role does ‘nature’ play in discourses of travel, tourism, and leisure? How might understanding human interactions with nature in the context of leisure tourism inform approaches to sustainable development?

Tourism has been identified as having the potential to contribute ‘directly or indirectly’ to all of the Sustainable Development Goals (UN World Tourism Organisation). Yet the making of destination images, exoticised imaginaries and exploitative practices mean that tourism can often have a negative impact on communities, both human and nonhuman.

Travelling through Nature asks students to interrogate the fundamentals of our relationship with ‘nature’ to understand the development of nature tourism and outdoor leisure. The title invites us to consider both how we travel through natural landscapes-- by foot, boat, train, car, or on horseback-- and how this influences our engagement, as well as the places that nature can take us to mentally, physically and spiritually.

Using a primarily historical lens, over the course of the module we will examine how different kinds of landscapes have been immortalised, fetishised and commodified, and what the implications of this have been for issues relating to social justice, extractivism, pollution, and species loss. We will draw upon insights from aesthetic philosophy, social anthropology, travel writing, and the history of natural history, working across a variety of sources including travel advertising/ephemera, documentary films, literature, and policy. Given the important (and enduring) role played by the Americas in the development of nature tourism, there will be a special focus on this region, although students will have the opportunity to develop their assessments on other geographical contexts.

This module will be of interest to any students interested in tourism (both current and historical), travel writing, environmental history, sustainable tourism and heritage, and Indigenous studies. We will engage primarily with interdisciplinary humanities approaches, although no specific prior subject knowledge is required.

Learning Outcomes

By the end of this module, students will be able to:

1. Understand the development of nature tourism and how this connects to current sustainable development challenges
2. Critically analyse nature tourism discourses across written and visual materials
3. Undertake independent research using digital archives.
4. Evaluate their own positionality and engagement with images and practices of leisure tourism
5. Communicate their evaluations effectively, using digital strategies where appropriate

Assessment (indicative / subject to minor amendments)

• 10% class preparation and participation
• 50% StoryMap destination guide (2000 words)
• 40% critical response to a travel account (1000 words)

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  Please note: Module availability and staffing may change year on year depending on availability and other operational factors. The School for Cross-faculty Studies makes no guarantee that any modules will be offered in a particular year, or that they will necessarily be taught by the staff listed on this page.