GradCafe (In-person meeting)

We would like to invite (post)grads and postdocs to join us for our termly meeting on migration, mobility and movement. These meetings will provide an opportunity to learn about research across the university, to present on-going research and receive feedback, and explore opportunities for advancing research through the Centre. As deemed desirable, we will discuss graduate training, research methods, publication opportunities and career guidance, as well as opportunities for establishing seminar and reading groups. Attend and see how you can get involved.

Presenters for our October 26th meeting are:

Prof. Dr. Dr. Janne Liburd - Sustainable Tourism Development, Migration and the Sustainable Development Goals

Ian Boyd - Subterranean Sociability: Habitat and Human Movement Underneath Paris

Olivia Colvill - Sustaining the Colonies: beavers as emblems of industry and eco-anxiety in 18th century thought

Further information on Prof. Dr. Dr. Janne Liburd and her presentation:

Dr. Dr. Janne Liburd is Professor and Director of the Centre for Tourism, Innovation and Culture at the University of Southern Denmark. She is a cultural anthropologist. Her research interests are sustainable tourism development, collaboration, national parks,  innovation, higher education, and the being of the university. By two ministerial appointments, Janne Liburd is the Chairman of the UNESCO World Heritage Wadden Sea National Park (2015-2022). She served on the National Tourism Forum, charged with developing the first strategy for tourism in Denmark (2015-2018). She has published more than 110 peer reviewed articles and book chapters, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3884-6728.

Abstract: Tourism is a phenomenon and exemplar of global human movement, which provide an excellent lens through which one can critically understand past and contemporary societies and begin to imagine more sustainable futures. With very few exceptions there can be no tourism without mobility. Defined by the UN World Tourism Organisation (2021): “Tourism is a social, cultural and economic phenomenon which entails the movement of people to countries or places outside their usual environment for personal or business/ professional purposes.”

Whether intertwined with leisure, desire, studies, work, forced or voluntary migration, climate change, etc., tourism captures the complex interdependences and inequalities between human beings, regions, cultural and socio-economic exchanges. By consequence, tourism is a potential contributor to the broader societal aims of sustainable development – or not. 

Mindful of the 1987 World Commission of Environment and Development (the Brundtland Report) which pointed to Third World poverty and over-consumption by the First World, more than 30 years later, the UN 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) expose the insufficiency of more sustainable accomplishments for people, planet, peace and prosperity. I will address the latent potential that lies waiting to be nurtured if one considers sustainable (tourism) development as a social endeavour, the interrelated nature of which is continually evolving, rather than a static goal to be achieved. Thinking about people on the move, having transdisciplinary conversations and imagining desirable futures together assume a position of intellectual responsibility for actual and forthcoming practice. It hinges on ethical and virtuous aspects, which must be other-regarding. This implies that one cannot expect oneself to flourish without reciprocity, responsiveness and responsibility with (not for) others.