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67862-01 - Seminar: Decolonising Tourism? (3 CP)

Semester spring semester 2023
Course frequency Once only
Lecturers Giorgio Miescher (giorgio.miescher@unibas.ch, Assessor)
Content During the last few decades, tourism research has advanced beyond applied business research to embrace reflexive and critical academic enquiry. Critical tourism research is raising questions with regard to continuities of colonial power relations in the business, alternative forms of tourism (e.g. “hopeful tourism”) and reflects on epistemologies and practices of decolonising tourism. In this seminar, we critically engage with the past and present state of tourism in Namibia, a prime destination for wildlife and landscape tourism in Southern Africa.
Namibia’s tourist industry has its origins long before the country achieved independence in 1990 and the industry is deeply entrenched in colonialism and the Namibian settler society. In the seminar, we explore the history of tourism in Namibia and reflect on the persistent coloniality in the business today. Working with archival material and recent publications the participants will explore, for instance, change and continuity of tourist spaces, to compare travel guides of different decades, to research the origins and connotations of tourist highlights. In the seminar we translate terms like “coloniality” and “decoloniality” through a specific context and enter into discussion with a scholar from Namibia at the end of the semester.
Hence, the seminar is structured in three parts. In the first part, we have weekly sessions for a theoretical and practical introduction into the topic. During the second part, participants do individual/group research in the archives and library of the Basler Afrika Bibliographien. The third part consists of two block days, 6 and 13 May, for student presentations and intense discussions. Ndapewoshali Ashipala, director of the Museums Association of Namibia, has accepted an invitation to come to Basel in May 2023 and join the two block days.

 

Language of instruction English
Use of digital media No specific media used
Course auditors welcome

 

Interval Weekday Time Room
unregelmässig See individual dates
Comments Time: Friday 12:15-13:45 Basler Afrika Bibliographien, Klosterberg 23, 4051 Basel (regular sessions in the first part of the semester, followed by two block days on Saturday 6 May and Saturday 13 May)

No dates available. Please contact the lecturer.

Modules Modul: Areas: Afrika (Master's degree program: European History in Global Perspective)
Modul: Europäisierung und Globalisierung (Master's Studies: European Global Studies)
Modul: Fields: Environment and Development (Master's degree program: African Studies)
Modul: Fields: Governance and Politics (Master's degree program: African Studies)
Modul: Sachthemen der Ethnologie (Bachelor's degree subject: Anthropology)
Modul: Theory and General Anthropology (Master's degree subject: Anthropology)
Module: Migration, Mobility and Transnationalism (Master's degree program: Changing Societies: Migration – Conflicts – Resources)
Module: The Urban across Disciplines (Master's degree program: Critical Urbanisms)
Wahlbereich Master Geschichte: Empfehlungen (Master's degree subject: History)
Assessment format continuous assessment
Assessment registration/deregistration Reg.: course registration; dereg.: not required
Repeat examination no repeat examination
Scale Pass / Fail
Repeated registration no repetition
Responsible faculty Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, studadmin-philhist@unibas.ch
Offered by Zentrum für Afrikastudien

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