Anthropology of Travel, Tourism and Pilgrimage

This course consists of lectures, workshops, field trips and guided tours of London, together with a guided tour of a rural/coastal region in Sussex, namely the Cinque Port of Rye and its surrounds. It will offer a wide range of approaches and agendas (both theoretical and policy related) about tourism, pilgrimage, cultural heritage, and travel more generally – including consideration of refugees and asylum seekers.

The course will be conducted in an intense, unique, and closely-knit environment providing first class knowledge/practice of and in the field. The course is open to students in a variety of disciplines including anthropology, sociology, history, geography, development studies, international relations, art – as well as disciplines in Art and Humanities more generally.

The course will be structured in blocks of the three topics: week one: tourism; week two: pilgrimage; week three: cultural heritage.

Course leader

Professor Tom Selywn, Dr. Senija Causevic

Target group

You will have completed one year of undergraduate study at the time of joining the Academic Summer School. Professional experience can be acknowledged as equivalent to a university qualification.

Course aim

On successful completion of the course, a student should be able to demonstrate the ability to:

- Take their places in professions/occupations in the tourism/pilgrimage/cultural industries fields actually and presently occupied by former graduates of the SOAS MA in Anthropology of Travel, Tourism, and Pilgrimage.
- Gain expertise to be consultants in the field, academic researchers, artists/ photographers, marketing experts, school and college teachers, NGO leaders, tourism ministry staff, world-wide festival organisers, tour guides, urban and rural planners, smart city experts, workers in development agencies (EU, UNESCO, UNDP, for example).