In the first instalment of "the slow hard work of societal impact", I focused on my coordinating role with the tapestry work piece. In this second instalment, I want to reflect briefly (although being brief is one of my learning goals) on screens and screenings as an avenue for societal impact. I refer in this … Continue reading The slow hard work of societal impact II: on screens and screenings
Geographies of slavery heritage tourism
Save the date: ‘Tourism, memory and heritage’ international conference (1-3 June 2026)
Save the date! 350 days left before this exciting international conference takes place in Amsterdam and Wageningen, The Netherlands. This 'Tourism, memory and heritage' conference will be the second edition after the very successful first edition that took place back in 2023. I am convening the 2026 edition as a kick-off conference of my ERC … Continue reading Save the date: ‘Tourism, memory and heritage’ international conference (1-3 June 2026)
Join in at Wageningen! Threads of our Dutch Slavery Past (Draden van ons Nederlands Slavernijverleden) – Gelderland edition
Collaborate and contribute to a monumental tapestry about the Dutch Slavery past. From Tuesday 27 May to the first week of July is the Cultural Geography Chair Group at Wageningen University and Research the host and coordinator for the making of a piece of the tapestry of the project ‘Threads of our Dutch Slavery Past’. … Continue reading Join in at Wageningen! Threads of our Dutch Slavery Past (Draden van ons Nederlands Slavernijverleden) – Gelderland edition
[New book chapter published!] Making an Embodied Absence Present: Tourism and the Cultural Imaginary of Slavery and Colonial Heritage in the Netherlands
It's wonderful to see this book is finally out and I am pleased to have contributed a chapter to this important collection. The book comes out of a 2-day conference from 2021. This was the first academic conference that I attended in the Netherlands after the move from Sheffield and the first in-person conference after … Continue reading [New book chapter published!] Making an Embodied Absence Present: Tourism and the Cultural Imaginary of Slavery and Colonial Heritage in the Netherlands
FRICTIONS starts today!: lift-off time for my ERC Starting Grant project (Frictions of space: the generative tensions of slavery and colonial heritage tourism)
1st April is beginning to feel like one of my favourite dates. Some pretty significant milestones of my professional life has been marked by this 1st April date - and it's no joke 😉 This is especially in relation to my academic career trajectory in the Netherlands. Prior to my transition from being a professional … Continue reading FRICTIONS starts today!: lift-off time for my ERC Starting Grant project (Frictions of space: the generative tensions of slavery and colonial heritage tourism)
Associate Professor: storytelling and the tourism geographies of slavery and colonial heritage
Today 1st January 2025 marks my official promotion to the position of Associate Professor in the Cultural Geography Chairgroup at Wageningen University and Research. This makes it is exactly 4.5 years since I entered the Tenure Track system at the Assistant Professor 2 level -and some 5.7 years since relocating from Sheffield Hallam University as … Continue reading Associate Professor: storytelling and the tourism geographies of slavery and colonial heritage
Documentary Film Premiere (06.12.24): The Embodied Absence of the Past
It is with such great excitement that I announce the premiere screening of my documentary film - 'The Embodied Absence of the Past: Tourism's intersection with slavery and colonial heritage memories in the Ghana-Suriname-Netherlands triangle'. The premiere will be one of the main highlights during 'The Calabash Onder de Bigi Bon' event. This event is … Continue reading Documentary Film Premiere (06.12.24): The Embodied Absence of the Past
Peruvian Posts I: Lima and the Memory Studies Association 2024 Conference
Increasingly, I have come to describe 'niche out' my research work as being focused on the geographies of slavery and colonial heritage tourism in relation to the politics of cultural memory. This niching out process required my search for more (trans-inter) disciplinary grounding for my research. It is in this light that I arrived at … Continue reading Peruvian Posts I: Lima and the Memory Studies Association 2024 Conference
Wageningen: my guided walking tour of the traces of the slavery and colonial past
It is one thing to dream about it, one thing to get funding to research about it, one thing to teach about it and surely one thing to actually be the one to do it. This was a fully embodied experience for me. How could I have seen it when I first set out my … Continue reading Wageningen: my guided walking tour of the traces of the slavery and colonial past
Commemorating Keti Koti in Wageningen
For the third year running, there was a Keti Koti commemorative ceremony in Wageningen. I had missed the first two occasions because of my research fieldwork in Suriname in 2022 and research fieldwork in Amsterdam in 2023. Fortunately, I was able to stay local this year. Thus on Sunday 30 June 2024, I joined a … Continue reading Commemorating Keti Koti in Wageningen