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[New book chapter published!] Making an Embodied Absence Present: Tourism and the Cultural Imaginary of Slavery and Colonial Heritage in the Netherlands

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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

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Namib Notes IV: When the field becomes personal and the personal becomes the field

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Where does one draw the line between the personal and the professional in the fieldwork context? Is the researcher self the same as the ‘normal’ self? And I write ‘normal’ in quotation marks because what is ‘normal’ and what is ‘not normal’ about the self?  How much entanglements do we engage in as researchers between … Continue reading Namib Notes IV: When the field becomes personal and the personal becomes the field

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Namib Notes III: From Katutura to Matutura: place names and (post)colonial spatial planning

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This fact took me entirely by surprise: the land size of Namibia is about 3.5x the land size of Ghana. It was a wow moment for me, especially given that there are some 33 million people in Ghana while Namibia has just under 3.5 million according to their most recent census. I was having a … Continue reading Namib Notes III: From Katutura to Matutura: place names and (post)colonial spatial planning

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Namib Notes II: Aweh!, mind those Robots! Yoh! before you turn into Pap!

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On my first Monday of fieldwork, I managed to be up bright and early in order to catch the Free Guided Walking Tour of Windhoek. It was an interesting tour led by a young lady (Yvette) who had just started in this role back in February. She took us along the main highlights of downtown … Continue reading Namib Notes II: Aweh!, mind those Robots! Yoh! before you turn into Pap!

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Namib Notes: Welcome to Windy Windhoek

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Well, it's technically not too windy but Windy Windhoek does make for a nice alliterative title for the post - if you get what I mean :). While it might not be too windy, Windhoek is quite the hilly city which can only be good for my love of walking. I arrived in the storied … Continue reading Namib Notes: Welcome to Windy Windhoek

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FRICTIONS starts today!: lift-off time for my ERC Starting Grant project (Frictions of space: the generative tensions of slavery and colonial heritage tourism)

Featured / Shakestycoon / 2 Comments

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)

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“Selling the past to remember it”: Upcoming keynote at Utrecht University Heritage Lecture & Thesis Award event (11 April 2025)

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For this year, I happily accepted the invitation to deliver the keynote for the UU Heritage Lecture and the Dr. Albert van der Zeijden Thesis Award event organised yearly by Utrecht University and the Dutch Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage (KIEN). https://www.immaterieelerfgoed.nl/nl/activiteiten/uitreiking-dr-albert-van-der-zeijdenscriptieprijs-heritage-lecture There is still time to register for this upcoming event taking place in exactly three week's time … Continue reading “Selling the past to remember it”: Upcoming keynote at Utrecht University Heritage Lecture & Thesis Award event (11 April 2025)

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Echoes of In*dependence: Ghana’s 6 March 1957 event @ The Black Archives

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https://www.theblackarchives.nl/echoes-07-03-25.html What does Ghana's independence in 1957 mean to the Ghanaian and African diaspora in this day and age? Are the reverberations of the struggle for independence still felt in the dreams of the diaspora? How do contemporary dreams emerge and to what ends? Can we still find inspiration in the (post)indepedence movement for individual … Continue reading Echoes of In*dependence: Ghana’s 6 March 1957 event @ The Black Archives

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This piece or that piece? The art of recruiting and puzzling an ERC FRICTIONS PhD research team together.

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How do recruitment managers do this? How do they sort through CVs upon CVs of highly qualified candidates in order to shortlist the few that might proceed into the interview stage? How do they make the final decision after witnessing the brilliance of all the shortlisted candidates during the interviews? Flip a coin and hope … Continue reading This piece or that piece? The art of recruiting and puzzling an ERC FRICTIONS PhD research team together.

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Associate Professor: storytelling and the tourism geographies of slavery and colonial heritage

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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