'Dark Tourism' in Comparative Perspective: Sites of Suffering, Sites of Memory
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Liverpool
Department Name: Modern Languages and Cultures
Abstract
This project explores, in comparative perspective, the relationship between memory, place, cultural heritage, colonialism and public understandings of suffering and imprisonment. Although former places of suffering and detention have recently been developed into museums, hotels, memorials, conference centres and other commercial or heritage buildings across the world, there has been very little academic research which focuses on the public reception of these buildings; the part they play in memorialising and interpreting 'difficult' pasts; or their commercial and economic importance to the heritage and museum industry. The research offers a cross-cultural and interdisciplinary approach to the field of dark tourism, challenging any previous perception of the field's Anglophone biases. It focuses in particular on former sites of suffering, incarceration and genocide, and explores the increasing engagement with these locations by the heritage industry. The research will draw on a broad range of disciplinary expertise - history, sociology, anthropology, comparative cultural studies, museum studies - in France and the UK to interrogate existing assumptions and methodologies in studies of 'dark tourism', to challenge the alinguistic tendencies of previous approaches, and to generate new comparative and cross-cultural insights. The project will, through an initial review of existing literature, seek to establish a common framework of meaning which captures the similarities but also the distinctiveness of the evolution of theory around 'dark tourism' in France and the UK. It will then develop two specific strands of activity relating to: (i) cultures of penal and convict incarceration in France, the UK, Tasmania, and New Caledonia, and (ii) recent museums and memorials relating to the Holocaust and the genocide of the Tutsi in Rwanda. This approach will permit analyses of the intersections of dark tourism and heritage in a range of Anglophone and Francophone contexts, and will allow a focus - in a workshop and conference, as well as in a range of publications for academic and professional audiences - on the possibilities in the field of comparative methodologies and transnational understandings.
Publications
Rachel Mulhearn
(2018)
Penal Heritage: Approaches to Interpretation
Forsdick, C
(2020)
Places of Traumatic Memory: A Global Context
Forsdick, C
(2019)
Reimagining the Guyanas
FORSDICK, C
(2018)
'A Postcolonial Nineteenth Century', French Studies, 72.2
Forsdick, C
(2020)
Le bagne
Forsdick, C
(2020)
French Guiana: Memory Traces of the Penal Colony
Forsdick C
(2017)
Memory as Colonial Capital
Forsdick C
(2019)
<em>Bande dessinée</em> and the Penal Imaginary
in European Comic Art
Forsdick C
(2017)
"Dark tourism": the emergence of a field
in Memoires en jeu
Forsdick C
(2020)
Dark heritage of empire and the taxonomies of postcolonial tourism
in Mémoires en jeu
Forsdick C
(2019)
Un siècle de sites funéraires de la Grande Guerre
Forsdick C
(2017)
The Intersectionality of Dark Heritage: Overlapping histories of enslavement and incarceration
in Memoires en jeu
Forsdick C
(2018)
Postcolonializing the lieu de mémoire
Forsdick C
(2018)
Postcolonializing the bagne
in French Studies
Forsdick C
(2020)
Between Censorship and Amnesia: The End of The Penal Colony in French Guiana
in Transtext(e)s Transcultures
Description | Research has focused on the translatability of the concept of 'dark tourism', especially across Francophone and Anglophone contexts. We have explored 'dark tourism' practices at a range of penal sites, most notably in Australia and New Caledonia. This research has permitted: (i) comparison at cognate sites, associated with the Holocaust and genocide; (ii) development of approaches that encourage the identification of intersectional memory practices and the existence of historical palimpsests (linking, for example, penal heritage and slavery); and (iii) discussion with heritage professionals about next steps with these findings. |
Exploitation Route | A briefing paper has been produced with a heritage consultant and colleagues at Canterbury Christ Church University about the development of prison sites and the ethics of penal heritage. This has allowed us to take forward our findings with a range of heritage professionals Work also intersects with more recently funded AHRC projects and a number of GCRF initiatives. Project findings have been shared with heritage professionals in a range of international settings, including Vietnam (September 2018) and French Guiana (March 2019). Conversations began in 2020 re. further collaboration with colleagues at Nazarbayev University on ALZhIR, the Akmolinsk Camp of Wives of Traitors to the Motherland. |
Sectors | Creative Economy Education Culture Heritage Museums and Collections |
Description | Collaboration with Christ Church Canterbury University on development of acquired HMP Canterbury site |
First Year Of Impact | 2018 |
Sector | Education,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections |
Impact Types | Cultural Societal Economic |
Description | British Museum |
Organisation | British Museum |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Public |
PI Contribution | Contributed to British Museum exhibition on Toussaint Louverture |
Collaborator Contribution | Provided academic advice on exhibit development; chaired public event relating to exhibition. |
Impact | Contribution to exhibit development. |
Start Year | 2017 |
Description | Canterbury Christ Church University |
Organisation | Canterbury Christ Church University |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | Collaboration in the area of penal heritage. |
Collaborator Contribution | Hosting workshop, January 2018, relating to AHRC/LABEX award on penal heritage and artistic creativity. |
Impact | Workshop, January 2018 |
Start Year | 2017 |
Description | 'Transcultural memories of the bagne' talk |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | 'Transcultural memories of the bagne: the Mediterranean in global penal heritage', Mediterranean Transcultural memories: Visualising Mediterranean Port Cities, 1850 to the present, IMLR, University of London, May 2017 [keynote paper] |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
Description | Lecture (Cayenne) |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Inaugural seminar at Universite de Guyane on penal heritage and the bagne. Mixed audience of cultural policy makers, school teachers, curators and students. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
Description | Lecture (Lisbon) |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Lecture on project at Museum of Resistance and Liberation, Lisbon |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
Description | Lecture in a museum, Musee d'Aquitaine, Bordeaux |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Dark tourism and sites of enslavement: a comparative perspective. Talk to audience of curators and museum professionals. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
Description | Liverpool workshop |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Concluding workshop of project. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
URL | http://passes-present.eu/en/final-conference-project-dark-tourism-43213 |
Description | Project workshop (Paris) |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Project workshop, Memorial de la Shoah, Paris |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
Description | Talk to heritage professionals engaged in UNESCO world heritage bid |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | 'Réflexions des historiens sur l'historicité des conflits', Interprétation et réconciliation des mémoires: la contribution des sites patrimoniaux liés aux conflit, UNESCO workshop, Paris (December 2019). Talk in response to advice on WW1 cemetry bid for UNESCO world heritage status. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |