The Grand Tour was the traditional trip of Europe undertaken by mainly upper-class European young men of means. The custom flourished from about 1660 until the advent of large-scale rail transport in the 1840s, and was associated with a standard itinerary. It served as an educational rite of passage. Painting: Pierre Jacques Volaire (1729-1790s), View of the Eruption of Mount Vesuvius, 1770s, Oil on canvas, 56 x 76 cm, Private collection.

Concept:

The 7R Future Leadership Institute will organize a networking table around the topic of international travel, followed by a lecture about ‘Tourism and the Academy’ at the University of Amsterdam.

Schedule:

Date: Wednesday 19 May 2015 16.00h: 7R FLI Networking Table: coffee

Venue: to be confirmed

Attendees: by invitation only

17.00h: Lecture at University of Amsterdam: ‘Tourism and the Academy’

Venue: Spui 25-27, 1012 XM Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Attendees: Open to the public, registration required

18.30h: End of Lecture 19.00h: 7R FLI Networking Dinner to discuss the learnings 

Venue: to be confirmed

Attendees: by invitation only

Content:

Tourism and the Academy

Valorisation Seminar #6 in cooperation with the Amsterdam Centre for Cultural Heritage and Identity (ACHI)

Many people visit historical sites and museums, or, for that matter, read a book, only during their holidays. In particular, we are currently witnessing a rise in organized group travel with the aim of experiencing intensively the history, art and culture of specific cities and countries. A significant number of academics, many of them retired, contribute to such organized culture trips by providing lectures, guided tours or written documentation. Can and should this academic participation in tourism be seen as valorization of humanities knowledge? Why is this rarely seen as valuable academic activity? With: archeologist Gert Jan van Wijngaarden.

Valorisation of research in the Humanities usually hinges on the presence of audiences outside of academia, who appreciate archaeology, history and culture in general.  Traditionally, travel and tourism have been important means by which people experience foreign countries, historical monuments and art works. Think, for example, of the Grand Tour in the 18th and 19th centuries,  during which intellectuals immersed in Mediterranean art and culture. With the rise of mass-tourism, we have witnessed an increase in the scale of cultural consumption. During this seminar, we will address the issue whether academic participation in tourism can be considered valorization of humanities knowledge or should instead be seen as a source for extra personal  income. Scholars cooperating in organized group travel are usually positioned as experts because of their academic background. However, such participation in tourism is rarely presented as an academic activity by the participants themselves. Van Wijngaarden will explore this paradox with the help of his own experiences in the courses of Traveling through Antiquity, which are organized by the Illustere School and Labrys Travel.

About the speaker

Gert Jan van Wijngaarden is one of the leaders of ACHI’s Conservation and Display Research Domain. In February 2007, he took up his current post as Associate Professor at the Amsterdam Archaeological Centre. Before, he was director of the Netherlands Institute in Athens. He acquired his PhD degree in 1999 with a dissertation on Mycenaean pottery in the Levant, Cyprus and Italy. His teaching assignment is Greek archaeology, with an emphasis on the pre- and protohostoric periods. In addition, he teaches courses concerning archaeological theory, the history of the discipline and museumarchaeology. One of his research interests revolves around the subject of Mediterranean interconnections of pre- and protohistoric Greece. In addition, he conducts research with regard to the context of Archaeology and archaeological remains in contemporary society. In particular, he is interested in attitudes of the wider public towards archaeology and their influence on the discipline as a whole. As of 2014, the UvA Research Priority Area Cultural Heritage and Identities (ACHI) hosts a series of seminars that aims to underscore academic research in the fields of heritage and identity and its valorisation in society. In these meetings, research projects are presented to illustrate the potential of cooperation between scholarly research and public and private partners. The underlying goal of these seminars is to illustrate the ways in which scientific research contributes relevant insights and applications for addressing wider social questions and challenges.