Anthropologist and Academic Leader of Research in the School of Social Sciences, Professor Maheshvari Naidu, delivered a seminar at the 6th Interdisciplinary Conference in Tourism Studies in Cappadocia, Turkey, at the invitation of the conference organisers and Editors of the accredited journal Anatolia.
Naidu (who is full Professor in Anthropology) was invited by the organisers to deliver one of the pre-conference seminars that traditionally opened the conference. Her presentation looked at Writing and Publishing Practices and created a space for the various scholars and postgraduate students from the several different countries to exchange experiences around writing and submission.
This was the third time that Naidu had been invited to deliver a pre-conference seminar by Anatolia. Her previous presentations were in Istanbul in 2015 and Bodrum in 2016.
‘This year saw a change in that the conference was smaller with a more focussed approach that still produced a range of highly diversified topics and attracted a multi-cultural group of researchers at different stages of their academic career, affiliated to over 30 institutions and representing 20 countries,’ said Naidu.
The highly interdisciplinary nature of the conference is what attracted Naidu. While topics in hospitality and leisure featured, many scholars at the conference working in tourism studies were economists and sociologists.
‘My own interest in tourism is from an anthropological perspective and I have an interest in heritage and experience, anthropology of tourism and trans-tourism (transformative tourism),’ she said.
Key note presentations from international scholars on Tourism for the Greater Good as well as Tourism and Transformative Experience showcased the social justice and potentially transformative dimensions of tourism and tourism studies, stated Naidu.
Naidu added that the feedback received from participants at the seminar were highly positive with networks and linkages being assembled, and the overall sense was that the conference itself was of great success.
