Thompson Rivers University, Kamloops, British Columbia, Canada
June 26–29, 2016
Caring is rarely given serious attention. It tends to be associated with emotionality rather than rationality, weakness rather than strength. Talking about it publicly, in professional contexts, is likely to land you with the charge of naïveté for optimism. But it is precisely care—for our students, our communities, our planet—that unites our efforts at knowledge production and transmission with a larger sense of purpose. Knowing what we care about and working in service of it moves us away from a sense of inevitability for the status quo and toward alternate futures where tourism education can help to advance the good life for humanity, in the context of the ecosystem that sustains us.
Care ethics, which place a focus on the interdependence of human beings and the importance of context, challenge utilitarian views of the world and of the role of academia. They represent a counter force to the continued onslaught of neoliberal management in higher education, which would easily have us forget about the diverse types of capital that permeate tourism education and scholarship, beyond today’s typically narrow focus on money and the reputational forms of capital that currently dominate our work. By turning our attention toward a richer variety of capitals—social, intellectual, creative—within a framework of care and commitment toward those things which we value, we invite participants to disrupt current logics and practices, and to activate change in tourism education. Please join us for an energetic, rigorous, creative, and soulful four days of intellectual growth and community-building for tourism higher education, amid the breathtaking scenery of Beautiful British Columbia. We invite contributions ranging from the traditionally intellectual to the innovative, artistic, and experiential.
TEFI9 Program
Conference themes
We invite contributions ranging from the traditionally intellectual to the innovative, artistic, and experiential. We welcome any submissions that fit within the broad theme of intersections between care and tourism education, and we especially encourage submissions relating to the following themes:
- Moral dimensions of teaching, learning, and creating knowledge
- Ethics of care in intense but short-term relationships (as is often the case with teachers and students)
- Caring about community
- Indigenization and internationalization of higher education
- Moving beyond disciplinary boundaries
- Thinking creatively about “capital”
- Social entrepreneurship and experiential education
- Resistance to neoliberal conditions in higher education
- Equity in tourism
- Sustainability
- Environmental ethics
- Affect and emotion in tourism research and education
Key dates
Abstracts Due: December 15, 2015
Notification of Acceptance: January 15, 2016
Optional Full Papers Due: March 15, 2016
Reviews Returned to Authors: May 1, 2016
Final Submissions Due: June 1, 2016
We are committed to supporting publication opportunities based on the outcomes of the conference, in the form of a journal special issue, and also possibly an edited book.
TEFI 9 is hosted by Thompson Rivers University, in Kamloops, British Columbia. “The place where the rivers meet,” Kamloops will offer a beautiful setting for the merging of people and ideas, as we reflect upon the power of caring in tourism higher education.
Organising committee
Conference Chair: Kellee Caton, Thompson Rivers University
Local Organising Committee:
Billy Collins, Thompson Rivers University
Lisa Cooke, Thompson Rivers University
Bryan Grimwood, University of Waterloo
David Hill, Thompson Rivers University
TEFI Executive Team:
TEFI Chair: Dianne Dredge, Aalborg University
Kellee Caton, Thompson Rivers University
Roberto Daniele, Oxford Brookes University
Jonathan Day, Purdue University
Johan Edelheim, University of Lapland
Szilvia Gyimóthy, Aalborg University
Inquiries about the TEFI 9 conference should be directed to Kellee Caton at kcaton@tru.ca.
General inquiries about the TEFI organisation should be directed to Dianne Dredge at dredge@cgs.aau.dk.