DIT PhD/MPhil Project
Supervisor name & contact details:
Dr. Theresa Ryan
4027565
Theresa.ryan@dit.ie
http://www.dit.ie/hospitalitymanagementtouri
sm/people/staff/staffarticles/staffname,85184,
en.html
Research Centre Name and Website (if
applicable)
School of Hospitality Management and Tourism
Funding Agency
If no funding is available, please leave blank
Scholarship Details
Please give details of student stipend and
research fees covered by the funding
Subject Area
Tourism
Title of the Project
Heritage sites and contested memories
Project Description (max 300 words)
According to Cassia (1999) history as a scholarly activity is a means of producing knowledge about
the past while heritage is a means of consuming that knowledge. Heritage sites are central to
tourism activity not least because they constitute an important forum through which messages
about national identity, values and beliefs can be promoted. Tourists seeking to learn about the
places that they visit understand that heritage sites, whether buildings, monuments or places,
offer an opportunity to access and consume heritage that has been deemed to be important. If
history is what a historian regards as worth recording and heritage is what contemporary society
chooses to inherit and to pass on (Tunbridge and Ashworth 2006: 6), then heritage sites are
hugely important because they embody the selective representation of the past and officially
make manifest the decisions that have been made about what is to be remembered.
This project is concerned with heritage interpretation and representation of sites in Ireland that
have a complex and unsettling past. It addresses a key area that is largely under researched in the
literature by focusing on the extent to which tourist encounters lead to unexpected or
unintentional experiences and to what result. In particular, it explores how Guiding narratives can
produce unsettling and unanticipated effects on tourists, perhaps causing them to reflect on their
own personal and collective memories, prompting them to adopt offensive or defensive
positions, or reminding them of other kinds of memories. In heritage settings little is known
about the nature of the relationship between the visiting tourists, the sites they visit and their
resulting experiences at these sites, At a time when Ireland is entering a decade of momentous
centenaries, the questions posed by this research are of profound importance.
Please indicate the student requirements for this project
A 2.1 or higher in a relevant degree (e.g. Tourism, History, Geography)
Deadline to submit applications (only for
funded projects)
Please choose College as appropriate
College of Arts and Tourism