Name: Tourism and the Right to Place
Start: 2026-03-18T12:00:00+00:00
End: 2026-03-18T13:30:00+00:00
Location: Rutherford McCowan Building

Attend the inauguration lecture of Professor Anna de Jong in celebration of International Women’s Day 2026.
About this Event

This inaugural lecture explores why Professor Anna de Jong's research has taken focus with tourism in place change, and how they conceptualise tourism as a political-economic spatial project that reconfigures access to things like housing, leisure and tourism spaces, labour markets, decision-making processes and, ultimately, the right to remain in place.

Biography:

Anna de Jong is a professor in tourism and regional development with the School of Social and Environmental Sustainability, University of Glasgow. Anna’s research takes focus with tourism governance in rural and regional areas, guided by wider concerns of resident inequities, spatial justice and political participation.

We will also be joined by Dr Jen Hall, who will discuss experiences of the women who undertook dark-sky walks during the North York Moors National Park Dark-sky Festival in 2024 and 2025. By bringing together arts-based walking practice and Deep Listening, the study highlights, through sensory ethnography, how women experience nocturnal environments.

Biography:

Dr Jen Hall is Associate Professor of Tourism Policy and Environmental Justice, York St John University. As a cultural geographer, she examines social and ecological justice in tourism, leisure, events, heritage, and sport. Jen is an expert in tourism governance and policy, with a focus on urban heritage, spatial justice, and regenerative tourism in natural environments. She has published widely on gender and inequality in adventure, and her research has influenced policy in mountaineering organisations in the United Kingdom. Jen is currently working with North York Moors National Park on a five-year research project to investigate the climate crisis and conservation through public engagement programmes. Jen is a Fellow and Secretary of The Geographies of Leisure and Tourism Research Group at the Royal Geographical Society. She has professional experience managing cultural regeneration projects in the public sector, establishing and leading major venues, festivals, and cultural development programmes.

This event is taking place in Room 127 within the Rutherford Mc-Cowan Building at the Dumfries Campus of the University of Glasgow. It will also be streamed online. A reception will follow and all are welcome.