About our blog

In January 2017 a group of students, faculty, and staff from Hamline University are going to Cambodia as part of a study-abroad course titled "Heritage & Tourism in Cambodia: Bridging the Ancient and Modern Worlds". We will spend 17 days exploring the Angkor ruins and visiting people in the surrounding communities. We will employ an ethnographic field methodology, observing tourists and people working in the tourism and heritage management industries. We want to pay attention to how time and space is organized, the performances of tourism, the material culture of the sites, and the representations of past and present Cambodia. Exploring ruins allows us to learn about ancient culture. To better understand modern Cambodian culture, we will also spend time exploring the town of Siem Reap and some of the nearby villages. Through these experiences we will gain insight into Cambodian culture, but more importantly we will make observations about the impact of the tourism industry and international heritage management on local Khmer communities. These two activities ­ exploring ancient sites and visiting contemporary villages ­will provide us with a powerful cultural experience – allowing us to address a number of theoretical, practical, and philosophical questions. What does it mean for a place to be a "World Heritage Site"? What are the impacts on the local communities? What is an "authentic" heritage site? Why do we and other tourists come to a place like Angkor Wat? What do they/we want to see, experience, and learn?

We - the participants of this course - will be blogging here about our travels and studies in Cambodia. We will begin by posting some pre-trip thoughts about readings, goals, and expectations.

Tourists at Angkor Wat (Photo by Brian - 2015)