Jack Shepherd
Universitetslektor|Senior Lecturer
- Professional title: Senior Lecturer
- Academic title: Senior Lecturer
- Telephone: +46 (0)10-1428896
- Email: jack.shepherd@miun.se
- Visitor address: Hus A, Studentplan 1
- Room number: Ej Angivet
- Location: Östersund
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- Employed at the subject:
- Tourism Studies
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- Research centers:
- ETOUR
Background
Coming from the UK, I studied a BA degree in History and French at King’s College London with a year of political science at Sciences Po Paris, before moving to Sweden in 2015. At Mid Sweden University, I completed both a Masters and a PhD degree within tourism studies, the latter which I received in late 2022.
Research
The mainstay of my work is located at the intersection of tourism and peace studies. My research probes tourism’s seemingly unique ability to be both the “peace industry”, contributing to peacebuilding efforts both during and after conflicts, and an industry that sustains dictatorships and systems of oppression around the world.
My doctoral thesis and much of my research energy has gone towards understanding tourism’s role in settings of intractable conflict, in particular, the Israeli-Palestinian context. More recently, inspired by the idea of peace as an ongoing everyday process, I have been looking at how tourism can help ordinary people build peace and reintrept difficult pasts in settings considered at peace today, such as France and the United States.
Beyond the above, I have published on cross-border tourism cooperation and the need for creative and emotive qualitative research. I am also currently leading a book project looking at the relationship between the Eurovision Song Contest and tourism.
Teaching and tutoring
I am involved in teaching a number of courses in both tourism studies and human geography at Mid Sweden University, covering topics such as sustainable tourism, tourism’s impacts, cultural tourism, event tourism, and qualitative methods. I have supervised students at both Bachelor and Masters level.
Other information
I am a co-founder of the project Pilgrim for Peace - an initative to break down boundaries through walking and dialgoue.