Biography

I was born and brought up in South Africa and taught African Studies for many years at the then University of Natal, and was also active in human rights work. I was educated at the Universities of the Witwatersrand and London (School of Oriental and African Studies), where I obtained a PhD in 1996.

Teaching

I teach on a variety of Tourism courses, from level 1 through to Masters, and lead the Tourism Masters Programmes. My specialisms include tourism policy and development in the third world and the links between tourism, heritage and culture. I am also committed to enhancing the quality of student learning, as chair of the Faculty Learning and Teaching Committee, Faculty representative on the University Teaching and Learning Committee and the Student as Producer Steering Committee.

Research Interests and Activities

My interests straddle both Tourism Studies and African Studies. I recently completed a history of segregated leisure spaces on Durban’s beach front, as well as a biography of John Dube, a key early 20th-century South African political leader. I have a number of PhD students, working on topics that vary from heritage associated with the Pilgrim Fathers to conflicts over the use of sacred sites in Bali. I presented papers at the European Conference on African Studies 4 and the South African Historical Society Conference in the summer of 2011.

Recent Publications

2011 First president: a life of John L. Dube, founding president of the ANC (Johannesburg, Jacana Press)
2007 ‘”We will be elbowed out the country”: African responses to Indian indentured immigration to Natal, 1860-1910’. Labour History Review 72, 2, 155-168
2007 ‘Student participation in an integrated retention strategy’. Link [Journal of the Hospitality, Leisure, Sport and Tourism Network of the HEA] July.
2007 ‘Rainbow, renaissance, tribes and townships: tourism and heritage in South Africa since 1994’ in Buhlungu, S, J Daniel and R Southall (Eds) State of the nation 4, 266-287. Pretoria, Human Sciences Research Council
2006 ‘A virtual conference for tourism students’ Paper to the Conference of the Association for Tourism in Higher Education, Cambridge, December.
2006 ‘Modelling the research experience: a virtual conference for student assessment’ for Alan Jenkins and Mick Healey as part of the current HEA initiative to link teaching and research more closely
2006 ‘The needs of level 1 students: a survey’ Pedagogic and Research Day, HEA Hospitality, Leisure, Sport and Recreation Subject Centre, University of Worcester.
2005 Commissioned to produce new heritage interpretation throughout the Cathedral Quarter in the City Of Lincoln (Interreg-funded)
2005 ‘Using Virtual Learning Environments for student assessment’ Learning and Teaching Conference, University of Lincoln, July.
2003 ‘What is remembered and what forgotten: a decade of redefining culture and heritage for tourism in South Africa’ Conference on cultural tourism, University of Nottingham, December
2001 ‘Doubly elite: exploring the life of John Langalibalele Dube’ in Journal of Southern African Studies 27, 3, 445-458 [Special issue for Shula Marks]
2001 ‘How the Welsh became white in South Africa: immigration, identity and economic transformation from the 1860s to the 1930s’ in Transactions of the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion 7, 112-127
2001 (With Anne Vaughan) A heritage and cultural preservation strategy for Cato Manor [Durban] Report prepared for the European Union/Cato Manor Development Association
2001 (With Anne Vaughan) A strategy for tackling crime and grime in Durban Report prepared for Tourism KwaZulu-Natal

Professional Membership

• Association for Tourism in Higher Education
• International Commission for the History of Travel and Tourism
• Fellow of the Higher Education Academy