Keynote Speakers

Professor Greg Richards

 

Greg Richards is Professor of Leisure Studies at the University of Tilburg in The Netherlands He has worked on projects for numerous national governments, national tourism organisations and municipalities, and he has extensive experience in tourism research and education, with previous posts at London Metropolitan University (UK), Universitat Roviria I Virgili, Tarragona (Spain) and the University of the West of England (Bristol, UK).

Professor Richards held a European Union Marie Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Interarts Foundation in Barcelona, and he has directed a number of projects for the European Commission on topics including cultural tourism, crafts tourism, sustainable tourism, tourism education and labour mobility in the tourism industry. He has also worked extensively on the analysis and development of cultural and creative tourism in cities such as Barcelona and Burgos (ES), London, Newcastle, Manchester and Edinburgh (UK) Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Den Bosch (NL), Sibiu (RO), Amman (Jordan) and Macau (China). His major publications include Cultural Tourism in Europe (1996); Cultural Attractions and European Tourism (2001); Tourism and Gastronomy (2002); The Global Nomad: Backpacker Travel in Theory and Practice (2004); Cultural Tourism ? Global and Local Perspectives (2007) Tourism, Creativity and Development (2007), Eventful Cities: Cultural Management and Urban Regeneration (2010) and Cultural Tourism Research Methods (2010).

He was a member of the Palmer/Rae team evaluating the impact of the European Cities of Culture (ECOC) for the European Commission, an international jury member for the selection of the Hungarian Capital of Culture in 2010, a contributor to the European Travel Commission study of City Tourism and Culture and an adviser on the development of national cultural tourism policy in Austria. He has advised the Dutch city of Den Bosch on the development of multi-annual cultural events programme to celebrate the 500th anniversary of the painter Hieronymus Bosch. In 2007 he conducted the evaluation research for both of the ECOC ? Luxemburg and Sibiu (Romania), and he advised Stavanger 2008 on the final evaluation report for the 2008 ECOC. He has worked with Bob Palmer on a three new editions of the European Cultural Capital Report (2008, 2009 and 2011) and is currently working with cities in the Netherlands, Malta and Italy on their ECOC bids.

 

Professor Carolyn Cooper

 

Carolyn Cooper is a professor of literary and cultural studies at the University of the West Indies, Mona, Jamaica. She is the author of Sound Clash: Jamaican Dancehall Culture at Large (2004); and Noies in the Blood: Orality, Gender and the 'Vulgar' Body of Jamaica Popular Culture (1993). Professor Cooper initiated the establishment of the University's Reggae Studies Unit and provided leadership for this innovative enterprise for more than a decade. A former director of the Institute of Caribbean Studies at UWI, Mona, Professor Cooper chaired the organising committee of the Institute's 2008 'Global Reggae Conference'. An outspoken public intellectual, Professor Cooper writes a weekly column for tbe Jamaica Gleaner on a wide range of issues: gender, popular culture, politics, environmental activism, language rights and tourism.