Category: Academic Reflections
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Place as Agency: How Location, Locale and Sense of Place Shape Pathways Back to Work
Background Last week, I presented research about emplaced agency at the Regional Studies Association British/Irish Section Conference at Queen’s University Belfast. Looking at ‘place’ as a holder of agency was a new exploration on my behalf, despite having come across place attachment and place sensitivity before in my research. My exploration of ‘place as agency’…
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A Private Pool in the Desert: Confronting Sustainability Paradoxes in Tourism
Original article: A longitudinal analysis of judgement approaches to sustainability paradoxes by Dr Susann Power, Prof MariaLaura Di Domenico and Prof Graham Miller. Cite: Power, S., Di Domenico, M., & Miller, G. (2024). A longitudinal analysis of judgement approaches to sustainability paradoxes. Tourism Management, 102, 104877. Research in Plain Language: In 2010, I found myself in a…
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Sustainability Paradoxes: A Research‑Teaching Nexus in Action
How do we prepare future tourism and hospitality professionals to navigate a world defined by complexity, contradiction, and competing sustainability demands? As I was contemplating this question, I set out to develop an Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) initiative that is doing exactly that by embedding my own research, active learning, and paradox thinking directly…
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Women in Academia: Getting Unstuck and Rethinking Resilience
Let me begin with a caveat: I do not feel disadvantaged as a woman in academia. I am acutely aware of my privilege, and my academic career has been shaped, sometimes gently, other times firmly, by the circumstances of my life. To me, being an academic has never been simply a job. It is a…
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Becoming a Human Book: Reflections From Rathlin Island’s Human Library
Sometimes, as academics, our work takes us into unexpected spaces, both intellectually and geographically. One such moment arrived when I agreed to become a Human Book at a Human Library event on Rathlin Island. The gathering was hosted by the Rathlin Development and Community Association and the Ulster University Rathlin-Research Forum as part of the Northern Ireland…
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Shaping Tomorrow: Reflections from THRIC 2026
The 2026 Tourism and Hospitality Research in Ireland Conference (THRIC) served as a timely reminder of the collective agency embedded within our academic and professional community. Since its inaugural gathering in Portrush in 2005 and following a Covid-19-induced hiatus, its revitalisation at MTU Dingle, Co. Kerry in 2024, THRIC has evolved into far more than…
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The beach: a liminal space between hope and despair
The beach holds a special place in my heart. Gazing over the sea, listening to the sound of the breaking waves and feeling the sand between my toes inspires awe, instils calm, releases tension and provides a transitional space for wellbeing, recreation and many other of our human needs and desires. The beach is a…
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Language, People, and the Pathways We Build
In academia, we are trained to define, delineate, and set boundaries. Rigour demands clarity; we seek to avoid ambiguity and to justify our claims. Yet in our pursuit of precision, we often forget two things: etymology and humanity. Etymology asks: where do our words come from, and what did they mean originally? Humanity asks: what…
Susann Power 