Histories of Travel and Tourism (HIST*4230)

Code and section: HIST*4230*01

Term: Fall 2026

Details

Course Synopsis:  

This course examines Canada’s development as a tourist nation, paying attention to how landscapes, nature, and heritage have been used to appeal to pleasure travellers from within Canada and beyond. 

Scholars in the humanities and social sciences argue that practices and concepts of “mobility” are crucial for understanding an increasingly modern and globalized world, which makes tourism a particularly important field of study. Mass tourism (as opposed to elite travel) emerged with the era of steamships and railways, and gradually developed into a major global industry – one of the largest in terms of employment and trade. But was it a modernizing force that fostered “a sense of fragmented identity and uncertainty,” as historian Cecilia Morgan argues, or did it help to transcend the chaos and confusion of modernity by “integrating its fragments into unified experience,” as theorised by Dean MacCannell? Did it have uplifting or deleterious effects on communities? Has it contributed more to environmental preservation or degradation? Was it a colonializing force in Canada, that reinforced demeaning cultural stereotypes of First Nations and others, or did it serve as an important contributor to national unity and development? This course addresses these questions and others, as we examine this new and important field of history, which draws on environmental, Indigenous, literary, economic, gender, visual, and other approaches.

You will be expected to participate regularly in the course’s weekly seminar discussions. This course will be taught in person on campus; classes will not be recorded.

Assignments and Evaluation:

Visual Culture Assessment - 20%
Book Review - 20%
Paper Proposal - 5%
Research Paper - 35%
Participation - 20%

Required Textbooks:

For the Book Review assignment, students will be expected to read a recent monograph on tourism history from a Canadian university press. There will be a sign-up sheet in the first week of classes. These titles are available online through the university library. At Amazon and Indigo, they range in cost between $35 and $49 CDN.

*Please note: This is a preliminary web course description only. The department reserves the right to change without notice any information in this description. The final, binding course outline will be distributed in the first class of the semester.

**Please login to WebAdvisor, once the course schedule goes live, for instructor/supervisor information.