In this episode, Sam interviews Professor Kevin James of the University of Guelph. They discuss the nature of academic history and historical education.
Professor James’ teaching and research focuses on Ireland and Britain during the long nineteenth century, and also encompasses trans-national themes such as travel, tourism, and the history of the modern hospitality sector. His current research, drawing on old hotel books, explores the social and cultural history of the inn and hotel in Victorian Ireland and Britain. It extends his previous research programme, which examined ‘tourist development’ projects in nineteenth-century Ireland and the intersections of gendered, racial and class identities in Irish travel writing. He also has longstanding interests in comparative modern Scottish and Irish social history. Professor James is also deeply engaged in public outreach, through diverse media, public talks, digital communication, and partnerships with civil society. Both the current work on Irish hotel and inns, and previous projects on Irish and British tourism and travel history have been funded through SSHRC grants.
This podcast is 29 minutes and 32 seconds long, is 18.5 MB and it can be downloaded here
