Trent University

Graduate Student, Cultural Studies

Traill College - Cultural Studies

Thesis Title: Maya Tourism, Representation and the Curious Case of Quetzaltenango

About

Matthew Tegelberg has a Master’s degree in Communication and Culture from the Joint Graduate Program in Communication and Culture at York University and Ryerson University. Currently he is a Doctoral candidate in Cultural Studies at Trent University. His research interests include tourism studies, international development, and media representations of indigenous peoples. His doctoral thesis examines the complex nature of cultural exchanges between tourists, long-term travelers and host communities in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala. His writing has appeared in the Canadian Journal of Communication and the International Journal of Cultural Studies. He is also an active member of a transnational network of media researchers called MediaClimate. The first volume of essays published by this collective is entitled Global climate, local journalisms: A transnational study of how media make sense of climate summits.


Here is a brief synopsis of his doctoral work:

    The dissertation is concerned with the problem of negotiating the disparate worlds of academic research and human experience. I concentrate on how it is that a place like Quetzaltenango, Guatemala, becomes enclosed within particular kinds of representational systems while other ways of knowing and being in this place are routinely neglected or ignored. I ask what role those with the privilege of speaking and writing about Quetzaltenango play in silencing other kinds of voices. I identify, for instance, how certain representational patterns emerge if one pays careful attention to the writing culture of travelers, tourists, academics, development practitioners and other ‘outsiders’ captivated by their experiences in ‘developing communities’. I then pursue novel modes of representation where alternative conceptions of tourism and development are (and can be) articulated.

    The project is divided into four chapters. Chapter one deals exclusively with method. I outline the aforementioned methodological problem and discuss how my own research grapples with this complex issue. The remaining chapters consider how this problem emerges in three thematic areas of interest: tourism, development and communication. I begin by identifying existing representational systems, academic and popular, and draw attention to cracks and fissures in these dominant approaches. The analytical component of each chapter then provides critical reconstructions of field notes taken on three separate research trips to Quetzaltenango, Guatemala. These critical reconstructions suggest alternative ways of conceptualizing lived experiences of tourism, development and communication in Quetzaltenango.  Chapter two examines the role of representation in an emerging cultural politics of tourism in Quetzaltenango. Chapter three extends this interest to the domain of higher education and development drawing a connection between tourism development initiatives and the growing numbers of indigenous women attending Guatemalan universities. I focus on challenges faced by indigenous women who migrate to Quetzaltenango to study and rely upon tourism revenue to sustain their educational pursuits. Chapter four examines how media operate in Quetzaltenango, placing particular emphasis on the dynamic role new media platforms are playing in transforming the ways in which communication occurs in tourism and development projects.