Dr Rodanthi Tzanelli

Lecturer in Sociology

Photo of Dr Rodanthi Tzanelli

I am a Senior lecturer in Sociology with an interest in globalisation processes. Having originally been educated as a historian, an archaeologist and an anthropologist at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (Faculty of Philosophy), Greece, and at Lancaster University (Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences), UK, I moved on to take up posts in history at the University of Central Lancashire, and in sociology at the University of Kent and Leeds. My extra-curricular interests in art and photography are finding creative use in my academic research, where I am currently developing an ethnographic agenda on film and other audiovisual media.

Research Interests

My overall research interests centre upon what we recognise as ‘globalization’ – a set of interconnected political, social, cultural and economic processes that manifest themselves both at local, national and transnational levels. My publications span themes and ideas relating to tourist development, the battles between authenticity and tourist/media reproduction, the changing faces of ethno-national heritage in transnational settings and the history and theory of knowledge economies. An extensive list of my research interests is provided on academia.edu and a full list of publications can be found on my Artsite.

Teaching

I am particularly interested in the pedagogical power of media such as the Internet - in particular, their participatory potential for students. The inherent theoretical complexity of ideas and theories in social sciences invites the mobilisation of audiovisual resources to mediate and interpret theory, but also connect and convey it into empiry and experience. For information on present and past teaching please visit Rodanthi Tzanelli’s Teaching site and Identity and Tourism.

I teach the following modules:
Race, Gender and Migration (SLSP5118M, Master’s level)
Tourism & Culture (Second-year, Undergraduate level)

PhD Supervision

I am keen to supervise promising research students in the following areas:

Global culture industries (film, tourism), consumption, globalization and development
Nationalism and National Identities in Europe, especially in the South-East Mediterranean region
History of human sciences
Representations of gender, race and ethnicity (especially in the media)