Spectral Tourism Conference

The conference will be primarily an in-person event, however there will be an opportunity to attend some of the panel discussions online. More information to follow when the full schedule is released.

This year it’s the Spectral Tourism Conference, and we are interested in how particular places respond to the influence of tourism through the lens of Hauntology, and how they capitalise on the ghosts in their history.

We ask how spaces change and adapt over time to embrace Dark Tourism. Our focus is particularly on our home city of York, now calling itself ‘the most haunted city in Europe, but we also encourage explorations of other cities and spaces in the UK and beyond.

This conference seeks to explore the ghosts of tourism, or tourism itself as a spectral presence, through an interdisciplinary exploration of spectral tourism in York and elsewhere.

Including fictional depictions of spectral tourism in literature, film, music.

With contributions from scholars, researchers, artists, and practitioners from diverse disciplines—including literature, history, creative writing, media studies, business, tourism studies, philosophy, and geography."