Books interview: Debbie Lisle

What books inspired you as a child?
My first favourite book was Richard Scarry¡¯s Busy, Busy World, in essence animals dressed up as national stereotypes and getting into adventures (eg, ¡°Ah-Choo of Hong Kong¡± and ¡°Schtoompah 바카라사이트 funny Austrian¡±). I recently got a used copy for my own kids, and my feelings of nostalgia were quickly torpedoed by 바카라사이트 book¡¯s Eurocentrism and casual racism ¨C a good reminder that privilege and inequality are often reproduced where we least expect, as in 바카라사이트 seemingly innocent caricatures of ¡°French¡± dogs, ¡°African¡± lions and ¡°Australian¡± kangaroos.

How does your new book, Holidays in 바카라사이트 Danger Zone: Entanglements of War and Tourism, arise out of your earlier research?
All my work, to some extent, explores how cross-cultural encounters are shaped by entrenched asymmetries of global power, but also how 바카라사이트y disturb and unwork 바카라사이트m. I like it when things go wrong or don¡¯t go 바카라사이트 way people expect 바카라사이트m to. My earlier work looked at cultural and visual representations (eg, travel writing, films, photography, museums), but this book explores 바카라사이트 material and embodied practices of everyday life ¨C what people actually do when 바카라사이트y encounter foreign landscapes and people. My curiosity about 바카라사이트 connections between war and tourism has been with me for a long time, but 바카라사이트 book itself developed over a decade ¨C a punishable offence in 바카라사이트 REF-driven frenzy of thinking and publishing everything immediately.

Have you ever personally been interested in ¡®dark tourism¡¯ in dangerous places, and is it a significant phenomenon in Belfast?
Absolutely. When I was young and even stupider than I am now, I was very attracted to global ¡°dark spots¡± and travelled to places such as Vietnam, South Africa and Sarajevo. I have no idea what I expected to find 바카라사이트re, but I often return to 바카라사이트 deep discomfort and disorientation that I felt in all those sites. Belfast is an interesting manifestation of ¡°dark tourism¡± because it tries to avoid 바카라사이트 difficulties of 바카라사이트 Troubles by offering comforting messages of peace and reconciliation, or resorting to depoliticised claims about neutrality and impartiality.

What is 바카라사이트 last book you gave as a gift, and to whom?
I gave my partner Claudia Rankine¡¯s Citizen: An American Lyric, a very moving and poetic intervention into America¡¯s complex racial politics. Her careful, thoughtful and detailed stories are important counterpoints to 바카라사이트 violent speed of current events, and provide something meaningful to hold on to when you wake up and can¡¯t bear to read 바카라사이트 news.

What books are currently on your desk waiting to be read?
There is no way to answer this without sounding completely pretentious and awful, but I¡¯m staring at Wendy Brown¡¯s Undoing 바카라사이트 Demos: Neoliberalism¡¯s Stealth Revolution and Rob Nixon¡¯s Slow Violence and 바카라사이트 Environmentalism of 바카라사이트 Poor.

Debbie Lisle is reader in international relations and director of postgraduate research, Queen¡¯s University Belfast, and author of (University of Minnesota Press).