Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg

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Dr. Carsten Wergin

phone: +49 6221 547854
fax: +49 6221 547862

Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg
Transkulturelle Studien
Marstallstraße 6
69117 Heidelberg

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Dr. Carsten Wergin

Dr. Carsten Wergin

Dr. Carsten Wergin

Post Doc  (Scholarship holder 07/2008 - 03/2011)

from 10.2011 to 2013: Marie Curie Fellowship holder at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia.

http://www.sprc.unsw.edu.au/staff/carsten-wergin-1195.html   

Overview

Touring Cultures: Changing Representations of Self and Other in the Tourism Context of Rodrigues Island

Carsten Wergin specializes in the anthropology of music and tourism in broad sociocultural and historical perspective. After completing a BA(Hons) in Communications and English Studies at London Metropolitan University, and a MA in Cultural Studies at Goldsmiths College, he took his PhD from the University of Bremen in 2007. It is based on a one-year ethnographic fieldwork about the musical enactments of identity and culture on La Réunion, a French Overseas-Department in the southwest Indian Ocean. Subsequently, Carsten Wergin became co-founder of the interdisciplinary working group Tourism and the Oriental Other at Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg. His key topics there include ecotourism and sustainability, heritage tourism, as well as tourism as embodied practice and "staged authenticity".

The working title of his current research project within the Graduate School is Touring Cultures: Changing Representations of Self and Other in the Tourism Context of Rodrigues Island. It addresses the implementation of rules and structures for tourism development on Rodrigues Island. Since the landscape of its 'mother(is)land' Mauritius is strongly marked by an over-developed tourism sector, Rodrigues is one of the few possibilities left for investors in the region to profit from a growing interest in eco-tourism and sustainability. As a result, the island is marketed with a strong emphasis on nature preservation and ecological diversity. Starting out from a grassroots perspective, the project is set to contribute to ongoing debates on the professed value of ecotourism for hosts and guests. Central to this is the question of how a local population influences and is influenced by decision-making processes on changing representations of local environments, traditions and histories, that are made suitable for tourist audiences.

Curriculum Vitae

University Education

2007-2008

Different service contracts and lectureships at the Institutes for Social Anthropology at Free University Berlin and Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg.

2002-2007

Postgraduate research as member of the bremer institut für kulturforschung (bik) and the interdisciplinary Research Hub Dynamic and Complexity of Cultures at University Bremen.
Title of PhD-Thesis: "Kréol Blouz: On the Musical Enactment of Identity and Culture on La Réunion".

1997-2002

Studies at University Bremen (Social Anthropology), Goldsmiths College/ University of London (Cultural Studies, MA), and London Metropolitan University (English Studies and Communications, BA Hons).  
Title of MA-Thesis (based on a three-month ethnographic fieldwork in Brighton/UK): "How Brighton Rocks: The Contemporary Music Scene and its Potential as an Alternative Political Space".  
Title of BA-Thesis: "William Butler Yeats's Easter 1916: Analysing the Reproduction of Historical Events within Poetic Form".

Fieldwork

01/2009-07/2009Rodrigues Island, Republic of Mauritius, Indian Ocean (7 months)
01/2003-12/2003La Réunion, Indian Ocean (12 months)
06/2001-09/2001Brighton, UK (3 months)

Invited Papers and Workshop Participations

05/2009Hosting Strangers: Perspectives from an Anthropology of Tourism. Paper presented in the Tourism Lecture Series of the Department for Tourism Management. University of Mauritius.
10/2008

Zwischen Repräsentation und Artikulation: Der Karneval der (Musik-) Kulturen 2008 in Berlin. Paper presented at the XIV. International congress of the Gesellschaft für Musikforschung Musik - Stadt: Traditionen und Perspektiven urbaner Musikkulturen. University of Leipzig, Leipzig-D.

09/2008

'Oh, island in the sun': Fiktion und Realität in musikalischen Repräsentationen des Insularen. Paper presented at the interdisciplinary conference Inseln - Archipele - Atolle. Ordnungen des Insularen, Faculty of Philosphy / University of Mannheim, Mannheim-D.

09/2007

Kréol Blouz continued: Music and Creolisation in Today's 'European Ultra-Periphery'. Paper presented at the interdisciplinary conference of the Migration and Diaspora Cultural Studies Network (MDCSN) Creolising Europe, University of Manchester, Manchester-UK.

02/2007

Transkulturelle Musik auf La Réunion - Ein Forschungsfeld in Bewegung. Public lecture for the final colloquium of the interdisciplinary Graduate School Processuality in transcultural contexts: dynamics and resistances, Bremen-D.

09/2006

Réunion Island: Decentring Sounds from the European Ultra-Periphery. Conference of the European Association of Social Anthropologists (EASA) Europe and the World, Bristol-UK.

10/2005

Séga/Maloya: Musik als Instrument(ierung) politischer und kultureller Konflikte. Conference of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Völkerkunde (DGV) Konflikte - Menschenrechte - Interventionen, Halle (Saale)-D

10/2004

Maloya - entre écoute et interprétation : comment unir les voix(es) musicales et les voix(es) des homes. Conference Les Voix(es) de l'autre II, Clermont Ferrand-F.

07/2004

Doing Fieldwork in Transmusical Spaces. Conference New Hybridities: Societies and Cultures in Transition organised by the Graduate School Postcolonial Studies/ LMU, München-D.

Organisation of Conferences and Workshops

08/2008

Workshop: "Sounding Ethnography: Mutuality and Diversity in Musical Life" at the biannual conference Experiencing Diversity and Mutuality of the European Association of Social Anthropologists (EASA), Ljubljana-SLO.

04/2007

Panel: "Large-Scale Tourism in Small-Scale Societies" at the biannual conference Thinking Through Tourism of the Anthropological Association of the UK and Commonwealth (ASA), London-UK (with Patrick Neveling).

06/2006

Workshop: "Transcultural Identity Politics in the Making: Contrapunctual Listenings to Music" at the Duke-Bremen Series: Transcultural Humanities - Between Globalization and Postcolonial Re-Readings of History, Bremen-D.

11/2005

Workshop: "The Empire Writes Back: An Introduction to Postcolonial Theory" at the 26. Congress of the Initiative Psychologie im Umweltschutz (IPU), Kreuzlingen-CH.

Scholarships

2011-2013Marie Curie Fellowship holder at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia.
07/2008 - 03/2011Postdoctoral Research Fellowship: Graduate School - Society and Culture in Motion
2007Young Scholars Award, European Science Foundation (ESF)
2005-2006PhD completion grant, University Bremen
2002-2005PhD scholarship of the Evangelische Studienwerk "Villigst", e.V.

Publications

Monographs and Edited Volumes

  • (2010) Kréol Blouz: Musikalische Inszenierungen von Identität und Kultur. With CD. Köln, Weimar: Böhlau.
  • (2009a), Haut: Grenze zwischen Innen und Außen - Organ. Fläche. Diskurs. Münster: LIT (co-editor "Villigster Werkstatt Interdisziplinarität"). (forthcoming).
  • (2009b) Re-scaling the Anthropology of Tourism. Etnografica 13/2 (special journal dossier) (with Patrick Neveling).

Articles

  • (2012) Trumping the Ethnic Card: How Tourism Entrepreneurs on Rodrigues tackled the 2008 Financial Crisis. Island Studies Journal 7/1: 119-134. Available online: http://www.islandstudies.ca/sites/islandstudies.ca/files/ISJ-7-1-2012-Wergin.pdf   
  • (2009a) Projects of Scale-Making: New Perspectives for the Anthropology of Tourism (with Patrick Neveling). Etnografica 13/2: 315-342.
  • (2009b) T'shéga, Shéga, Séga…: Music, Identity and Creolisation on Réunion Island. In: Hoooomsing, V., Ludwig, R. und Schnepel, B. (eds.). Multiple Identities in Action. Frankfurt a.M.: Peter Lang.
  • (2008) Sounding Ethnography: Mutuality and Diversity in Music. (mit Fabian Holt). Available online: www.nomadit.co.uk/easa/easa08/panels.php5?PanelID=244   .
  • (2007) Urbane Tropen: HipHop à La Réunion. In: Bock, K., Meier, S. und Süß, G. (eds.). HipHop meets Academia: Globale Spuren eines lokalen Kulturphänomens. Bielefeld: Transkript.
  • (2007) World Music: a Medium for Unity and Difference? EASA Media Anthropology Network. Available online: www.philbu.net/media-anthropology/wergin_worldmusic.pdf   .
  • (2007) Large-Scale Tourism in Small-Scale Societies: Introductory Paper (with Patrick Neveling). Available online: www.nomadit.co.uk/asa/asa07/panels.php5?PanelID=199    .
  • (2007) In Varietate Concordia: A Manifesto for the Humanities in Europe. European Science Foundation (ESF) (co-author). Available online: www.esf.org/research-areas/humanities/publications.html   .
  • (2005) Menschen und ihre Musiken auf einer transkulturellen Insel. In: Meyer, I. und Krüger, P. (eds.). Transcultural Studies - Interdisziplinarität trifft Transkulturalität. Bremen: Universitätsdruckerei.

Reviews

  • (2009) David Timothy Duval. Tourism and Transport: Modes, Networks and Flows. International Journal of Tourism Policy, 2, 1/2: 145-147.
  • (2008) Roy Jones, Brian J. Shaw (eds.). Geographies of Australian Heritages: Loving a Sunburnt Country. Journal of Heritage Tourism 3/3: 219-221.

Reports on Fieldwork

Professional Memberships

  • Since 2008: Gesellschaft für Musikforschung (GfM)
  • Since 2006: European Association of Social Anthropologists (EASA)
  • Since 2005: AG Medien of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Völkerkunde (DGV)
  • Since 2002: bremer institut für kulturforschung (bik)

Languages

German, English and French: fluent

Kréol-Réunionnais: fluent reading and understanding, some speaking

Research Interests

thematic:
Interdisciplinary Work, Multi-Sited Ethnography, Postcolonial Theory, Audiovisual Media, Tourism and Music

regional:
Europe (UK, France and European Ultraperiphery), Indian Ocean Region (Mascarene Islands and Australian west coast)

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