Peer-Reviewed Scholarly Articles by Mark Rhodes
Journal of Tourism Futures, 2024
Purpose
Industrial heritage works within a world of contradictions, contentions and scalar limina... more Purpose
Industrial heritage works within a world of contradictions, contentions and scalar liminality. Archaeologists and historians focus upon oral histories and discourses of tangible and intangible memory and heritage while planners and economists see industrial World Heritage, in particular, as a marketing ploy to redevelop deindustrialized spaces. Within this liminality, we explore the potential for geographical perspectives to solder such contradictions into transdisciplinary heritage assessments and tourism contexts. How might the spatial tools of landscape and scalar analyses expose alternative and sustainable futures within broader patterns of industrial heritage management and consumption?
Design/methodology/approach
Using three comparative cases, interview and landscape methods and conducting discourse analysis within a spatial and scalar framework, we explore the increasing presence of industrial World Heritage.
Findings
We present both an institutional reflection upon the complexities of heritage discourse across complex spatial configurations and the intersectional historical, cultural, political, environmental and economic geographies that guide and emerge out of World Heritage Designations. Framed scalarly and spatially, we highlight common interpretation, tourism and heritage management styles and concerns found across industrial World Heritage. We point out trans-scalar considerations for future municipalities and regions looking to utilize their industrial landscapes and narratives.
Originality/value
We believe that more theoretical groundings in space and scale may lead to both the flexibility and the applicability needed to assess and, in turn, manage trans-scalar and trans-spatial complex heritage sites. These perspectives may be uniquely poised to assess the complex geographies of industrial, particularly mining, World Heritage Sites.
Asia Pacific Viewpoint, 2020
Recent scholarship has opened questions as to the everyday actions of the Khmer Rouge and those l... more Recent scholarship has opened questions as to the everyday actions of the Khmer Rouge and those living under the regime which led to the Cambodian Genocide. Current work examines the critical cultural geographies of the Khmer Rouge: photography, poetry and music, for example. Music specifically has an interesting underpinning, as it was previously understood to be have been eradicated in the genocide as the standard narrative has us believe. This paper instead investigates the pieces of evidence that exist, which explain the use of music by the Khmer Rouge. I explore the geographies of music beyond the lyrics and look at the transformation and use of music in Cambodia and Democratic Kampuchea. What elements of traditional Khmer music were used during the regime? What modifications occurred to the music of Cambodia during the regime, and how did the Khmer Rouge modify existing Cambodian (and other) music to best fit their desired uses (state‐building and genocide)? This paper goes be...
Fennia - International Journal of Geography, 2021
Since Cardiff became the Welsh capital in 1955 and the subsequent referendum placed the new Welsh... more Since Cardiff became the Welsh capital in 1955 and the subsequent referendum placed the new Welsh Assembly Government in Cardiff Bay, the city’s grasp on a Welsh national narrative has only intensified. This paper approaches the various agents of memory work around the city through a landscape analysis to better understand the processes of Welsh memory at work in Cardiff. Furthermore, it focuses on Butetown, the historically multicultural docklands community of Cardiff, and its relationship with the old urban and civic core of the city and the new developments of Cardiff Bay. Butetown fuelled the coal industry which propelled Cardiff towards the wealthy capital and colonial enclave it is today yet continues to be excluded from Welsh national narratives. Redevelopment and gentrification further squeeze Butetown into an ever-smaller core of what it once was. This research indicates that while this resilient cosmopolitan culture continues in many forms, the context of (the) capital con...
Journal of Political Ecology
Paul Robeson's global memorialization poorly represents the extent to which the famous Africa... more Paul Robeson's global memorialization poorly represents the extent to which the famous African American activist, actor, athlete, singer, and scholar impacted international culture and politics. Robeson's memorials, while few and far between, particularly in the United States, reside primarily within college campuses and theatrical and musical productions, alongside a few more traditional plaques, works of public art, and his own work. While there has been some interest in these various memorials, commemorations, and works of Robeson, no one has yet explored one of the most widespread and historically loaded aspects of his commemoration: the Paul Robeson Tomato. This heirloom tomato, developed in the Soviet Union, has, as one seed website states, "a cult following." Reading through various gardening and seed websites, we find that the tomato has a special place among heirlooms. At the same time, the digital and print networks conveying information about the tomato ...
Journal of Cultural Geography, Jun 17, 2021
ABSTRACT All music takes place somewhere. While geographic analyses of lyrics have focused on the... more ABSTRACT All music takes place somewhere. While geographic analyses of lyrics have focused on the geographies of artists and/or particular places and regions of their inspiration, we see a developing opportunity to discuss music as a fundamental component of social resistance. While scholars have discussed social resistance in music as practiced by artists, such a focus has been researched less in regard to entire social movements on a certain topic. We will fill that gap here by discussing the role that labor plays in popular music lyrics. Using a qualitative analysis of historic and contemporary songs, this paper posits that necropolitics – analyzing the source of power over an individual’s positionality and physical well-being – stands at the core of such song meanings. Therefore, as a result, much labor music incites Marxian understandings of capitalism, poverty, and degraded social reproduction. We suggest this assessment offers a deeper insight into such lyrics and also helps explain the anthemic popularity of many labor-focused songs that have appealed to the working class over many decades.
The Professional Geographer, 2021
As the newest of the seven national museums in Wales, the National Waterfront Museum tells the st... more As the newest of the seven national museums in Wales, the National Waterfront Museum tells the story of Welsh industry and innovation. This article traces the construction and engagement of the museum’s fifteen galleries as performed land- scapes in a detailed analysis of memory work. Focusing on the crafted discourse of the museum, visitor narratives as they experience the museum, and performances that regularly occupy the museum’s spaces presents a unique opportunity for landscape analysis within the context of the memory work of a museum. Swansea’s 2017 Dance Days, for example, focused around the theme of climate change and the vulnerability of the ocean while visitors were somewhat less engaged with environmental impacts as presented in the permanent collections. This article expands beyond a typical understanding of museum discourse to explore the incorporation of creative geographies of landscape, performance, and memory into more traditional museum and spatial narratives.
GeoHumanities, 2021
Each year the National Eisteddfod alternates between north and south Wales in a festival that con... more Each year the National Eisteddfod alternates between north and south Wales in a festival that consistently redefines itself and what it means to be and perform Welshness. As a publicly funded and organized national institution, the National Eisteddfod’s performances, competitions, and pavilions reflect aspects of Welsh memory and heritage through traditional poetry, dance, and music. Likewise, this space is central to the continuing evolution of Welsh memory and Welsh music. The work of memory, language, and music during the annual ten-day festival in 2018 experienced numerous structural changes from customary eisteddfodau. Through musicals, folk music, carnivals, and other performances, music and memory in Cardiff Bay intersected with transatlantic identities, protest, and the deindustrialized urban setting. Using interviews and a transoptic landscape analysis, this paper explores the musical, performative, and national land- scapes of the 2017 and 2018 National Eisteddfodau to better understand these emerging postcolo- nial, post-industrial, performative, and pluralized memories in Wales.
Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 2021
Memorialization of specific individuals necessitates processes of remembering and forgetting, mem... more Memorialization of specific individuals necessitates processes of remembering and forgetting, memory work, and obfuscation. The African American Paul Robeson is considered an “honorary Welshman” and a “Welsh achiever.” How could Robeson, erased from the history books in his own country, be appropriated by popular vote as a Welsh national hero? This paper questions how Robeson’s philosophies, evident in his arts and actions, were memorialized into those of a Welsh hero through the theoretical lens of absent presence and geographies of biography. I explore this relationship between Wales and Robeson further to understand his influence and commemorative presence in Wales via the material memorial landscape of Robeson and how he is represented within broader Welsh memorialization and nationalism. Through the discourse of the memorial landscapes of Wales, elements of his philosophy may be over or under‐represented. For example, he connected with the strong socialist history in Wales, but the complexity of Robeson’s philosophical framework remains absent. Why were only some of his philosophical beliefs transmitted into Welsh society and the memorial landscape? This paper reveals both the presence and absence of Paul Robeson’s complex biography in the material memorial landscape in Wales. As a case study on the inclusion of (auto)biographical knowledge in the context of complex geographies and landscapes, this work frames biographical inclusion and exclusion as vital geographic concerns, particularly in the precarious Black geographies of Paul Robeson in Wales. In so doing, it further reifies the indelible connections between geography, biography, and the sociopolitical contexts from which memorial landscapes emerge.
Excellence in Performing Arts Research, 2016
In 1949 Paul Robeson (with support from Pete Seeger, Woodie Guthrie, Howard Fast, and others) att... more In 1949 Paul Robeson (with support from Pete Seeger, Woodie Guthrie, Howard Fast, and others) attempted to and then successfully held a civil and workers’ rights concert in Peekskill, New York. Marring these performances, however, were protests that turned progressively violent. These violent protests have come to be known as the Peekskill Riots and serve as a major milestone in the nation’s history surrounding protest, music, politics, and Paul Robeson. This paper reflects on this relationship, particularly how it is being remembered today. Through field research, including participant observation, interviews, landscape analysis, and primary and secondary archival research, I demonstrate how British-Nigerian writer, singer, actor, activist, and architect Tayo Aluko “performs history” through his musical Call Mr. Robeson. This includes how Paul Robeson and the Peekskill Riots are remembered through performance and how the continued performances place the identity and history of Peekskill in a state of becoming. This is also a case study more broadly for how social movements are influenced, fueled, and remembered through performance.
Black Studies, 2016
Paul Robeson is one of the greatest yet most unknown figures of the 20th century. This article go... more Paul Robeson is one of the greatest yet most unknown figures of the 20th century. This article goes beyond the traditional bibliographic style of documenting this great life, toward constructing a usable philosophical framework from it. Utilizing Robeson's own works, and building on the small critical literature already in existence, I present his philosophical framework-comprised of anti-colonialism, socialism, and human rights. I present these dense, interconnected, and ever-expansive philosophical stances into a form of communication that can be easily understood, evaluated, taught, and compared. Understanding the philosophies, actions, and examples of his ideological framework will provide the appropriate contextual background for understanding (to play off the title of Robeson's 1958 book, Here I Stand) where Paul Robeson philosophically stood.
Journal of Cultural Geography, 2018
Historical memory in the form of public art acts as a pedagogical tool, both revealing the artist... more Historical memory in the form of public art acts as a pedagogical tool, both revealing the artist’s interpretation of history and serving as a historical device for the viewer. In Cambodia, new generations are developing an understanding of the Khmer Rouge regime (1975–1979) and its effect on their country’s history. Young peoples’ understanding of history is constructed through institutional, living, and public memory pedagogies. These pedagogical channels do not always work in unison, leaving gaps in historical education. In Cambodia, institutional and living memory pedagogies on the Khmer Rouge genocide often fail to transmit this important national history to those who did not live through it. Publicly accessible memorial art has the potential to supplement the historical understanding of young, rural Cambodians. Three murals sites in rural Cambodia act as landscapes of public pedagogy by depicting scenes of Khmer Rouge atrocities. This paper aims to understand the significance of the impact and implications of public memorial art as an educational supplement, and how public art can be utilized as public pedagogy in Cambodia and beyond.
GeoHumanities, 2016
Between 1975 and 1979, approximately 2 million men, women, and children died in Cambodia during t... more Between 1975 and 1979, approximately 2 million men, women, and children died in Cambodia during the brutal regime of the Communist Party of Kampuchea (CPK; the Khmer Rouge). To date, much scholarship has focused on the widespread practices of torture, starvation, and execution; decidedly less attention has been directed toward the cultural or aesthetic practices of the Khmer Rouge. We maintain that this omission is exceptionally important, in that it risks minimizing the importance of the performing arts, and especially music, held by the Khmer Rouge. In this article we employ narrative analysis within an ecomusicology framework in an attempt to better understand how music was used as a political instrument by the Khmer Rouge. Specifically, we document how the Khmer Rouge used songs as a means of conveying policy into practice; as a form of public pedagogy, songs provided instruction to the men, women, and children of Cambodia as to both proper political consciousness as well as the right attitudes toward labor. More precisely, Khmer Rouge–era songs presented nature as the pivot on which a new revolutionary society was to be built.
Geographical Bulletin, 2017
Star Trek has long used its unique situation as a socially and politically engaged television sho... more Star Trek has long used its unique situation as a socially and politically engaged television show to approach contemporary, historical, and futuristic ideas of race, labor, gender, nature, landscape, and place. The concept of alternate perceptions of history continues to provide engaging insights into historical representation. This paper explores how Star Trek, as an example of performance, media, and popular culture, contributes to dialogues of alternate pasts, presents, and futures. It builds upon these concepts to engage with and influence geographical dialogues of public space, nature, geopolitics, and societal structure. I explore examples from the television show and the wider universe, particularly two episodes from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine that are both influenced by historical figures and events and, through time travel, reveal their own historical narratives. While Star Trek continues to operate in fictional space, constructing an 'idealized' future and imagined landscapes, this paper recognizes that its influence shapes an experienced and an embodied sense of alternate past, present, and future.
Digital Scholarship in the Humanities, 2019
This article utilizes the African American Paul Robeson and his representation on YouTube to addr... more This article utilizes the African American Paul Robeson and his representation on YouTube to address three critical and underexplored arenas in heritage studies. First, Paul Robeson is an individual all but lost in the public memory of the USA, despite having been one of the USA’s most well-known celebrities. This article presents, for the first time, a global analysis of his representation and presence through the medium of YouTube. Second, in only a limited number of studies has YouTube been utilized to analyze memorialization and heritage; this article solidifies, channels, and expands upon those techniques. Finally, this article presents a spatial component to the otherwise nonspatial technique of analyzing YouTube social networks, presenting specific spatial data, which can be mapped and analyzed. Utilizing values of connectedness among videos of different topical clusters, as well as audience reactions to videos of a specific topic or place, allows for a deeper and broader understanding of both how Paul Robeson is memorialized and represented globally and how YouTube is an essential tool in social spatial heritage studies.
Memory Studies, 2020
Since his first interactions with Welsh miners striking in London in 1929, Paul Robeson has been ... more Since his first interactions with Welsh miners striking in London in 1929, Paul Robeson has been considered by some as an “honorary Welshman.” While the African American actor, athlete, activist, singer, and scholar never lived in Wales, he did have various interactions in Wales throughout his life. This special relationship persists on the memorial landscape of the country in various ways, but none as extensive as the Let Paul Robeson Sing! exhibition. This article extends beyond an overview of the exhibition to identify it as an example of exceptional memorialization techniques. Combining the concepts of participatory, temporary, and mobile memorialization, in order to commemorate Paul Robeson through a sensorial, spatially, and conceptually diverse program, Let Robeson Sing! exhibits memory through a unique and engaging memorial landscape. This article situates the exhibition within the techniques of participatory, temporary, and mobile memorialization, and how the combination of the three provides a unique, effective, and affective form of commemorating Paul Robeson in Wales.
Edited Books by Mark Rhodes
Guest-Edited Special Issues by Mark Rhodes
There are relatively few media products that can compete with Star Trek in terms of longevity and... more There are relatively few media products that can compete with Star Trek in terms of longevity and cultural saturation. First introduced to audiences in 1966, the franchise now encompasses more than fifty years, six television series, thirteen films, countless spin-off novels and ancillary books, multiple annual international fan conventions and an enduring place in the popular culture lexicon of the English language-a remarkable feat for a television show that almost never made it to the screen and, even when it did, was canceled for poor ratings after just three seasons.San Francisco served as both the site of the 2016 Annual Meeting of the American Association of Geographers and the fictional headquarters and charter site of Star Trek's United Federation of Planets and Starfleet Headquarters. During the 2016 AAG meeting, geographers continued to expand the Society's exploration of the integration of popular culture and geographical understanding. Star Trek can and has been...
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Peer-Reviewed Scholarly Articles by Mark Rhodes
Industrial heritage works within a world of contradictions, contentions and scalar liminality. Archaeologists and historians focus upon oral histories and discourses of tangible and intangible memory and heritage while planners and economists see industrial World Heritage, in particular, as a marketing ploy to redevelop deindustrialized spaces. Within this liminality, we explore the potential for geographical perspectives to solder such contradictions into transdisciplinary heritage assessments and tourism contexts. How might the spatial tools of landscape and scalar analyses expose alternative and sustainable futures within broader patterns of industrial heritage management and consumption?
Design/methodology/approach
Using three comparative cases, interview and landscape methods and conducting discourse analysis within a spatial and scalar framework, we explore the increasing presence of industrial World Heritage.
Findings
We present both an institutional reflection upon the complexities of heritage discourse across complex spatial configurations and the intersectional historical, cultural, political, environmental and economic geographies that guide and emerge out of World Heritage Designations. Framed scalarly and spatially, we highlight common interpretation, tourism and heritage management styles and concerns found across industrial World Heritage. We point out trans-scalar considerations for future municipalities and regions looking to utilize their industrial landscapes and narratives.
Originality/value
We believe that more theoretical groundings in space and scale may lead to both the flexibility and the applicability needed to assess and, in turn, manage trans-scalar and trans-spatial complex heritage sites. These perspectives may be uniquely poised to assess the complex geographies of industrial, particularly mining, World Heritage Sites.
Edited Books by Mark Rhodes
Guest-Edited Special Issues by Mark Rhodes
Industrial heritage works within a world of contradictions, contentions and scalar liminality. Archaeologists and historians focus upon oral histories and discourses of tangible and intangible memory and heritage while planners and economists see industrial World Heritage, in particular, as a marketing ploy to redevelop deindustrialized spaces. Within this liminality, we explore the potential for geographical perspectives to solder such contradictions into transdisciplinary heritage assessments and tourism contexts. How might the spatial tools of landscape and scalar analyses expose alternative and sustainable futures within broader patterns of industrial heritage management and consumption?
Design/methodology/approach
Using three comparative cases, interview and landscape methods and conducting discourse analysis within a spatial and scalar framework, we explore the increasing presence of industrial World Heritage.
Findings
We present both an institutional reflection upon the complexities of heritage discourse across complex spatial configurations and the intersectional historical, cultural, political, environmental and economic geographies that guide and emerge out of World Heritage Designations. Framed scalarly and spatially, we highlight common interpretation, tourism and heritage management styles and concerns found across industrial World Heritage. We point out trans-scalar considerations for future municipalities and regions looking to utilize their industrial landscapes and narratives.
Originality/value
We believe that more theoretical groundings in space and scale may lead to both the flexibility and the applicability needed to assess and, in turn, manage trans-scalar and trans-spatial complex heritage sites. These perspectives may be uniquely poised to assess the complex geographies of industrial, particularly mining, World Heritage Sites.
Course Learning Objectives:
1. Assess the social, economic, political, and environmental impacts on sci-fi and fantasy and vice-versa.
2. Demonstrate cultural geography methods in their analyses of science fiction and fantasy.
3. Develop public-facing platforms to demonstrate the ongoing relevancy of geographies of sci-fi and fantasy.