Richmond history professor and Richmond psychology alum co-publish research on sex tourism in Iceland

07/02/2011

Dominic Alessio, Professor of History and Director of the Study Abroad Program at Richmond, and Anna Lisa Jóhannsdóttir, BA honors degree graduate in Psychology, have just had published their first co-written article. Entitled “Geysers and ‘Girls’:
Gender, Power, and Colonialism in Icelandic Tourist Imagery”, the work was just published in the European Journal of Women’s Studies (18, 1, February 2011), a leading international feminist journal that comes out with Sage.

The article examines shifts in the changing image of Iceland created for international tourism. It argues that at the beginning of the twenty-first century the more traditional spotlight on the country’s natural attractions was altered with an additional and new focus on the nation’s beautiful, and apparently sexually promiscuous, women. Alessio and Jóhannsdóttir argue that such a development deserves further comment for a variety of reasons. Firstly, an examination of the importance of women to Iceland’s national marketing, especially their depiction visually, underlines the need to re-consider the substantial role of gender and imagery representation in Tourism Studies, two themes that have been under-examined by scholars working in the discipline. Secondly, as a Nordic nation with a reputation for gender equality, this focus on women as sexual objects easily available for male tourist consumption raises a serious contradiction. Last but not least, the use of sexually alluring female images by a developed nation has intriguing implications for postcolonial scholars interested in representations of ‘the Other’.

The idea for the article emerged when Anna Lisa took Dom’s History class on visual propaganda. She had not taken a History course before and was not sure where to begin her research project. As Dom was interested in tourism and knew that Iceland, Anna Lisa’s native country, was developing this industry, he suggested that she write about this. That was when Anna Lisa discovered the controversy over the depiction of the nation’s women. Dom, who also works on gender and postcolonial studies, was intrigued, and from there suggested that they develop the research further. He says: “this kind of result just goes to show how valuable a Richmond Liberal Arts university education can be. By bringing together students and professors, as well as peoples from different countries and disciplines, what you see emerging is a wonderful new range of ideas and research possibilities.” After graduating from Richmond Anna Lisa went on to do an EdM and a MA from Teachers College, Columbia University. Currently she is working as an MST therapist for The Children's Village in New York City.

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