Happy Holidays? The Strange Truth Behind Our Most Popular Tourism Destinations
Beaches. Zoos. Theme parks. Museums. All of these destinations boast impressive records of attracting tourists. But they also boast fascinating, contested, and (at times) disturbing histories. In this project, Catherine Gidney and I set out to explore the hidden stories behind a wide range of the world’s most popular holiday destinations. From Disneyland to the Taronga Zoo and from the Mall of America to the Eiffel Tower, we’ll highlight how and why tourism has emerged as a major social, cultural, and economic force in different parts of the world and what this means for both tourists and host communities. We’ll even explain why the old London Bridge is currently sitting in an Arizona desert.
Dissecting Kermit: Debating Sesame Street in Canada and Australia
You can get quite an education watching this show.
-Waldorf
Are we watching the same show?
-Statler
The Muppets are everywhere. They star in big-budget movies; they co-host Christmas specials with Lady GaGa; and, when provoked, they go toe-to-toe with Fox News to refute charges that they are brainwashing children with anti-capitalist ideas. They are, in short, a going commercial concern.
But they are also the product of a very specific historical moment in the history of education. When Sesame Street first appeared on television sets in Canada (1969-70) and Australia (1971), it was greeted with overwhelming praise. Televisions columnists, cultural critics, and many parents celebrated the show for its dynamic approach to education, its ability to engage viewers, and for its ethnic diversity. While the show remained enormously popular in both countries throughout the 1970s, public assessments of its impact grew more critical and contested. Sesame Street became a frequent reference point (and sometimes a lightning rod) for public debates about children and the media focusing on education, commercialization and violence on television, national identity, and the development of domestic television programming. Drawing primarily upon media coverage, contemporary educational studies, and government reports, Jacob Lane and I aim to offer a comparative analysis of Sesame Street’s reception in these two countries.