Dr Brad West
Dr Brad West
Lecturer in Sociology
3G2, 12 Woodland Road,
4 Priory Road,
Clifton,
Bristol
BS8 1TY
(See a map)
brad.west@bristol.ac.uk
Telephone Number (0117) 954 5594
Personal profile
Lecturer in Sociology at University of Bristol from 2010. Senior Lecturer in Sociology, Flinders University, 2006-2010; Lecturer in Sociology, Flinders University, 2003-2006; Associate Lecturer, University of Newcastle (NSW), 2001-2002; Bicentennial Research Fellow, King’s College London, 2001.
Research
My research focuses on the changing dynamics of national collective memory. This involves examination of the way history is remembered, in particular through the commemoration of significant national events, and accounting for the power of these pasts in shaping social action, meaning and contestation in contemporary social life. Current research projects include analysis of the narratives and memorialisation surrounding the 2002 Bali Bombing; the rise of ‘dark tourism’ at war sites in Vietnam and pilgrimage like activity at the WWI Gallipoli battlefields in Turkey. I have also written widely on the state of cultural theory and contours of the sub-discipline cultural sociology.
Teaching
SOCI10004 Thinking Sociologically
SOCI30093 Tourist Culture
SOCIM3101 Contemporary Sociological Theory
Fields of interest
Cultural theory, cultural sociology, national idenity, collective memory and commemoration, disasters and crises, international tourism
Key publications
- see West, BD. 'Dialogical memorialization, international travel and the public sphere: A cultural sociology of commemoration and tourism at the WWI Gallipoli battlefields', Tourist Studies, 10, (pp. 209-226), 2010. ISSN: 1468-7976 10.1177/1468797611407756
- see West, BD. 'Enchanting Pasts: The Role of International Civil Religious Pilgrimage in Reimagining National Collective Memory', Sociological Theory, 26, (pp. 258-270), 2008. ISSN: 1467-9558 10.1111/j.1467-9558.2008.00328.x
- see West, BD. 'Collective Memory and Crisis: The 2002 Bali Bombings, National Archetypes and the Counter-Narrative of Cosmopolitan Nationalism', Journal of Sociology, 44, (pp. 337-353), 2008. ISSN: 1440-7833 10.1177/1440783308097125
- see West, BD. 'Consuming National Themed Space Abroad: Australian Working Holidaymakers and Symbolic National Identity in `Aussie? Theme Pubs', Tourist Studies, 2, (pp. 139-155), 2006. ISSN: 1468-7976 10.1177/1468797606071474
Full publications list in the University of Bristol publications system