Karoline Guelke

I am a PhD candidate working under the supervision of Margot Wilson. My dissertation research focuses on the intersections of gender roles, globalization, and tourism development in highland Peru. I have recently conducted ethnographic research in a small tourist town in the Cusco region, trying to understand how both local people and visitors view the rapidly expanding tourist industry in the region. More specifically, I have investigated how gender roles are negotiated and challenged by both locals and visitors, and how this affects the largely unequal distribution of problems and benefits from tourism development.

I also have an interest in the use of visual methodologies, both as a means to collect and to disseminate data, and my research includes photography as well as drawing. One example is a PhotoVoice project, in which local tour guides, vendors and restaurant workers were asked to take pictures of tourism-related issues around them, thus providing a visual record of how they perceive the changes happening in their own community.

My previous work includes research on dietary changes in Peru and teaching anthropology at Camosun College in Victoria. I currently hold a Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarship and a Graduate Student Research Fellowship at the Global Studies Centre at UVic.