"Despite its reputation as a panacea . . . tourism typically fails to meet the expectations of communities and regions that embrace it as an economic strategy."
- Hal K. Rothman, Devil's Bargains: Tourism in the Twentieth Century American West

"The Culture of Tourism and the Tourism of Culture," a symposium sponsored by the William P. Clements Center for Southwest Studies and the William P. Clements Department of History at SMU, will provide a forum in which travel professionals and community leaders can take a step back from day-to-day pressures and consider the larger ramifications of tourism in an academic setting. Tourism and travel has become the largest industry on the globe, but its social, cultural, political, and economic implications are only beginning to become clear. In this symposium, specialists will draw from history, anthropology, literary studies, and practical experience to examine the social and economic consequences of tourism on southwestern communities and cultures, from the Alamo to Santa Fe to Tombstone.

Co-Sponsored with the William P. Clements Department of History

Friday, March 24, 2000

Session 1 Tourism and Myth
3:30 p.m. Chris Wilson, Center for Architectural Studies, University of New
Mexico, "Ethnic Personas and Social Hierarchy in Tri-Cultural New Mexico."

4:10 p.m.  Phoebe Kropp, Fellow of Humanities Research Institute, University of
California, Irvine, "In Search of History and Romance on El Camino Real."

4:50 p.m.  Q&A

5:10-5:45 p.m. McCord Auditorium, Dallas Hall.  Refreshments and book exhibit.  

Keynote Address
5:45-7:00 p.m.  McCord Auditorium. Hal Rothman, Department of History,
University of Nevada, Las Vegas, "Cultural Tourism and the Future of the
American Southwest:  The Promise and Problem of Fusing Past and Present."  



Saturday, March 25, 2000

8:00 a.m.  McCord Auditorium.  Coffee.

8:15 a.m.  Welcome from David Weber

Session 2 Tourism and Tourists
8:20 a.m.  Marguerite S. Shaffer, Department of History, University of North
Carolina, Wilmington, "Southwestern Scrapbooks:  the Travels of Mildred E.
Baker."


9:00 a.m. Leah Dilworth, Department of English, Long Island University,
"Handmade by an American Indian":  Souvenirs and the Cultural Economy of
Southwestern Tourism."

9:40 a.m.  Q&A

10:00-10:20 a.m.  Coffee break

Session 3 Tourism and Native Americans
10:20 a.m. William L. Bryan, Jr., President, Off the Beaten Path Tours,
Bozeman, Montana, "Appropriate Cultural Tourism-Can It Exist?  Searching for an
Answer:  Three Arizona Case Studies."

11:00 a.m.  David White, Ph.D. Anthropology, and cross-cultural planning
consultant in northern New Mexico, "Reducing Tourism Impacts through Cross-Cultural Planning."

11:40 a.m.  Q&A

Noon.  Lunch, rotunda of Dallas Hall
Luncheon speaker.  Char Miller, Department of History, Trinity University,
"Tourists Afloat:  The San Antonio Riverwalk and the Modern Economy."

Session 3 Tourism, Power, and Economics
2:00 p.m. Sylvia Rodríguez, Department of Anthropology, University of New
Mexico, "Tourism, Difference, and Power in the Borderlands."

2:40 p.m. Panel Discussion and Concluding Remarks.  Led by Hal Rothman.

The conference speakers are nationally noted authors of a variety of books, which we will have on hand for purchase and signing throughout the conference.

We invite conference registrants to bring their own promotional literature to distribute, and any books, or order forms for books, related to tourism to sell. We will have a table set up specifically for this purpose just outside the auditorium.

This conference had its genesis at Southern Methodist University's Taos campus, where conference speakers met to present preliminary papers and discuss them in private. The papers you will hear at SMU have been revised and refined in light of that discussion, and reflect longer essays that the keynote speaker, Hal K. Rothman, will compile and edit for the Clements Center for Southwest Studies. The essays will be published in book form.