Season 2 Episode 1: Freya Higgins-Desbiolles on Beyond the Ivory Tower Artwork

Women We Watch In Tourism

Women We Watch is the first global podcast featuring women leaders in Tourism and Hospitality business and their achievements in entrepreneurship, gender equality, innovation, crisis management and so much more. Each Episode presents the professional journeys of these women leaders, their business models, experiences, leadership qualities and practical transferable strategies for listeners. It features diverse range of women leaders who are movers and shakers, across age groups, geographical regions and sectors within the industry who will share sharp, unfiltered insights and unconventional wisdom. Besides their professional and entrepreneurial journeys, these changemakers will share their human journey — with all its failures and setbacks. The show prides itself on being the ideal platform for women in tourism to seek inspiration, knowledge and to transform their potentials. WWW podcast in jointly presented by World Women Tourism and The Flapper Life. World Women Tourism is World Women Tourism, a network intelligence platform that provides opportunities to women in tourism to connect, grow and flourish. The organization visions to impact the trajectory of women in the tourism industry through promoting diversity, knowledge sharing, building networks, capacity building and opening up business opportunities.For more information, visit us at https://www.worldwomentourism.comThe Flapper Life is a boutique travel studio that paints the destination of your dreams on a blank canvas and takes you to the destination in an unlimitable style. For more information visit us at : https://www.theflapperlife.com

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Women We Watch In Tourism

Season 2 Episode 1: Freya Higgins-Desbiolles on Beyond the Ivory Tower

November 27, 2021 • Barkathunnisha • Season 2 • Episode 1

The Netflix drama, The Chair, received some excitement among academics as it presented a pretty accurate portrayal (despite some technical flaws) of lived experiences of women professors and their challenges in neoliberal universities. In reality, the gloomy state of higher education and problems are far more complex and difficult than in the series. Universities have become places where managerialist and PR concerns overrule academic ones.

Academics are under increasing pressure to be hypercompetitive for resources and various forms of metrics to deliver visible work – league tables, publications, research degree advisory loads, student enrolments and student evaluation scores. Academics are encouraged to “engage the public” but cautioned not to be too controversial.

There are structural constraints and dominant mindsets that limit the universities potential to be a conducive place for women academics and leaders to thrive and florish. Women academics’ challenges and voices are often silenced, marginalised and not openly addressed or acknowledged. A very strong and chilling line in The Chair is when Ji-Yoon comes to a realization about her predicament: “I feel like someone handed me a ticking time bomb because they wanted to make sure a woman was holding it when it explodes.”

In Season 2 Episode 1, Dr. Nisha (https://www.linkedin.com/in/nishatourismexpert/) and Dr. Catheryn Khoo ( https://www.linkedin.com/in/drcatherynkhoo/) are in conversation with an activist scholar, Dr. Freya Higgins-Desbiolles. Freya is an Adjunct Senior Lecturer in Tourism Management, Business Unit, University of South Australia and Adjunct Associate Professor with Department of Recreation and Leisure Studies, University of Waterloo. Her activist and scholarly work focuses on social justice, human rights and sustainability issues in tourism. She has worked with industry, community and non-profits on projects that have worked at the cutting edge of ethical and sustainable tourism. She has been a sought-after media commentator and her articles in the Conversation have had more than one million readers. She has won awards for excellence in teaching, research, industry engagement and media presence. She is authentic, bold and courageous as well as highly critical in raising the structural injustice in tourism and academia.
Freya can be contacted via
Email :Freya.HigginsDesbiolles@unisa.edu.au https://people.unisa.edu.au/freya.higginsdesbiolles
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/freya-higgins-desbiolles/
Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpFRxHrVnSSqszZgaDonn4g

Women We Watch is jointly hosted by:
World Women Tourism: https://www.worldwomentourism.com/
The Flapper Life: https://www.theflapperlife.com/