Title of Paper

Living in a Black and White world: The value of reflexivity in social equity research

Author Bios (50 Words for each Author)

Alana Dillette is an Assistant Professor in the Payne School of Hospitality and Tourism Management at San Diego State University. Originally from the islands of The Bahamas, she is always trying to maintain her connection to home through research on sustainable tourism initiatives for small island states. Her other research interests include issues around diversity and inclusion, more specifically looking at the intersection between tourism, race, gender & ethnicity. Currently, she is working on research to gain a better understanding of the African-American travel experience.

Stefanie Benjamin, PhD, CHE is an Assistant Professor in the Retail, Hospitality, and Tourism Management department at the University of Tennessee. Her research interests include social equity in tourism around the intersectionality of race, gender, sexual orientation, and people with disabilities. She also researches film-induced tourism, implements improvisational theater games as innovative pedagogy, and is a certified qualitative researcher exploring ethnography, visual methodology, and social media analysis. Lastly, she serves as a Faculty Advisor on the Equity and Diversity Board for the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Diversity & Engagement at UTK.

Abstract (150 Words)

Though more than fifty years post segregation, the current political landscape in the U.S. suggests that many Americans are still living in a ‘Black and White’ world. Therefore, when two tourism scholars decided to take on the historically White washed tourism industry – it was not smooth sailing. This work uses the methodological approach of duoethnography to explore the reflexive journals of two authors studying and presenting on the Black Travel Movement. The narratives provide an examination of their experiences and link them to theoretical understandings of reflexivity and positionality. The researchers unpack and discuss their personal feelings and experiences in relation to each other within a dialogue. Because there is a dearth of published duoethnographies in social science research in general, and within tourism studies in particular, the authors embarked on their own interpretation of duoethnography with the goal of highlighting the importance of reflexivity in social equity tourism research.

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Living in a Black and White world: The value of reflexivity in social equity research

Though more than fifty years post segregation, the current political landscape in the U.S. suggests that many Americans are still living in a ‘Black and White’ world. Therefore, when two tourism scholars decided to take on the historically White washed tourism industry – it was not smooth sailing. This work uses the methodological approach of duoethnography to explore the reflexive journals of two authors studying and presenting on the Black Travel Movement. The narratives provide an examination of their experiences and link them to theoretical understandings of reflexivity and positionality. The researchers unpack and discuss their personal feelings and experiences in relation to each other within a dialogue. Because there is a dearth of published duoethnographies in social science research in general, and within tourism studies in particular, the authors embarked on their own interpretation of duoethnography with the goal of highlighting the importance of reflexivity in social equity tourism research.