Geoffrey Bird

Professor

Communication & Culture
Professional & Continuing Studies

Dr. Geoffrey Bird is a Professor in the School of Communication and Culture at Royal Roads University, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. He has taught a range of courses related to subjects such as culture and heritage tourism, globalization, sustainability, ethics, product development, field research.  He has held a range of administrative positions including School Director and Program Head. Geoff is also the Project Lead of the War Heritage Research Initiative that has involved the production of over 30 short documentaries and various commemorative projects. His research also includes poverty alleviation, sustainability, strategic planning and education design.

Experience

Geoffrey Bird has over 30 years of experience in education in tourism, sustainability, and heritage. He has held various positions with the provincial and federal governments, as an entrepreneur and as a consultant, as a naval officer, and as a heritage interpreter at the Canadian National Memorial at Vimy Ridge, France. He has lived and worked in a number of countries in Southeast Asia, Europe and across Canada. His primary research interest involves film-making involving war heritage.   

Education

2011
PhD in Anthropology

University of Brighton, UK

1998
Master of Science (MSc) in Training

University of Leicester, UK

1990
Honour’s Bachelor of Arts, International Development (African Studies), with Honour's Minor in French Literature

University of Guelph, Ontario

Publications

Virtual Exhibit: A moral awakening. Uranium mining, the Manhattan Project and the Sahtu Deline NWT. Documentary. http://moralawakening.ca (2020).  ​

Legacy of Canada’s Role in Atomic Bomb is Felt by Northern Indigenous Community. The Conversation. Republished 9 times. (August, 2020). ​

Globalization and Tourism. In Introduction to Tourism and Hospitality in BC. With E. Thomlinson (2020).  ​

Canada’s dream shall be of them: Canadian epitaphs of the Great War. Book Review. First World War Studies, (Nov, 2020), https://doi.org/10.1080/19475020.2020.1848005 

Home front in focus. In Canada’s History, June-July 2019, p.17.

Remembering well? Canada and the Great War centenary. For 1914-1918-online. International Encyclopedia of the First World War. Free University of Berlin (2019).

A matter of life and death: Tourism as sensual remembrance. In Tourism and embodiment, pp. 116-131. Abingdon: Routledge. With Leighton, H., & McLean, A. (2019).

  • War memories across Canada. Episode 3 (2019).Documentary writer, director and producer

Finding the Passion: Toward a unified vision for BC's tourism industry. Discussion paper based on the ‘Original Leaders 2.0’ Forum, 2017. With Thomlinson, E. (2018).

Heritage and Royal Roads University: Supporting the mandate and fostering our identity. (2018). 

Voicing Contested Histories. Creating opportunities to foster diversity, inclusion and reconciliation. Final report (2018).  

Marketing dark heritage: Building brands, myth-making and social marketing. In Stone, P.R., Hartmann, R., Seaton., T., Sharpley, R,. & White, L. (Eds) The Palgrave MacMillan Handbook of Dark Tourism Studies. London: Palgrave Macmillian, pp.646-665.  With Westcott, M., & Thiesen, N. (2018).

Commonwealth War Memory Pilot Project North America: Assessment. Funded by Commonwealth War Graves Commission and Valour Canada. With Charlebois, K. (2017).

War Memories across Canada. Sites of the First and Second World War. Documentary: writer, director and producer (2016). Two episodes, 27 vignettes bilingual, with education conversation kits. Canadian Heritage Commemoration Fund, Government of Canada, and Parks Canada. http://warheritage.royalroads.ca.    

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