Research PG
- About
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- Email Address
- d.hardman.22@abdn.ac.uk
- Office Address
- School/Department
- School of Social Science
Biography
Duygu is doing an SGSSS (Scottish Graduate School of Social Science) funded collaborative PhD in partnership with the National Trust for Scotland (NTS).
Bringing together the academic fields of sociology and tourism management, her interdisciplinary research explores the possibilities of a more sustainable model of place making in response to the challenges posed by media tourism, particularly in the context of Glenfinnan.
Prior to her PhD, Duygu worked in a number of roles including most recently business planning and strategy consulting for cultural and heritage institutions in the UK. She holds an MSc in Media, Communication & Development from the London School of Economics and an undergraduate degree in Communications from Paris III Sorbonne Nouvelle University.
Duygu was born in Istanbul and is fluent in Turkish, French and English.
External Memberships
Member of the British Sociological Association
Member of the Women in Tourism Network
- Research
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Research Overview
- media tourism
- placemaking
- cultural heritage
- imaginative heritage
- authenticity
- destination management
- sustainability
- field theory
Current Research
My research focuses on the case of Glenfinnan in the Scottish Highlands which owes its recent tourism success (with more than 500,000 visitors a year) to the global popularity of the stream train featuring in Harry Potter films. I investigate the impact of the pervasive transformation brought by media tourism to Glenfinnan on the social construction of place. I seek to explore how conflicting evaluations of authenticity are negotiated by the key actors in the tourism field including tourists, residents, tour guides and the National Trust for Scotland.
My research aims to generate a nuanced understanding of the sustainability implications of media tourism particularly from social and cultural perspectives and propose a new model of destination management that meets the needs of diverse stakeholders.
Funding and Grants
Scottish Graduate School of Social Sciences full-time studentship award
