Xiaobo Su

Acting Assistant Professor

Department of Geography

Condon Hall 275

1251 University of Oregon

Eugene OR 97403-1251

E-mail: xiaobo@uoregon.edu

Phone: (541) 346-4568

Fax: (541) 346-2067

Future courses:

Winter 2008: Geog 205 Geography of Asia Pacific

Spring 2008: Geog 4/510 Tourism and Recreation

Geog 4/575 Advanced Geography of Southwest China

Office hour:

Tuesday, 2:00-3:00pm

Research Interests

My area of interest covers cultural politics, tourism development, and urban heritage. My current research project investigates the politics of tourism in China’s heritage sites when these sites become increasingly exposed to global capitalistic tendencies arising from tourism. My work focuses on the issues of representation, commodification, nationalism and spatial inclusion/ exclusion in a global-national -local nexus in order to examine the radical transition of China after 1978. Some research topics include the following:

1. Tourism consumerism in China—looking at the middle-class Chinese urbanites who rush into China’s frontier regions for invented tradition and ‘authentic’ heritage.

2. The state mode of production and tourism regionalism—using Lefebvre’s theory on the state mode of production to examine the multiple roles of Chinese government in shaping the space of development through tourism regionalism.