Can-Seng Ooi

A short introduction

I wanted to be a novelist.
I ended by being a sociologist/anthropologist, a university professor and another kind of writer.

As Professor in Cultural and Heritage Tourism, my research focuses on tourism and society issues.
These include tourism impact, Chinese tourism, tourist encounters with the Anthropocene,
sustainable and responsible tourism, and tourism theories.

I continue to work on art worlds and cultural development, place branding, creative economy and cross-cultural management.
I frequently draw comparative lessons between Denmark, Singapore, China, and now also Australia.

Tasmania is my fourth place of residence, first arriving at the end of 2016. Except for a one-year stint in Glasgow
as a lecturer at Glasgow Caledonian University, Denmark was home between 1996 and 2016. I left Singapore when I was 31.

I ended up in Denmark because of a generous PhD scholarship from Copenhagen Business School.
My BA, BSocSc (Hons), and MSocSc degrees were from the National University of Singapore. Before I left for Denmark,
I worked at the Friedrich Naumann Foundation and the Housing and Development Board (HDB).
And as part of national service, I was a soldier for two and a half years in my late teens and early 20s.

Current Appointments

Professor of Cultural and Heritage Tourism, University of Tasmania
Associate Head of Research, School of Social Sciences, Univeristy of Tasmania
Co-Director, Tourism Research and Education Network (TRENd), University of Tasmania
Vice-President (Program, World Congress of Sociology), Research Committee 50 (International Tourism), International Sociological Association
Advisory Board Member, imagine.. Creative Industries Research, Copenhagen Business School, Denmark
Advisor, The Role of Tourism in Multicultural Societies, Malmö Univeristy, Sweden
Editorial Board Member of various journals, including Place Branding and Public Diplomacy, International Journal of Tourism Cities, Copenahgen Journal of Asian Studies, Journal of Applied Learning and Teaching, Contemporary Chinese Political Economy and Strategic Relations: An International Journal.