Inga Watson

I chose to study Criminology and Sociology at the University of Chester because I had studied Sociology before, both at A level and at university, and it is a subject I find very interesting and important. I have also always been interested in crime and criminality, and the combination of the two was a perfect match for my studies.

My time at University of Chester has been great! The size of the University is perfect, not too big and not too small. There are many sports and societies to join at the University, which have made my experience here so much better. By engaging in sports, volunteering and societies I have made many good friends with whom I share some of my favourite memories. My course has been challenging, inspiring and exciting, and I have genuinely enjoyed many of my modules. Overall, it has been a great experience!

My favourite modules were ‘War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity’ and ‘Green Criminology, Animal Harm and Wildlife Crime.’ I really enjoyed the lecturers teaching styles and the topics. Most of all I enjoyed learning about unconventional crimes, victims and perpetrators, crimes committed by powerful people, and harms that are not considered crimes. These modules have inspired me to uncover injustices where the powerful exploit both human and nonhuman victims, which often have much larger consequences and damages than conventional crimes.

I chose to undertake an independent research project because I think it is great practice for future studies. I hope to do a Masters degree in the future, and I do think the process of writing my undergraduate dissertation will benefit me greatly in doing so.

My dissertation is titled ‘Real Time Dark Tourism in Nonhuman Animal Tourist Attractions: Arguing for Faunacentrism.’

I chose the topic because I had the option to study environmental crime and harm in second year which inspired me to choose the Green Criminology module in third year. At the beginning of third year I learned that we would be studying Dark Tourism in a different module, and while researching what dark tourism was, I realised that it’s definition was very broad.

With my previous interest in Green Criminology, including animal harm, the idea of animal tourism as dark tourism quickly came to mind. My dissertation is a criminological study of Dark Tourism, species justice and animal tourism. It is a unique study which combines Green Criminology and Dark Tourism, and applies the definitions, theories and typologies of dark tourism to animal tourist sites. It proposes that the online representations, which are embedded in anthropocentrism, speciesism, and sometimes ecocentrism, are influential in how the public perceive animal tourist attractions, and are consequently influential in why animal tourism is not yet defined as ‘dark’.

The study asks what language is used on animal tourist attraction websites, what information is left out, what specific events and/or species are promoted, and whether the websites have similarities to dark tourist attraction websites.

The purpose of this research is to challenge the anthropocentric ideas about animals and their relationships to humans, and it proposes a faunacentric perspective in which no animals should be used as human resources or for human consumption.

Through a critical discourse analysis approach, the research aims for change in the way the public perceive and understand animal attractions. It finds that there is predominantly a promotional discourse which advertises both entertainment and education which, in turn, corresponds with both ‘light’ and ‘dark’ dark tourism. Furthermore, it finds that other definitions and typologies of dark tourism can be applied to animal tourist attractions as well, and that the discourses have the potential to influence public understanding of the sites.

Through my research I discovered the online representations of animal tourist attractions (websites) are centred around education, conservation and entertainment. They often use a discourse that encourages people to visit their sites, ultimately promoting themselves as places of enjoyment. I also found that the online representations of animal tourist sites support definitions, typologies and theories of dark tourism, and resemble the online representations of actual dark tourist sites.

Next, I plan to work for a year and then study for a Masters degree.