Miss EmmaLucy Cole

Ethnic Drag: Representations of Bedouin culture in Contemporary Travel Writing

Developing a theory of how to ‘read’ contemporary travel texts from, and about, Middle Eastern cultures

After over two decades spent studying and representing North African and Middle Eastern (SWANA) cultures, in 2011 EmmaLucy decided to sell everything she owned in order to spend six weeks with a Bedouin tribe in Sinai, learning Arabic and researching local culture. Two years later she finally left and having witnessed first-hand some of the ways in which marginalised groups can be misrepresented, this led directly to PhD research.
Since 2006 EmmaLucy has published online and in print, spoken at international conferences and events, been interviewed on radio and television, provided research consultation for articles by fellow adventurers, and lectured at venues such as the Royal Geographical Society in London and the Jersey Arts Centre in the Channel Islands.
EmmaLucy’s research explores the way in which travel writers have represented Middle Eastern cultures and her public lectures draw from this research as well as her extensive experiences of travelling solo.