A Small Town in Northern Michigan

Completed for the fulfillment of a B.A. in Anthropology/Sociology and funded by a grant from the Paul K. Richter Memorial Trust, this project was conceived in 2012, after a visit to the small town that would become my fieldsite. There is something compelling in how a place that thrives on a tourist economy presents itself, and what that presentation might conceal. Among the locally branded souvenirs, foods, beverages, and agricultural tradition, where was the authentic identity so many visitors sought but rarely found?

For three months the following year I immersed myself in the culture of a small Great Lakes tourist town. I took daily field observations, attended public events, worked at an established local tavern, and conducted thirteen semi-structured interviews.  Drawing on prior tourism research and my own, I completed a research paper arguing that there is an everyday negotiation, construction, and commodification of physical and social spaces reinforced or changed by groups with varying rootedness in the area and increasingly influenced by the tourist industry.

I am currently editing my research for publication. See below for a link to an except.