Examination of the interplay between tourism and nationalism has become a recent avenue of inquiry in the social sciences and humanities, wherein the geographical manifestation of national identities (such as monuments and national heritage sites) can be seen as constructed and maintained through tourism's celebration, consumption and reification of place. Similar theoretical connections have been made in linking national identity to archaeology, highlighting the role of a materialized heritage in solidifying collective national memories and histories. Building off of these two strands of scholarship, this project examines the evolving material treatment and symbolic importance of Rome's Colosseum and Roman Forum during the nineteenth century - a key period which saw the unification of the Italian State. The project explores how foreign tourism networks, directly connected with burgeoning archaeological academies, influenced Italian understanding of these landscapes and informed the transformation of these sites from maltreated ruins into heritage monuments representative of a unifying national identity of Italianita' (Italian-ness). The project asks the fundamental question: what agency did foreigners' ideas and enactments of landscape and cultural heritage have over host appreciations of the same geographies, and how did this dialog take place? To do this, the project uses discourse and content analysis of key tourism and archaeological correspondence archives, such as the Papal Antiquities Commission and the Italian State Archaeological Ministry. As many of the examined materials in these archives have yet to be digested in published form, this project is envisioned as a significant empirical contribution to scholarship on archaeology, tourism, and Italy. This project is also envisioned as having a theoretical contribution to our conceptualization of how tourism can shape national identities. The project also opens further approaches to the study of national identity, highlighting the need to examine supra-national actors and processes as key agents in shaping the form and focus of localized nationalisms.
The broader significance of the project lies in this theoretical problemization of tourism, archaeology, and national identity. Tourism is a complex economic, social, cultural and political process that dramatically influences people and places across the earth; and it is important to understand how this widespread phenomenon informs notions of national identity. Deeper understanding, for example, of heritage tourism and the complex role of UNESCO sites will benefit future awareness of the cultural and political ramifications of international tourism. Governments often actively promote international tourism as a means of economic development, yet we often lack a full understanding of the non-economic results of these processes. By illustrating a past case of how tourism influenced previous cultures of national identity, this project offers lessons for contemporary tourism policy interested in questioning the varied impacts of this dynamic social process.
