Nelson Graburn, UC Berkeley professor who studied the effects and meaning of tourism, dies at 88

Nelson Graburn, a leading professor of the anthropology of tourism and a prolific writer who chronicled the rise of leisure travel around the world, died Feb. 27. He was 88.

Graburn joined the UC Berkeley faculty in 1964 and dedicated almost five decades to the campus community. His research on Inuit communities in extremely remote areas of Canada laid the foundation for a career exploring the intersections of tourism, culture, heritage and identity in an increasingly globalized world. 

Graburn’s work around the concept of “tourism as a sacred journey” made significant contributions to the emerging field of tourism studies in the 1970s. His seminar, “Tourism, Art and Modernity,” was a fixture on campus that helped students understand the anthropological connection between secular tourism and the role of cultural practices preserved for future generations and tourism. Though he retired in 2007, he continued to teach and mentor students and remained active with the Tourism Studies Working Group.

Graburn earned the 2022 Emeriti of the Year award, which highlighted his work that made Berkeley the hub for the study of tourism, “a field of increasing relevance given the many countries and cultures for whom tourism is of central economic and cultural importance.”

Visit the Department of Anthropology’s website to read more about Graburn.