Michael A. Di Giovine

Michael A. Di Giovine is Associate Professor of Anthropology at West Chester University of Pennsylvania and Director of its Museum of Anthropology and Archaeology. He is also an Honorary Fellow in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. A former tour operator, his research in Europe and Southeast Asia focuses on global mobilities (tourism/pilgrimage and immigration), heritage, foodways, and religion. He earned a B.S. in Foreign Service from Georgetown University, and both an A.M. in the interdisciplinary social sciences and a Ph.D. in socio-cultural anthropology from the University of Chicago; his 2012 dissertation explored the immensely popular global cult of St. Padre Pio of Pietrelcina. A founding board member and current Convenor of the American Anthropological Association’s Anthropology of Tourism Interest Group, Michael served on the American Anthropological Association’s Task Force on Cultural Heritage and its Nominations Committee, the academic boards of the Tourism-Contact-Culture research network,The Journal of Tourism and Cultural Change and The International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage. Michael is the book reviews editor for Journeys: The International Journal of Travel and Travel Writing and The Journal of Tourism and Cultural Change. Among his many publications and articles, Michael is the author of The Heritage-scape: UNESCO, World Heritage, and Tourism (Lexington Books, 2009), and co-editor (with David Picard) of Tourism and the Power of Otherness: Seductions of Difference (Channel View, 2014), The Seductions of Pilgrimage: Sacred Journeys Afar and Astray in the Western Religious Tradition (Ashgate 2015); with Ronda Brulotte of Edible Identities: Food and Foodways as Cultural Heritage (Ashgate, 2014); with Jaeyeon Choe of Pilgrimage Beyond the Officially Sacred (Routledge 2020); and with John Bodinger de Uriarte of Study Abroad and the Quest for an Anti-Tourism Experience (Lexington Books 2021). An internationally recognized expert on tourism and pilgrimage, he has keynoted talks for the United Nations World Tourism Organization, The International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS), World Heritage UK/Ironbridge Institute, Altelier de Reflexion Prospective at the Sorbonne, Archdiocese of Philadelphia, and The International Conference on Religious Tourism and Tolerance; and has appeared on National Public Radio, The Economist, National Catholic Register, Holy Spirit Radio, Atlas Obscura, and La Cucina Italiana magazine. He is the co-editor of the series, Anthropology of Tourism: Heritage, Mobility, and Society (Lexington Books, an imprint of Rowman and Littlefield Publishing).

Find out more about Michael by visiting his website, www.michaeldigiovine.com