ACICIS is very excited to announce Dr Kelli Swazey as the 2020 Sustainable Tourism Professional Practicum (STPP) – Academic Program Officer (APO). Kelli was the APO for the 2019 pilot program. She will be joining the ACICIS team up in Indonesia for the January-February 2020 STPP.
Dr. Swazey is a cultural anthropologist who researches the complex relationship between religion and culture in defining identities in the Indonesian public, and the role that tourism plays in those processes. She has served as a faculty member at the Center for Cross Cultural and Religious Studies (CRCS) at Gadjah Mada University’s Graduate School in Yogyakarta, and as a Visiting Professor at the Tourism Studies Program at Gadjah Mada’s Cultural Sciences Faculty. She has also designed and managed experiential education courses for students and educators in sites across Indonesia since 2011. Dr. Swazey is passionate about creating opportunities for collaborative knowledge production through projects combining research, public education, and media production with local scholars and communities. She is currently based in Hanoi developing sustainable frameworks for community-led educational tourism programs in Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand and Cambodia.
The ACICIS Sustainable Tourism Professional Practicum (STPP) offers Australian students the opportunity to undertake a two week academic program, including intensive Indonesian language classes and industry seminars, followed by a supervised practicum placement within a local or international tourism and hospitality company or organisation.
An Academic Program Officer is assigned to each of ACICIS’ professional practicum programs to oversee all aspects of a program, including the supervision of its academic content and assessment of student performance. The APO and ACICIS Resident Director oversee application vetting, participant selection, and work placement allocation. During the program in Indonesia, the APO meets regularly with a student’s Host Organisation placement supervisor – and with the student themselves – to provide mentorship, to ensure that a student is getting the most out of their placement, and to assess a student’s performance. The APO provides students with advice on academic and industry-specific matters, and offers pastoral care and emergency assistance where necessary. The APO also plays a key role in curating and delivering the series of industry seminars that students undertake in the first two weeks of their program.
ACICIS is delighted to welcome Kelli back as the supervising academic for the 2020 STPP. Participating students will be extremely well served by Kelli’s experience and expertise in tourism, culture and anthropology in Indonesia.
