BU Research Blog

Hello BU community,

I am Dr. Miguel Moital, a Principal Academic in Events Management within the Department of Sport & Events Management (BUBS).

As the year comes to an end, I take the opportunity to summarise my involvement in 5 events and initiatives with the Brazilian tourism research community during the second half of 2020.

ANPTUR workshop, December 3

Yesterday I co-led a 2 hour workshop about ‘Academic writing an international publication’, one of the training events within the official programme of the 17^th Annual Congress of the Brazilian Association for Research and Post- Graduate Studies in Tourism (ANPTUR).

The workshop, Co-delivered with Dr. Verônica Feder Mayer, Associate Professor of Tourism at the Fluminense Federal University, focused on the role of theory in research. It is well acknowledged that Brazilian tourism research is often too focused on context with limited extent of theorisation. Myself and Dr. Mayer, who has published several articles in top tourism journals, felt that this would be a good opportunity to further developed the community’s skills and knowledge around theory and theorisation. Over several weeks we prepared a range of materials which explained the differences between context- and theory- focused research, while at the same time clarify the scope and characteristics of theory based research.

The workshop was a success attracting over 200 participants, many of which provided extremely positive feedback.

ENACT Seminar, November 27

I was the featured speaker at the November ENACT Seminar. These monthly seminars bring together around 40 Brazilian tourism researchers with an interest in economics, business and consumer behaviour. During the 90-minute workshop, the featured speaker highlights key elements in the research and publication process behind one of his articles, with substantial time left for Q&A.

I presented a paper co-authored with Sabine Toppig, a BA Events Management graduate, which was on circulation management at exhibitions. Sabine was the recipient of the 2019 Vice Chancellor Fusion Prize, and our joint paper was published by the International Journal of Event and Festival Management.

After briefly presenting the results of the paper, I highlighted 5 key methodological features / challenges and explained how they were addressed and why. Participants said that at first they found the topic ‘strange’ and that they couldn’t see how you could research circulation at exhibitions, but once they read the paper (the paper is sent in advance to participants) they felt that everything made sense, at that the student had chosen a very relevant area of research. They also felt that the paper was extremely well designed and written.

International expert – Revalidation of post-graduate programme, August

At the end of August I submitted my report as an international expert assessing the revalidation of the Postgraduate Programme in Tourism of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte (PPGTUR-UFRN). Current regulations in Brazil require all postgraduate programmes to develop a self-assessment report every four years. Once completed, the report is then sent to a national and an international examiner for comment.

External examiner, PhD transfer, August 26

Similar to the UK process, doctoral programmes in Brazil have a mid-programme progress assessment, called ‘Qualificação’. I was invited by the PhD Programme in Tourism from UNIVALI – Universidade do Vale do Itajai (Santa Catarina state) to be the external examiner for a thesis on Paradoxes in Tourism Experiences.

LiveTUR panel, July 9

LiveTUR was a series of live events organised by the Postgraduate Programme in Tourism of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte (PPGTUR-UFRN). The last one focused on the “The 2020 global crisis and changes in the tourism and events sector”, and featured myself and two Brazilian professors: Professor Guilherme Lohmann (Griffith University) and Professor Luis Godoi Trigo (São Paulo University).

The event was expertly chaired by Dr. Ricardo Lanzarini. Given the relevance of the topic and the high profile of the LiveTUR initiative, more than 200 participants attended the event.

The 2 hour event saw the speakers sharing their views on the nature of the changes as a consequence of the events of 2020, as well as answering questions that the audience asked ahead of the event, or during the event. The event was organised very professionally as it resulted from a collaboration between UFRN and DataShow, a local company which provides technological solutions for live events.