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Professor of war heritage, memory and culture, Royal Roads University

Geoffrey Bird is a Professor and Lead of the War Heritage Research Initiative at Royal Roads University. Geoff completed his PhD in Anthropology in 2011 at the University of Brighton, UK, focusing on the relationship between tourism, remembrance and landscapes of war. He examined the D-Day beaches in France, visited by 3.5 million visitors a year, and how sites are managed and interpreted as well as the meaning and insight people gain by visiting these places. In addition to various publications, a major focus of Geoff's research has been writing, directing, and producing short documentary films focusing on sites of war memory in Canada related to the two world wars (see https://warheritage.royalroads.ca/). In 2020, Geoff premiered his work, A Moral Awakening (https://moralawakening.ca/) about the Deline First Nation and the legacy of the atom bomb.

His background includes 30 years in the field of education working in government, then as a project manager in sustainable tourism and poverty alleviation in Malaysia and Vietnam. He also served as an officer in the Royal Canadian Naval Reserve and as a heritage interpreter at the Canadian National Memorial at Vimy Ridge, France. He holds a Master of Science in Training from the Center for Labour Market Studies at Leicester University (1997), and a BA (Hon's) in international development minoring in French literature from University of Guelph (1990).

Experience

  • –present
    Professor of heritage, culture, and tourism, Royal Roads University

Education

  • 2011 
    University of Brighton, PhD