Announcing the Final Examination of Ms. Lea Marie Harvey for the degree of Master of Arts in Anthropology.
Date: November 7, 2019
Time: 10:00 AM
Room: HPH 409A
Thesis title: “Trouble in Paradise: Impacts of Theme Park Tourism on the Mental Health of Employees in Orlando, Florida”
Tourism is a topic that has gained a significant amount of attention within the realm of anthropology over the course of the past few decades. Anthropological research of the tourism industry has been largely devoted to the study of the tourist gaze, sociocultural impacts of tourist-native relations, and the benefits that travelers reap from their colonialist excursions. The use of anthropological research has uncovered information regarding the impacts, both positive and negative, that tourism has on people and environments around the world. However, the voices of those who form the very foundation of this industry, the laborers, remain almost entirely absent from anthropological discourse on tourism. In a similar vein, there is a lack of anthropological consideration for the relationship between tourism and mental health experiences of employees within the tourism industry. One specific region that is rife with information on tourism and its effects is Orlando, Florida. This research employs feminist ethnographic research methods, namely participant observation and semi-structured interviews, to analyze the lived mental health experiences, both positive and negative, of current/former Disney cast members as a direct result of their employment within Disney and the Orlando theme park tourism industry. Not only does this thesis aim to backtrack the erasure of the perspectives of tourism employees and help create a space for them to make their voices heard, but it also attempts to bridge the gap of consideration for the impacts of tourism on the mental health of the individuals that it employs that is glaringly obvious in the fields of anthropology and touristic studies. Through the application of my own research as well as the minimal amount of anthropological and touristic studies literature relevant to the topic of the mental health of tourism laborers, I argue that Orlando theme park tourism exists as a type of structural violence that utilizes performativity and a neoliberal market which confines tourism employees to a slot of servitude that is nearly impossible to break free of. As a result, this research possesses great potential to highlight the ways in which Orlando can truly become the happiest place on earth for the individuals who live and work there, not just those who engage with it for their own leisurely gain.
Outline of Studies:
Major: Anthropology
Educational Career:
B.A. International Relations, 2014, Rollins College
Committee in Charge:
Dr. Beatriz Reyes-Foster, Chair
Dr. Nessette Falu
Dr. Shana Harris
Approved for distribution by Dr. Beatriz Reyes-Foster, Committee Chair, on October 29, 2019.
The public is welcome to attend.
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