Biography
Tawsif is a Ph.D. candidate and a critically hopeful tourism researcher. Tawsif obtained his BA from the University of Chittagong (Bangladesh) and an MA in Tourism Management from the Royal Road University. Before moving to North America, he served in the Bangladesh Army and was a United Nations Peacekeeper, rehabilitating the victims of insurgency and civil war. Since then, he has managed operations and projects within the tourism/hospitality sector in the US and Canada. These disparate yet overlapping experiences of 'serving' came full circle during Tawsif's MA research focusing on integrating the resettled refugees in Canada through tourism.
Tawsif loves to travel to places less travelled, befriend people least hard, and learn about fading cultures. He enjoys telling stories in the vicinity of cultural, natural and historical significance to enhance a clear (not curated) sense of place.
Research interests
Resettled refugees, tourism, participatory action research, ethics
Underpinning Tawsif's research interests is an enduring hope that tourism's restorative and transformative capacities can foster a strong sense of coherence, high hope and critical consciousness among people in despair. Nowhere are such despairs more salient than in the lifeworld of refugees who, after resettling to the safety of an affluent country, continue to live a life of a precariat. Through his doctoral research, Tawsif focuses on engaging resettled refugees in proximal travel to collaboratively explore if and how tourism catalyzes their comprehensibility and manageability to deal with resettlement stressors with meaningful outcomes.
Research highlights
Find Tawsif: ORCiD