Dr Alex Norman

I’m a senior lecturer in the Graduate Research School at Western Sydney University where my primary role is teaching the introductory core unit in the Master of Research program.

Once upon a time I was a scholar in Religious Studies, with an interest in travel. That meant I was mostly interested in travel and holidays and tourism that, in some way, connected to religious traditions and practices. What really interested me most was why so-called non-religious people travelled to religious places to do what we would otherwise think were religious activities - things like walking a pilgrimage or attending a meditation or yoga retreat. In fact, that’s exactly what my PhD was about, and you can read about it in my book Spiritual Tourism.