Susan Pitchford

Following Francis: The Franciscan Way for Everyone
In a little town in Italy, nearly eight hundred years ago, Francis of Assisi renounced everything he owned to follow Christ with passionate and single-minded abandon. Even today, centuries later, this simple saint draws people around the world to Francis’ story of living in humility, love, and joy.

Following Francis tells the story of my Franciscan life, as a member of the Third Order, founded by Francis himself so that people from all walks of life can follow the saint’s ideal without leaving their homes or their occupations. The Franciscan way isn’t the exclusive possession of friars and nuns, but a spiritual path for ordinary people living in the twenty-first century.

Organized around the Rule of St. Francis, this book shows readers what it means to speak their Christian life with a Franciscan accent.

Reviews:

"Very highly recommended reading for students of St. Francis of Assisi…a superbly organized and presented introduction to Franciscan spirituality as experienced by lay people who are part of the Franciscan 'Third Order'. Providing readers with practical guidelines drawn from the life of St. Francis and from third-order Franciscans, "Following Francis" invites Christian readers to participate in the passion and joy that so characterized the manner and example in which Francis of Assisi followed the teachings and example of Jesus."--The Midwest Book Review, October 2006.


"It's the best introduction available to the Third Order. Anyone with an interest in Francis and religious life will find it worthwhile.--The Living Church, August 27, 2006.


"The book is organized around the nine elements of the Franciscan Rule. Each chapter concludes with questions for discussion, ideas for practical steps to take and a brief prayer. She concludes with a brief biography of St. Francis, extensive endnotes including a bibliography and Francis's famous Canticle of the Creatures. Readers will appreciate having it included here.--Episcopal Life, February 2007

God in the Dark: Suffering and Desire in the Spiritual Life
Work in progress:

Contemporary Christianity is afflicted with two problems: our spiritual life is often bland and lukewarm, and we don't know how to make sense of suffering, especially the pain of spiritual aridity and darkness. This book examines suffering and desire as the two faces of passion. It shows that a passionate love for God involves both suffering and desire, which become indistinguishable as our longing draws us deeper into the mystery of God's love.

Identity Tourism: Imaging and Imagining the Nation -- Winter 2008
Identity Tourism: Imaging and Imagining the Nation examines the role of tourism in the construction of national identity. To imagine a nation, nationalists must construct a national story about their history and culture that defines them as a people, and counters the negative story circulated by their enemies. One of the objectives of this book is to identify the necessary historical and cultural components of a compelling national story. Yet a story is of no use unless it is heard, so nationalists need media through which the national narrative can be told. The principal objective of this book is to show that identity tourism is a medium that can be used to tell the national story, both to group members and outsiders. As such, it is particularly useful in the construction of a sense of national identity. Identity tourism, which incorporates both ethnic and heritage tourism, includes museums, heritage centers, performances, and other attractions in which collective identities are represented, interpreted, and potentially constructed through the use of history and culture.

One of the strengths of tourism is that it can convey a message to a broad, mass audience, and it can present that message in a vivid and lively way. A weakness of tourism is that vivid and lively presentations can degenerate into trivializing history, culture and politics to the point that any meaningful message is lost. Thus one of the main challenges in identity tourism is to balance educational goals against the entertainment imperatives of the medium. This book explores these and other issues using observational and interview data primarily from Wales, where nationalism, identity and tourism have long been heatedly contested. A comparative perspective is provided through the use of secondary case studies examining Native American tourism in the United States and Canada, and tourism in Brittany and South Africa.

Guilt Trip: Telling Atrocity Stories Through Tourism
Work in progress:

A book-length analysis of how museums, heritage sites and other tourist attractions portray “atrocities,” or historical instances of extreme injustice. Examines atrocity tourism sites connected with the Holocaust, state terror under communism, slavery, apartheid, the “Troubles” in Northern Ireland, the Irish famine, and the genocide of indigenous North Americans.

Selected articles
"Identity Tourism: A Medium for Native American Stories," in Tourism, Communication and Culture, Vol. 6, 2006.

(With Chris Bader and Rodney Stark) "Doing Field Studies of Religious Movements: An Agenda," in The Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion Vol. 40, No. 3 2001.

"Image-making Movements: Welsh Nationalism and Stereotype Transformation," in Sociological Perspectives, Vol. 44, No. 1 2001.

"Ethnic Tourism and Nationalism in Wales," in Annals of Tourism Research, Vol. 22, No. 1, 1995.

"The Tourist Trap: Turning Tourism to Our Advantage," in Planet: The Welsh Internationalist, No. 103, Feb/March 1994.