“The Impact of Low Tourism Demand on Tourism-Reliant Communities in Jordan”
ACOR-CAORC Predoctoral Fellowship, 2022 – 2023
Sciences Po Paris and Freie Universität Berlin
International Development and Political Sciences
Nicolas Seth Reeves is pursuing a dual master’s degree in international development and political science from Sciences Po Paris and Freie Universität Berlin. He graduated from the George Washington University (GWU) in 2019 with a B.A. in international affairs and economics, and with a minor in Arabic. At GWU, Nicolas authored a bachelor’s thesis on the impact of state-led tourism development on tribal communities in Petra, Jordan. He published this research in the Oxford Middle East Review (2020), Columbia Journal of Politics and Society (2020), and Abhath al-Yarmouk: Humanities and Social Sciences (Arabic, 2022). After completing his degree, Nicolas spent one year in Egypt as a 2019–2020 Center for Arabic Study Abroad (CASA) Fellow at the American University in Cairo, where he completed native-level language courses in Modern Standard Arabic, Arabic literature, and Egyptian dialect. With the generous support of an ACOR-CAORC Fellowship, Nicolas’s research in 2023 will examine how pandemic-induced decreases in international visitors to Jordan impacted tourism-reliant communities living in the vicinity of Petra, Wadi Rum, and Umm Qais. He will also study how differences between Petra, Wadi Rum, and Umm Qais, with respect to the local, national, and international stakeholders involved in their administration, influence strategies Jordanian communities around these tourist destinations pursue to defend their political and economic interests.