As an anthropologist, educator, former theme park trainer, and consultant, I have had many opportunities to engage in worlds of writing whose topics have included theme parks, themed spaces, cultural remaking, video games, film remakes, educational theory, gender studies, criminology, among other topics.
This page features much of this work, organized from the top-down with Books, Chapters in Books, Articles, Reviews & Entries, Popular Pieces, Unpublished Drafts, and Bibliographies.
Keep in mind that you may click on an image or a text link to read a pdf version of my writing. I hope you enjoy the topics, themes, and perspectives that I have shared.
Theme parks are a uniquely interactive and enduring form of entertainment that have influenced architecture, technology, and culture in surprising ways for more than a century, as Scott Lukas now reveals in his compelling historical chronicle.
The Arabic translation of Theme Park.
Scott Lukas, famed industry expert on designing themed spaces, brings you a book that focuses on the imaginative world of themed, immersive and consumer spaces. Whether or not you are involved in designing a theme park, cultural museum, shop, or other entertainment space, you will benefit from the insider tips, experiences, and techniques highlighted in this practical guide. Make your themed spaces come to life and become true, immersive worlds.
This collection was inspired by the observation that film remakes offer us the opportunity to revisit important issues, stories, themes, and topics in a manner that is especially relevant and meaningful to contemporary audiences. Like mythic stories that are told again and again in differing ways, film remakes present us with updated perspectives on timeless ideas.
This volume contains recent and cutting-edge articles from leading criminological theorists. The book is organized into ten sections, each representing the latest in the multi-disciplinary orientations representing a cross-section of contemporary criminological theory. The articles were selected based on their contributions to advancing the field, including ways in which the authors of each chapter understand the current theoretical tendencies of their respective approaches and how they envision the future of their theories.
Since the late 2000s, the themed space has been the subject of widespread analysis and criticism in academic communities as well as a popular source of entertainment for people around the world. This collection in themed and immersive spaces brings together researchers, critics, and design professionals from around the world to consider the many cultural, political, historical, aesthetic, existential, and design contexts of themed and immersive spaces.
Strategies in Teaching Anthropology is the sixth edition of the popular guide to anthropological pedagogical techniques.
Between Simulation and Authenticity: The Question of Urban Remaking. In Urban Design Companion: A Sequel, edited by Tridib Banerjee and Anastasia Loukaitou-Sideris, Routledge, 2018.
Time and Temporality in the Worlds of Theme Parks. In “Here You Leave Today”: Time and Temporality in Theme Parks, edited by Filippo Carlà, Florian Freitag, Sabrina Mittermeier, and Ariane Schwarz. Hanover: Wehrhahn, 2016.
A Politics of Reverence and Irreverence: Social Discourse on Theming Controversies. In The Themed Space: Locating Culture, Nation, and Self. Scott A. Lukas, ed. Lexington Books, 2007.
How the Theme Park Got Its Power: The World’s Fair as Cultural Form. In Meet Me at the Fair: A World’s Fair Reader. Celia Pearce et. al. eds. Etc Press, 2013.
From Themed Space to Lifespace. In Staging the Past: Themed Environments in Transcultural Perspectives. Judith Schlehe, Carolyn Oesterle, Michiko Uike-Bormann, Wolfgang Hochbruck, eds. Bielefeld: Transcript, 2010.
In A Reader in Themed and Immersive Spaces. ETC (Carnegie Mellon University), 2016.
Theming as a Sensory Phenomenon: Discovering the Senses on the Las Vegas Strip. In The Themed Space: Locating Culture, Nation, and Self. Scott A. Lukas, ed. Lexington Books, 2007.
Horror Video Game Remakes and the Question of Medium: Remaking Doom, Silent Hill, and Resident Evil. In Fear, Cultural Anxiety and Transformation: Horror, Science Fiction and Fantasy Films Remade. Scott A. Lukas and John Marmysz, eds. Lexington Books, 2008.
Introduction: Fear, Cultural Anxiety, Transformation and the Film Remake. In Fear, Cultural Anxiety and Transformation: Horror, Science Fiction and Fantasy Films Remade. Scott A. Lukas and John Marmysz, eds. Lexington Books, 2008.
The Hummer as Cultural and Political Myth: A Multi-Sited Ethnographic Analysis. In The Hummer: Myths and Consumer Culture. Elaine Cardenas and Ellen Gorman, eds. Lexington Books, 2007. (Coming soon)
An American Theme Park: Working and Riding Out Fear in the Late Twentieth Century. In Late Editions 6, Paranoia within Reason: A Casebook on Conspiracy as Explanation. George E. Marcus, ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1999.
The Role of Women’s and Gender Studies in Advancing Gender Equity. In Handbook for Achieving Gender Equity through Education. Sue Klein, ed. Lawrence Erlbaum Publishers, 2007.
Improving Gender Equity in Postsecondary Education. In Handbook for Achieving Gender Equity through Education. Sue Klein, ed. Lawrence Erlbaum Publishers, 2007.
Teaching as a Form of Anthropology, Anthropology as a Form of Teaching. In The Joys of Teaching Anthropology. Patricia Rice, Conrad Kottak, and David McCurdy, ed. Prentice-Hall, 2007.
Augusto Boal’s Theatre of the Oppressed: Power, Reflexivity, Critical Thinking in the Anthropology Classroom. In Strategies in Teaching Anthropology, 3rdEdition. Patricia Rice and David McCurdy, eds. Prentice-Hall, 2004.
Teaching Cultural Anthropology through Mass and Popular Culture: Seven Pedagogical Methods for the Classroom. In Strategies in Teaching Anthropology, 2nd Edition. Patricia Rice and David McCurdy, eds. Prentice-Hall, 2002.
Postmodern Spaces of Berlin: Beyond the Confines of History, Self, and the Real. In Thinking ThroughThings: Identity, Temporality, and Longing through Artifacts, edited by Ellen Avitts, Kristin Noone, and Juneko J. Robinson, 2018. (Coming soon)
“FOAM” (excerpts). The Kokanee, 2010. (Coming soon)
A Space of Possession: Evocative Anthropology. POMO Magazine1(1): 79-92.
Review article, Baudrillard: A Critical Reader, edited by Douglas Kellner. POMO Magazine1(2): 73-78, 1995.
(Coming soon)