Christopher T Gaffney

Christopher Gaffney is a Clinical Associate Professor in the Tisch Center for Hospitality in the School of Professional Studies at New York University. A Vermont-born, Texas-trained geographer, Gaffney has taught in Taiwan, Brazil, Switzerland, and at several universities in the United States. His earlier work focused on the intersection of urban studies and sports mega-events. Gaffney´s 2008 monograph, Temples of the Earthbound Gods, explored the interdigitation of urban development and sporting cultures in Buenos Aires and Rio de Janeiro.

Fluent in Spanish and Portuguese, Gaffney served as Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Latin American Geography from 2014-2018, guiding the journal´s award-winning transformation. Gaffney has appeared in a slew of documentary films and is often quoted in the world´s leading media outlets. Gaffney ran an influential blog in the lead up to the 2016 Olympics, Hunting White Elephants, and has written extensively on the impacts and realpolitik of sports mega-events across numerous formats. Prior to joining NYU, Gaffney was the Project Manager for Team Rubicon's Long-Term Disaster Relief project in post-Maria Puerto Rico.

Currently, Gaffney directs of the Travel and Tourism Research Collaboratory at the Tisch Center, which hosts his three streams of research: Global Tourism Risk, Regenerative Tourism Design, and Global Nomadism. He is also a director at ALTR.earth, a non-profit consultancy that works with municipalities, hospitality enterprises, and civil society on long-term planning and integrated systems design.