Tomas Pernecky, Ph.D.

Associate Professor
Faculty of Culture and Society
Auckland University of Technology
Private Bag 92006
Auckland, New Zealand

Phone: +64 9 921 9999 ext 6764
Email: tomas.pernecky@aut.ac.nz

Tomas Pernecky is Associate Professor in the Faculty of Culture and Society at the Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand. His wide-ranging research interests extend to the fields of tourism and events studies, which he employs as contexts for examining a variety of philosophical, conceptual, theoretical, and methodological issues. Tomas is one of the co-founders of the postdisciplinary network; in 2018 he convened the 3rd International Conference on Postdisciplinary Approaches at AUT University.  

In his view, postdisciplinarity speaks to the possibilities of knowledge. It addresses a range of ontological, epistemological and methods-related issues, but also the processes of knowledge acquisition, production and dissemination. It is concerned with matters of legitimacy and the belief that (scientific) knowledge must originate in disciplinary/field-specific compartments and be guided by strict conceptual and methodological canons. Postdisciplinarity thus brings into question the notion that epistemic advances and valuable contributions to knowledge have to conform to established scholarly practices. By doing so, it opens the potential for new forms of knowledge, experimentation, playfulness, and disciplinary and methodological disobedience.

Tomas’s teaching has been officially recognized by receiving the 2014 Vice Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching, and the subsequent nomination by AUT for the 2015 Tertiary Teaching Excellence Award (TTEA). He is the author of Epistemology and Metaphysics for Qualitative Research (SAGE Publications), and is currently editing his fourth book which focuses on Postdisciplinary Knowledge (Routledge).

A selection of academic publications:

  • Pernecky, T. (2016). Epistemology and metaphysics for qualitative research. London, UK: SAGE Publications.
  • Pernecky, T. (Ed.). (2016). Approaches and methods in Event Studies. London, UK: Routledge.
  • Pernecky, T., Munar, A. M., & Wheeller, B. (2016). Existential postdisciplinarity: Personal journeys into tourism, art, and freedom. Tourism Analysis, 21(4). doi: 10.3727/108354216X14600320851730.
  • Pernecky, T. (2014). Realist and constructionist shades of grey. Annals of Tourism Research, 48(5), 295-298. doi:10.1016/j.annals.2014.06.011.
  • Pernecky, T. (2012). Constructionism: Critical pointers for tourism studies. Annals of Tourism Research, 39(2), 1116–1137. doi:10.1016/j.annals.2011.12.010.
  • Pernecky, T., & Jamal, T. (2010). (Hermeneutic) phenomenology in tourism studies. Annals of Tourism Research, 37(4), 1055-1075. doi:10.1016/j.annals.2010.04.002