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Through critical autoethnography and personal narrative, this essay traces the academic and professional path of a first-generation student who grew up in an abusive household. The metaphor of “haunting” is used to explain the long-term psychosocial effects of intimate abuse. The author posits that teaching activities that acknowledge the ghosts of the past can help students recognize within themselves and others their own complex personhood. By approaching the classroom through a lens of haunting, the teacher can maintain a critical distance to their students that may help teachers better address student needs.

This essay, based on six months of participant observation fieldwork at Masada National Park, offers an experimental tour of the site. The main text is an amalgamation of Youth Israel Experience Tours while the footnotes serve as a dialectical response, commenting on and critiquing the tour structure and post-tourist practice. This essay suggests that the meaning and significance of place, particularly while on tour, is found in the relationship between tourists more so than in the mythical stories told about the site.