Professor, Department of Recreation and Leisure Studies
cross-appointed to School of Pharmacy, University of Waterloo
Heather Mair is a Professor in the Department of Recreation and Leisure Studies at the University of Waterloo. Heather’s work concentrates on broad notions of community and individual wellbeing as they can be realised (or threatened) through sport, tourism, and leisure. Heather is the author of more than 30 peer-reviewed publications, 4 books, more than a dozen book chapters, and many research reports. Heather’s previous projects have taken her across rural Ontario where she has studied the impact of tourism development on rural community life and she has documented the social and health impacts of small town curling clubs across Canada. Heather’s current research projects include a five-year project, undertaken in collaboration with Community Justice Initiatives (a community-based restorative justice non-profit organisation in Kitchener, Ontario) and Public Safety Canada, to evaluate social support programs helping women after they have been released from prison.
Selected publications
Scruby, L., Rona, H., Leipert, B., & Mair, H. (under review). Exploring social support, sport participation and rural women’s health using photovoice: The Manitoba experience. Rural and Remote Health Journal.
Sumner, J., & Mair, H. (in press). Sustainable leisure: Building the civil commons. Leisure/Loisir.
Leipert, B.D., Plunkett, R., Meagher-Stewart, D., Scruby, L., Mair, H., & Wamsley, K.B. (2011). “I can’t imagine my life without it!” Curling and health promotion: A photovoice study. Canadian Journal of Nursing Research, 43(1), 60-78.
Mair, H., Arai, S., & Reid, D.G. (2010). Decentring work: Critical perspectives on leisure, social policy and human development. Calgary, AB: University of Calgary Press.
Trussell, D.E., & Mair, H. (2010). Seeking judgement free spaces: Poverty, leisure and social exclusion. Journal of Leisure Research, 42(4), 513-533.
Mair, H. (2009). Club life: Third place and shared leisure in rural Canada. Leisure Sciences, 31(5), 450-465.