Faculty of Health
Research project description
Like mushrooms popping up in a field, this collective springs into action in response to widespread and ongoing anti-life doctrines that reverberate across the nation and globe (e.g., anti-trans legislation, rolling back queer and disability rights). The REC, directed by Dr. Aly Bailey in the Department of Recreation and Leisure Studies in the Faculty of Health at the University of Waterloo, is a collection of research, scholars, and activists centring bodymind differences by queering, cripping, and thickening leisure, fitness, and health. Bridging theory and practice, building bodymind coalitions (across fat, disabled, queer, racialized, Mad communities), and working with powerholders invested in access and inclusion, The REC demands for research and teaching that challenges power, subverts oppressive structures (e.g., ableism, racism, fat hatred, anti-queer, etc.), and celebrates embodied diversity. Graduate students at The REC engage deeply with theory, bring research to action, and strive for justice.
Fields of research
- Disability multimedia art
- Queer/crip theories
- Fat justice
- Critical aging
- Mad studies
- Leisure as resistance
- Qualitative inquiry
- Re-imagining fitness
Qualifications and ideal student profile
Prospective graduate student researchers must meet or exceed the minimum admission requirements for the programs connected to this opportunity. Visit the program pages using the links on this page to learn more about minimum admission requirements. In addition to minimum requirements, the research supervisor is looking for the following qualifications and student profile.
- The ideal graduate student will be curious, compassionate, and creative with a strong desire to read, learn, and grow. I will be looking for students with experience or passion in one or more of the following:
- Theory and praxis
- Arts-based research and qualitative inquiry
- Sociocultural analysis of fitness, bodies, and health
- Critical embodiment
- Body reclamation and queer, crip, and fat justice
- Anti-racism
- Master's and PhD level
Faculty researcher and supervisor
- Aly Bailey
Assistant Professor, Recreation and Leisure Studies
View faculty profile →
Important dates
The REC: Radically Embodied Collective is an open and ongoing research opportunity. Expressions of interest can be submitted for any term.