Bryan S. R. Grimwood

Research interests

My research analyzes human-nature relationships and advocates social justice and sustainability in contexts of tourism, leisure, and livelihoods. Trained as a human geographer and engaged scholar, I specialize in tourism and Indigenous Peoples, tourism ethics and responsibility, northern landscapes, and outdoor experiential education. My research is informed theoretically by relational perspectives of nature and morality, and draws on diverse qualitative methodologies and principles of community-based and participatory research. Since joining UWaterloo as a faculty member in 2011, I have grounded my research in settings ranging from Arctic communities and protected areas to urban outdoor programs and green spaces.

Graduate supervision and student opportunities

I am currently accepting applications from graduate students with research interests related to:

• Tourism and Indigenous livelihoods
• Ethics and responsibility in tourism
• Nature-based tourism, leisure, and learning

Graduate studies application details

Teaching interests

• Tourism, community development, and sustainability
• Critical tourism studies
• Outdoor recreation and leadership
• Qualitative inquiry

Check out Bryan's teaching story on experiential learning and mentoring curiosity

Courses

• REC 230: Outdoor Recreation and Land-Based Learning
• REC 373: Qualitative Approaches to Leisure
• REC 433/ENVS 433: Ecotourism and Communities
• REC 673/773: Designing Advanced Qualitative Inquiry
• REC 700: Foundations of Knowledge

Education

BRLS, Brock University

MA, Brock University 

PhD, Carleton University 

Awards and recognitions 

• Awarded the "Awesome Scholar in Tourism" title in 2018 by Women Academics in Tourism, an international group of female tourism academics committed to advancing gender equity in publishing and career advancement. Awesome Scholars in Tourism represent a select group of tourism scholars across the globe who inspire others "by their contributions, encouragement, creativity, virtues, selflessness, humour, humanity, and even maddness."
• Emerging Leisure Scholar Award from the Canadian Association for Leisure Studies (CALS) in 2018. This award recognises the significant early and potential contributions to the field of leisure studies by a Canadian leisure researcher who is within seven years of completing his or her doctoral studies.

Selected publications

See Google Scholar for full list of publications.

1. Grimwood, B. S. R.(2015). Advancing tourism’s moral morphology: Relational metaphors for just and sustainable Arctic tourism. Tourist Studies, 15(1), 3-26.
2. Grimwood, B. S. R., Yudina, O., Muldoon, M., & Qiu, J. (2015). Responsibility in tourism: A discursive analysis. Annals of Tourism Research, 50, 22-38.
3. Grimwood, B. S. R., & Johnson, C. W. (2021). Collective memory work as an unsettling methodology in tourism. Tourism Geographies, 23(1-2), 11-32.
4. Grimwood, B. S. R. (2021). On not knowing: COVID-19 and decolonizing leisure research. Leisure Sciences, 43(1-2), 17-23.
5. Stinson, M. J., Hurst, C., & Grimwood, B. S. R. (2022). Tracing the materiality of reconciliation in tourism. Annals of Tourism Research, 94, Article# 103380.
6. Grimwood, B. S. R., & Höckert, E. (2023). Cultivating relations with plant stories. Annals of Tourism Research, 103, Article# 103661.
7. Grimwood, B. S. R., Höckert, E., & Rantala, O. (in press). Leisure and the Anthropocene – Special issue introduction. Leisure Sciences.
8. Grimwood, B. S. R., tebrakunna country and Lee, E., & Higgins-Desbiolles, F. (in press). Unsettling geographies of tourism – Special issue introduction. Tourism Geographies. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14616688.2024.2402997?scroll=top&needAccess=true#abstract