Diana C. Parry

Research interests

As a feminist scholar, I use my research intentionally to advance a social justice agenda by advocating for a holistic understanding and conceptualization of health for women. In short, I study the personal and political links between women’s leisure and women’s health. In so doing, my research interrogates the medicalization of women’s health and the prevailing assumption that health experiences can be understood solely through the documentation of physiological causes and technological solutions, the dominant focus of most research on women’s health. By contrast, I attempt to demonstrate, through my research, that women’s health is personal and political, dynamic, complex, and multidimensional with important links to leisure. By challenging the medical model, my work seeks to shift attention toward a full range of quality of life issues, including social, emotional, physical, spiritual, and sexual dimensions of women’s health. My research has introduced unique and innovative substantive areas to leisure studies including women’s consumption of sexually explicit material, women’s use of erotic capital, women’s encounters with menopause, infertility, pregnancy, midwifery, cancer, and motherhood.

Graduate supervision

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

• Gender
• Feminist theories
• Women's health
• Leisure
• Qualitative research/creative analytic practice

Graduate studies application details

Teaching interests

• Gender
• Feminist theories
• Women’s health
• Leisure
• Qualitative methodologies 

Education

BA, Brock Univeristy 

MA, University of Waterloo

PhD, University of Illinois

Selected publications

Refereed contributions: Edited books

Parry, D.C, & Johnson, C.W. (under contract, due July 2020). Promiscuous Perspectives: Explorations of Sex and Leisure. London, UK: Routledge.

*Parry, D. C., Johnson, C. W., & Fullagar, S. (Eds.). (2018). Digital Dilemmas: Transforming Gender Identities and Power Relations in Everyday Life. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Press.

Parry, D. C. (Ed.). (2018). Feminisms in Leisure Studies: Advancing a Fourth Wave. London, UK: Routledge.

Johnson, C. W., & Parry, D. C. (Eds.). (2018). Contemporary Issues in Leisure Sciences: A Look Forward. Abingdon, UK: Taylor and Francis Group.

Johnson, C. W., & Parry, D. C. (Eds.). (2016). Fostering Social Justice through Qualitative Inquiry: A Methodological Guide. Los Angeles, CA: Routledge.

Refereed contributions: Articles in scholarly refereed journals

Glover, T. D. & Parry, D. C. (in press, 2019). Viewpoint: Non-medical health centers: Directions for service researchers. Journal of Services Marketing, 33. DOI: 10.1108/JSM-02-2019-0081

McKeown, J., & Parry, D.C. (2018). First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes baby in the baby carriage? Exploring how women can use leisure as resistance to gendered ideologies. Leisure Studies, 38 (2), 191-203. DOI: 10.1080/02614367.2018.1553995

Chesser, S., Parry, D.C., & Penny Light, T. (2018). Nurturing the erotic self: Benefits of women consuming sexually explicit materials. Sexualities, 22 (7-8), 1234-1252. DOI: 10.1177/1363460718791898

Johnson, C.W., Parry, D.C., & *Wagler, F.  (2018). Looking back, looking forward: 40 years of Leisure Sciences. Leisure Sciences, 40(1-2), 1-8. DOI: 10.1080/01490400.2017.1376235

McKeown, J., Parry, D.C., & Penny Light, T. (2017). “My iPhone changed my Life”: How digital technologies can enable women's consumption of online sexually explicit materials. Sexuality and Culture, 22 (2), 1-1 DOI: 10.1007/s12119-017-9476-0

McKeown, J., & Parry, D.C. (2017). Women’s leisure as political practice: A feminist analysis of Orange is the New Black. Leisure Sciences, 39(6), 492-505. DOI: 10.1080/01490400.2011203848

Valtchanov, B. L., & Parry, D.C. (2017). “I like my peeps”: Diversifying the net generation’s digital leisure. Leisure Sciences, 39 (4), 1-19. DOI: 10.1080/01490400.2016.1203846

Parry, D.C. (2016). “Skankalicious”: Erotic capital in women’s flat track roller derby. Leisure Sciences 38(4), 295-314. DOI: 10.1080/01490400.2015.1113149

Research grants and contracts

Parry, D.C & Johnson, C.W. (2019-2021). Creating male equity Advocates: Addressing sexual violence on university campuses. Social Science and Humanities Research Council Insight Grant ($92,881).

Johnson, C.W, Parry, D.C., & Berbary, L. Swipe right? Geosocial networking application and their influence on sexual and gender relations. (2019-2022). Social Science and Humanities Research Council Insight Grant ($195,000).

Parry, D.C. (PI), Johnson, C.W. (Co-PI), & Fullagar, S. (Co-PI). (2015-2016). Digital dilemmas: Transforming gender identities and power relations in every day life. Social Science and Humanities Research Council Connection Grant. ($19,588).