
Contact information
Office: BMH 2215
Phone: 519-888-4567, ext. 43468
Email: dcparry@uwaterloo.ca
Pronouns: she/her
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).