Sherry L. Dupuis

I am committed to participatory action research and arts-based methodologies as a means of promoting personal transformation and social change. To this end, I am currently the co-lead of the Partnerships in Dementia Care (PiDC) Alliance, a large culture change initiative focused on creating a new culture of care in long-term and dementia care, including changing how we think about leisure and the arts in long-term care settings. I am the former director of the Murray Alzheimer Research and Education Program (MAREP) and currently a Professor in Recreation and Leisure Studies at the University of Waterloo.

Graduate supervision and student opportunities

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

• Culture change in long-term care
• Dementia and dementia care
• Leisure, aging and care
• Leisure, health and wellness
• Arts-based research
• Participatory action research  

Graduate studies application details 

Teaching interests

• Aging and leisure
• Leisure and well-being
• Critical approaches to understanding illness, disability and leisure
• Research design
• Qualitative methodologies and methods 

Courses

• REC 151: Foundations of Therapeutic Recreation Practice
• REC 361: Aging and Leisure
• REC 405: Leisure and Well-being

Knowledge translation works

• I'm Still Here - a research-based play that deepens understanding about the dementia journey from the perspective of persons living with dementia and their family partners in care
• Cracked: New Light on Dementia - a research-based drama that casts a critical light on society's one-dimensional view of dementia as an unmitigated tragedy; it is intended to help people embrace their imperfections and inspire alternative ways of seeing persons with dementia
• Re-imagining Dementia Through the Arts - a community arts-based research project bringing together persons with dementia, family members, visual and performance artists, and researchers in a one-day workshop to explore the implications of the tragedy discourse for persons and families experiencing dementia, and work with them to begin to create an alternative discourse

Education

BMus, Queen's University

MA, University of Waterloo

PhD, University of Guelph

Selected publications