Victoria's research focuses on the care partnership between adult daughters and their older adult parents. She is interested in exploring intergenerational cohabitation and the way that it influences daily life, relationships and leisure.
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Research interests: fitness, exercise and health; critical feminist theories; embodiment and body image; critical aging; mental health and Mad studies; body reclamation
Sole-Supervisory Privilege Status (SSPS)
Influenced by her own experiences as a community-based female coach, Haley Baxter's research investigates the experiences of women and girls as volunteers in the community sport context.
Research interests: Liberatory social theorypractices (critical, feminist, critical race, Black radicalisms, abolition, poststructural, queer, decolonizing/anti-colonialist, post humanist); Qualitative methodologies and decolonizing critiques of inquiry as invasion; Sociopolitical mobilizing/organizing/transformation with/in community; Creative Analytic Practices/Reverse research that extracts from the university towards community liberation
Sole-Supervisory Privilege Status (SSPS)
Research interests: ethical consumption, fair trade, corporate social responsibility, social entrepreneurship, volunteer tourism
Sole-Supervisory Privilege Status (SSPS)
After 10 years working at the University of Waterloo supporting incoming undergraduate students, Jessica Bondy, MA Recreation and Leisure Studies alumnus was looking for a career change where she would be able to give back to the larger community. Now, working as Housing Director at the House of Friendship, she's able to do just that. In March of 2020, she would face her biggest challenge yet - how to find shelter for people experiencing homelessess in Waterloo region during a global pandemic.
An accomplished wheelchair racing triathlete – gold, two silver and a bronze medal in world championships – and avid water skier, Bourne has spent decades promoting a physically active lifestyle for people with all types of disability.
Growing up on a Caribbean Island, it was always interesting to Karin Browne that - for a place surrounded by water - it was apparent to her that few people were competent swimmers. Inspired by this and her love for swimming, Karin's Master of Arts Recreation and Leisure Studies work and research involves increasing access to aquatic programs for BIPOC populations.
Dawn Carr works with the Canadian Parks Council to protect, enhance and promote the multitude of Canada's national parks. As their Executive Director, she oversees the projects that are dedicated to showcasing the beautiful landscapes that our environment has to offer and even brings her office to work remotely in Georgian Bay during the warmer seasons. Dawn completed both her undergraduate degree and MA in Recreation and Leisure Studies at the University of Waterloo, which is where she first discovered her passion for parks and protected areas.
Don’t let Victor Cheng’s quiet demeanour and humble spirit fool you. He has an intense passion and drive and understands that owning your own business is something one should never take lightly. President and CEO of iLogic, a Toronto-based reusable asset management software company, Cheng knows that he is ultimately responsible for his own fate and that the decisions he makes affect the livelihood of his people.
Named one of the world’s top 50 CMOs by Forbes, Waterloo caught up with Recreation and Leisure Studies alumna Dorothy Dowling to chat about her role as senior vice president marketing and sales for Best Western International, the award, and her advice for aspiring marketing gurus.
Research interests: culture change in long-term care; dementia and dementia care; leisure, aging and care; leisure, health and wellness; arts-based research; participatory action research
Sole-Supervisory Privilege Status (SSPS)
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Research interests: therapeutic recreation, evidence-based practice, leisure and persons with disabilities, leisure and mental health
Approved master's committee member
Working for the City of Waterloo's Parks and Trails division as an undergrad inspired Dylan Flannery to apply to the MA Recreation and Leisure Studies program at the University of Waterloo. Within months of graduating, he landed an amazing position as Supervisor of Operations at New York City's world famous Central Park. He picked up and moved to a city he had never even visited, and has never looked back.
Andrea Gardi is working in her dream job as the Director of Projects and Operations at Regional Tourism Organization 4 Inc. Part of her role is to expand tourism in the local areas of Waterloo, Stratford, and many other towns and cities through coordinating digital/physical hygiene projects that improve visitor experience. As a world leading institution in recreation and leisure, Andrea knew that coming to the University of Waterloo to pursue a Master's degree would be the best way for her to prepare for a successful career in tourism.
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Research interests: urban recreation, place meanings, social capital development, grassroots organizing, and narrative inquiry
Sole-Supervisory Privilege Status (SSPS)
Research interests: geographies of nature-based travel; tourism, outdoor recreation, and leisure; tourism ethics and environmental responsibility; arctic tourism, livelihoods, and special places; community-based participatory research; experiential education and outdoor learning
Sole-Supervisory Privilege Status (SSPS)
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Adjunct Lecturer
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Growing up, Taylor Kurta witnessed the age-related stigma her grandparents faced in the health care system. Connecting her passion for music with a drive to improve care for older adults, Taylor's PhD Aging, Health and Well-being research aims to use collaborative song writing with people living with dementia as a tool to expose and challenge the harmful consequence of dementia-stigma.
Research interests: narrative inquiry; participatory action research; community engagement; qualitative methods and methodologies; critical social theories; caring and care work; leisure, wellness, well-being, and health; inclusive/therapeutic recreation and leisure; leisure, aging, and later life; difference and marginalization; digital storytelling, body mapping, photo-elicitation and photo voice, digital, arts-based methods and representation
Sole-Supervisory Privilege Status (SSPS)
Research interests: leisure, tourism and sport policy development; food and leisure; the politics of tourism and rural development; leisure, tourism, sport and community development; critical and qualitative inquiry
Sole-Supervisory Privilege Status (SSPS)
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Andrew McDonald (MA Recreation and Leisure Studies '19) developed the first Ontario Parks smartphone application for the Pinery Provincial Park. Now working full-time with Ontario Parks, Andrew is making an impact in a career that he loves.
Research interests: nonprofit management, organizational capacity, community sport organizations, sport and social capital, social responsibility through sport, service-learning
Sole-Supervisory Privilege Status (SSPS)
Research interests: lifespan development, sexual minority development, leisure as a coping resource, social nature of coping and decision-making, retirement planning
Sole-Supervisory Privilege Status (SSPS)
Research interests: women's leisure, gender, health and well-being, qualitative inquiry, feminist theory
Sole-Supervisory Privilege Status (SSPS)
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Research interests: consumer behaviour related to sport events, exploring the role of mega-sport events in the promotion of physical activity and sport participation, exploring commercial and tourism-related responses to mega-sport events, cognitive function and leisure/sport participation
Sole-Supervisory Privilege Status (SSPS)
Research interests: concussions and injury, risk and harm in youth community sport, sport and well-being for Black and racialized athletes, qualitative research
Sole-Supervisory Privilege Status (SSPS)
Research interests: leisure and the arts, qualitative inquiry, inclusion in leisure contexts, experiential education, child and youth leisure
Approved master's committee member
One morning, after less than a year in business, the travel accessory entrepreneur picked up her office phone to learn that one of her company’s products had caught the eye of Oprah and was going to be featured in an upcoming issue of O Magazine.
Research interests: sport marketing, corporate social responsibility, social impact of sport, consumer behaviour, and program evaluation
Sole-Supervisory Privilege Status (SSPS)
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Arany Sivasubramaniam has always had a passion for health care. For as long as she can remember being able to help people has always been something that she cares about. Now enrolled as a PhD Aging, Health and Well-being student her research is looking at how to abolish the medical industrial complex by looking at the experiences of the BIPOC community.
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Research interests: organizational change; organizational theory; social change; social innovation and impact; youth sport; sport development
Sole-Supervisory Privilege Status (SSPS)
The world of video games is evolving. Not only has gaming become a massively popular spectator sport, even universities are growing their varsity rosters with e-sports teams. Joe Todd's PhD Recreation and Leisure studies research examines the capacity of online gaming to create community and friendships that can transcend the online space.
Supporting a close friend who was going through a separation and divorce in her late 20s inspired Bronwen Valtchanov to find out more about research and resources for women in similar situations. Bronwen discovered that there were very few social supports and academic literature on the subject. It became the focus of her PhD Recreation and Leisure Studies research.
Teaching interests: therapeutic recreation, mental health, facilitation techniques, inclusion and accessibility, wellness and well-being
Research interests: consumer behaviour of sport participation; sport marketing; spectatorship; tourism; event manangement
Sole-Supervisory Privilege Status (SSPS)
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Recreation and Leisure Studies master's thesis student CJ Cargill shares her research interests focused on the impact of unprocessed grief on racialized health-care workers.
Chris Hurst’s journey towards a Doctor of Philosophy in Recreation and Leisure Studies (RLS) at the University of Waterloo.
Recreation and Leisure Studies master's thesis student Marcus Thomas Pereira focuses on gentrification and its implications for Toronto’s Little Jamaica neighbourhood.
Recreation and Leisure Studies master’s thesis student Peggy Vacalopoulos, after a 25-year career in hospitality, returned to the University of Waterloo, where her award-winning research on frontline restaurant staff during the pandemic earned her prestigious scholarships and recognition in regenerative tourism.