Trisha Khan Xing, Erin Sharpe, Trent Newmeyer, Dawn Trussell, Jocelyn Murtell and Sanghee Chun of the Department of Recreation and Leisure Studies recently attended a conference in Scotland where they presented papers.

The Department of Recreation and Leisure Studies went international this summer.

Four professors and two graduate students attended a conference hosted by the Leisure Studies Association (LSA) at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland.

Together, the group delivered six papers on topics ranging from leisure and youth, sport and family, tourism and international development, and leisure and post-traumatic growth at the conference last month.

“Within Europe, the LSA is recognized as a premiere association for the advancement of scholarship in leisure,” said Erin Sharpe, Recreation and Leisure Studies associate professor. “Our faculty and graduate students appreciated the opportunity to engage in dialogue with our European counterparts, as our perspectives and approaches can be different. It was enriching for all of us.”

Called “Leisure, Living, Learning: Education in Sport, Tourism and the Outdoors,” the conference explored four themes: Sustainable development in tourism and education, social justice in sport development, quality of life in physical activity, health and well-being, and environmental education in outdoor learning.

Brock presenters were:

• Dawn Trussell on organized youth sport and the construction of “Team Family”
• Erin Sharpe on the colonial student in international service learning and sport for development
• Trent Newmeyer on citizenship, residency and friendly aid – The Travellers’ Aid Society and gendered migration
• Sanghee Chun (with Youngkill Lee) on pursuing happiness through leisure for people with spinal cord injury
• PhD student Trisha Khan Xing on exploring the relationship between leisure experiences and perceptions of boredom of newcomer Chinese youth
• Jocelyn Murtell (MA graduate) on working with youth as a site of power – how we go beyond disciplinary power and decolonize youth programming.

The conference offered faculty and graduate students exposure to a wide variety of research interests in Leisure Studies thanks to the many widely recognized scholars attending the conference.

For PhD student Trisha Khan Xing, it also put faces to the names of scholars whose work she has encountered in her studies.

“As a graduate student, I found the LSA conference to be a very welcoming and supportive environment where they actively encourage and engage students as both presenters and attendees, ” she said. “As a presenter, I felt incredibly supported to share one paper from my Master’s thesis research. As an attendee, it was exciting to meet some of the scholars I’ve read or referenced in my own work.”